The Sun Never Sets In Spain - Chapter 217

Watching Clarita’s death, the atmosphere in the square was pushed to a climax. Everyone was very happy. Only some Spanish priests felt sad.

Aristocrats from Britain, France and other countries witnessed this cruel scene with their own eyes and felt both excited and absurd.

“In the past, when the king cut the priests, most of them were preparing to transfer. This… I wonder if His Majesty Alfonso also has this idea.”

“Unlikely… Spain, you know. But the Bourbon King is a ruthless man.”

In the conversation of the crowd, someone quickly stepped forward to take away Clarett’s body, and after him, another prisoner was brought up.

This afternoon, 45 people were slashed at Plaza Mayor, and a strong smell of blood permeated the center of the plaza.

After the people were cut down, the onlookers did not completely disperse.

The 28th was the opening ceremony, and the whole morning was spent explaining the feast of beheading, and only the afternoon was beheading.

Also, the prisoners had a host to announce their sins before they were cut down, which seriously slowed down the process.

This will not be the case in the future. In the government’s plan, 150-200 people will be cut every day for the next month, and the press release will also be carried out according to the situation.

Therefore, many small traders and hawkers slept directly in their stalls with their clothes on, waiting to get up early tomorrow morning to continue working.

Looking at them like this, they regarded beheading as a celebration. Fortunately, it was summer and they were not afraid of getting sick.

Alfonso had already left after watching Clarita’s execution.

Institutional reforms for priests are expected to be implemented in two weeks, but preparatory work has already begun.

The first step is to count the assets of the church.

Needless to say about the church on the bright side, but the rest of the vehicles, horses, real estate, manor, fields, cash, gold… How to define whether these things are private or public must be decided by Alfonso.

When Alfonso returned to the palace, Finance Minister Enrique had been waiting for a long time.

The two didn’t have much gossip and quickly got to the point.

“Your Majesty, the assets we have searched these days are all recorded in this book, please take a look.”

Enrique presented a small notebook with both hands, and the expression on his face was not good.

Obviously, even if he is a devout believer, he can’t help but be surprised and even angry at the huge hidden wealth of the church.

With his faster-than-average reaction, Alfonso quickly browsed the contents of the book.

After reading it, he let out a long breath.

No wonder Enrique has this expression.

In the past few days, even though the Ministry of Finance united the Progressive Guard and the police system, and even found many priests who were willing to cooperate, what was searched under the multi-party cooperation was only superficial.

Even so, it was enough to shock everyone.

In Madrid alone, there are as many as 33,000 properties owned by priests and their relatives and friends.

You know, excluding castles and manors, there are less than 200,000 ordinary houses in the urban area of ​​Madrid.

Basically, it can be considered that the church occupies more than 10% of the wealth in the capital with a proportion of 1% of the population.

This is just the tip of the iceberg.

Of the more than 5,000 people executed this time, 600 were clergy.

According to the regulations, the clergy should be fined and confiscated of all their illegal gains, and the clergy had nothing to do, and most of their property could be judged illegal.

The police department searched the assets of the 600 people and recovered large quantities of jewelry, antiques, cash and precious metals from their homes.

More than 3 tons of gold alone, more than half of which came from the basement of the Bishop of Seville, Perigrina.

It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it’s only in the home. Theft prevention is not good these days, and there are not many careless people who really put their property in the home.

People generally like to store valuables in foreign banks, and at worst they will find a secret place to bury them.

The priests and nobles knew that they were going to die, and they were unwilling to say how to get them, so it was difficult to recover these things.

By looking at the leopard, we can see how amazing the wealth of the entire church is.

Noticing the uncertain expression on the king’s face, Enrique cautiously said: “The priests are okay to say, but the noble family system is complicated, unless the entire home is raided, it is difficult to prevent them from transferring assets. Among the 3,100 nobles currently to be executed, all of them are under their names. Nothing.

One of the goals of our current work is to search Clarett’s property, it’s just that he’s dead and there aren’t many clues left, so it will take time. ”

Alfonso sighed. He waved his hand and said, “Let the police station and the Progressive Guard take care of the property collection. Your focus is still on inventorying the church’s assets, and you must do a good job of supervision to prevent the church from transferring its