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Anno Domini, 832-December-12-833-January-15
''Here we are, where it all began, from the humble beginnings of the Roman Kingdom and its transition through the Republic to its imperial age. Rome, the first capital of the Empire, Roma caput mundi'' I said as I entered the Basilica of Constantine.
Followed by my hird, who were carefully observing the ancient structures, we found ourselves surrounded by a large number of priests preparing for this meeting.
We entered the place of worship and finally found the Bishop of Rome performing several rites while incense burned. The sound of our boots and armor echoed throughout the building as a large group of my hird entered behind me.
''At last I have before me the final missing member of the Pentarchy. Your presence within the Empire will be welcomed so that we may begin councils aimed at reunifying the rites of West and East, provided that we resolve certain conflicts that have created friction between the Church and the Basileus Rhomaion'' I said while walking slowly and watching the Bishop of Rome, who raised his head and then lifted a chalice with both hands.
''For someone who claims to be Roman, it is surprising that you use the Greek tongue instead of the language spoken by the Romans in their own city. You hardly resemble what you claim to be, since apparently the only Roman thing about you is the name'' the Bishop of Rome said while lowering the chalice and placing it on the podium, staring directly at me.
''A hypocritical cleric, I see… because you do not speak like the Romans either. Latin? You do not speak the language of Caesar or Cicero either. You recite a language transformed over centuries and have the arrogance to use it as proof of Roman identity. Unless you truly suffer from the idiocy that just came from your lips, you should know perfectly well that you merely speak a different form of the Latin spoken by the great men of old'' I said in Latin while securing my helmet and watching the priest's somewhat irritated reaction.
''Certainly. And may I ask why you have entered a church armed? The right of sanctuary must be respected and no weapons should be carried within it'' another priest to the right of the bishop said.
''They are not Christians, so they are not going to obey rules they do not care about'' I replied dismissively, showing that I carried no weapons myself although my men certainly did.
''Pagans… you brought pagans into one of the holiest places in Christendom!'' the bishop roared, visibly enraged.
''You seem to be forgetting why I am here. You are in no position of moral or physical authority to demand anything from me. You should instead be begging me to let you keep your heads because the only one here who matters to me is him… the rest of you may lose your heads alongside the Frankish usurpers… because the only reason he claims a title that is not even his is because a religious institution claimed to possess the authority to proclaim emperors, something completely contrary to the doctrine the Church maintained while serving the true Roman emperors'' I said warning the priests as my hird spread throughout the basilica.
''Enough. No blood shall be spilled in this holy place… Roman general, the city has already surrendered. What are the requests of the Emperor of the Romans?'' the Bishop of Rome said while slightly raising his voice.
''Demands… do not make the mistake of thinking these are merely requests. They are demands from the Basileus Rhomaion, Emperor of the Romans and the one and only legitimate emperor, regardless of what your institution may claim'' I said while climbing the steps until I stood face to face with the bishop.
''What are the demands of the Basileus Rhomaion?'' the Bishop of Rome asked, breaking eye contact with me.
''What the Basileus Rhomaion demands is quite simple, cleric. First, we require that the man responsible for the coronation of the false Frankish emperor be brought to justice for claiming an authority he did not possess… along with the other bishops who continued recognizing the Carolingians as emperors'' I said while raising my voice.
''Pope Leo and…'' the priest tried to say.
''THE WHAT?'' I said while bringing my face close to that of the Bishop of Rome and clenching my gauntleted fist.
''The Bishop of Rome… the Bishop of Rome… and the previous bishops'' he said while lowering his head.
''You are part of the Pentarchy. Before me you are the Bishop of Rome. Nothing more. You will never again use any title to claim authority over your brothers in Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem'' I said through clenched teeth while tilting my head to stare into the eyes of the priest, who now looked terrified.
''The Bishop of Rome who carried out the… coronation of the Franks is already dead… he died many years ago, as did the others'' the Bishop of Rome replied.
''Yes, I know, but they must still be judged. I am ordering you to have their remains removed from wherever they are buried, placed upon the throne of Saint Peter and put on trial for acting unlawfully. The fingers of the hand with which he bestowed his blessings are to be cut off and once he is found guilty for his actions, his body is to be thrown into the Tiber'' I said while looking at the bishop and it did not take long before I heard protests from the other priests.
''SILENCE!'' Sigurd roared in his own language, ordering everyone to be quiet.
''What you are asking of me is… unheard of… nothing like this has ever been done… there may have been conflicts before with the policies of other po… Bishops of Rome, but never anything like this'' the priest said while looking into my eyes, though his own showed nothing but terror.
''What I am demanding of you, priest… you had better begin making preparations because I want that ceremony carried out as soon as possible'' I said while placing my gauntleted hand on his shoulder and staring directly at him.
''Go… go and carry out the order of the Romans'' the bishop said to several members of the clergy, who remained stunned by what they were being ordered to do.
''Second, clearly, you will renounce the false Frankish emperor and issue orders for every church that answers to Rome to excommunicate every member of that dynasty, who are nothing more than a collection of Germanic tribes pretending to be Romans. So I want an official proclamation sent to every church in the West declaring the Carolingians excommunicated and renouncing their imperial title'' I said with a smile.
''I can order it… I can send the bull to every see in the West. But the bishops who live beneath Frankish swords will not obey, not while someone else controls their independence'' the cleric said.
''Then we will know which ones are bishops of Christ and which ones are officials of the Carolingians because the day will come when we recover every territory that once belonged to Rome and punish the traitors who refused to obey'' I said while releasing the cleric's shoulder and beginning to walk around him, my boots echoing through the silence of the place.
''And the last and most important demand: as soon as you finish those two things, you will sail to Constantinople and ask forgiveness, in the name of the Western Church, on your knees before the Emperor of the Romans for having usurped the authority to choose emperors, an authority that belongs to God alone, in a ceremony attended by the other Pentarchs. And afterward we will hold the meeting I mentioned earlier, a council concerning the religious rites'' I said with a broad smile.
''Understood… I will go draft the bull concerning the excommunication of the Frankish kings'' the bishop said as he took several trembling steps away from the Basilica of Constantine and the rest of the clergy quickly followed him.
''Did you see how he almost shit himself from fear when he found out you are pagans?'' I said while holding back my laughter and looking at my hird.
''Yes…'' the others repeated while trying not to laugh.
''And why did they change their attitude so much because of that?'' Sigurd asked while removing his helmet as his long hair moved with the motion.
''Those men could have considerable control over religious people by threatening them with eternal torment in Hell or excommunication, terrible fates for many… I do not give a shit about any of that and you care even less than you do about the ground beneath your feet, so there is nothing they could say that would make me back down from my humiliating demands. That is why the entire ceremony will be conducted with the Varangian tagma present, to prevent that kind of thing'' I said while walking toward the exit.
During the following hours we remained in the administrative districts of the city of Rome, where we began counting the money in the papal treasury, which was quite extensive considering that they received tithes from churches along with income from the numerous properties the Carolingians had donated to them. Part of the surrender treaty required them to pay the full cost of the siege and, well, several hundred thousand nomismata had been spent on salaries alone, meaning that the city of Rome would remain indebted for several years while paying for the siege.
After several hours spent reviewing administrative documents and observing how the Frankish administration had controlled the Church of Rome, the bull of the Western Church finally arrived so that I could review it.
It was something simple that declared every member of the Carolingian bloodline excommunicated from the Church for as long as they claimed the imperial authority of Rome and ordered every church to excommunicate the Carolingians, prohibiting them from entering churches and excommunicating anyone who refused to obey the order, completely severing relations with the Western churches. Surely only some would obey the orders of the Bishop of Rome because it would not take long before they claimed he had acted under coercion and installed an antipope.
But all we needed was to sever any connection between the Carolingians and Rome because afterward they would no longer be able to claim that they were a Roman Empire without any institution willing to recognize them as such.
Over the following days, some of our troops began demanding the surrender of the Papal States, calling for the submission of multiple territories directly governed by the authority of the Bishop of Rome and managing to secure the surrender of several fortifications.
We also sent envoys to the Carolingians to negotiate peace while summoning the diplomats who were supposed to negotiate everything that had happened.
A peace agreement did not take long to negotiate because apparently the Saracens had begun attacking the Carolingian Spanish Marches and they were facing attacks on two fronts, forcing them to concentrate either on us or on the Saracens in Hispania. That was without even considering that the conflict between the current Frankish king and his sons appeared to have reignited.
The most extensive territorial changes therefore occurred in Italy, where all of southern and central Italy changed hands in a single war. Although the diplomats and Theophilos himself wanted to take Ravenna because of its importance to imperial administration, we could not exert the necessary pressure in the middle of winter. So it was simply agreed that the Arno River would become the frontier, with Pisa, Florence and the lands extending toward Rimini becoming Rome's most advanced positions and forming a long frontier.
Surely sometime in the future, after a decade or two of stability and reconstruction, we would take Ravenna.
On December 25th, what was most needed finally took place: the trial of the Bishops of Rome Leo, Stephen, Paschal, Eugene and Valentine, the bishops who had perpetuated the Carolingian farce. On the very anniversary of the coronation of the first Frankish emperor, they were placed upon seats while a large number of clerics began accusing them of serving earthly interests rather than those of God and of stealing the authority that God had granted to the Roman emperors.
The corpses, some of them little more than bones while others still preserved strands of hair or pieces of rotting flesh, were dressed in their papal garments with rings and silk while they were repeatedly accused of each of the acts attributed to them. Bishop Gregory was also accused, but his plea for clemency was accepted because he had been forced into his position by the Carolingians who dominated the politics of the Roman Church.
But by the end of the day the dead were declared guilty. The finger bones of the hands they had used to give blessings were removed and after their papal vestments were stripped away, their remains were wrapped in linen cloth, tied with ropes and thrown into the Tiber River.
The Varangians watched attentively as everything unfolded while a drakkar was supposed to be waiting farther downstream on the Tiber to recover the bodies and take them to Constantinople, where surely they could be useful for something.
But finally with peace signed with the Carolingians, the bull being distributed en masse to every church and the trial completed, we had accomplished almost every objective Theophilos had set for us in Italy except Ravenna.
The streets were filled with Varangians throughout the procession, guarding every route because the local population was not particularly pleased with the conquest, with having been starved and deprived of water and with us humiliating the institution that had governed the city for so long.
But the Varangians fulfilled their duty and crushed every attempt to interrupt the trial and the procession.
So with everything finished, I put the Bishop of Rome aboard a ship and sent him to Constantinople so that Theophilos could finally have his great victory over the Western Church.
Several days passed while order was restored and I reorganized the troops. With the first payments from Rome going into my personal treasury, I financed a great celebration for my men, distributing drink and food so that they could finally rest after such a difficult campaign.
''Finally this is over… peace, at last'' I said while bringing my hands to my face and resting for a moment.
''How long will this peace last? Because I do not want to die of old age…'' Sigurd said while holding an enormous mug of beer, surrounded by hirdmen who were drinking and eating with me.
''Hopefully, officially, for a very long time… eh, do not look at me like that. There will still be plenty of fighting, rebellions, the problem with the Iconodules, the occasional border clash. There just should not officially be any more wars, but that does not mean we will stop fighting'' I said while looking at Sigurd's frowning face as the others continued passing around beer and wine.
''Now that sounds better, because there is no point in any of this if I die of old age'' Sigurd said while draining the entire contents of a drinking horn.
''Basil… I do not know whether this is good or bad, but some of the Greek officers and soldiers are shouting your name together with Basileus Rhomaion'' one of my Varangian officers said.
''What?'' I said while opening my eyes wide and feeling a cold sweat run down my back.
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If there are spelling mistakes, please let me know.
Leave a comment; support is always appreciated.
I remind you to leave your ideas or what you would like to see.
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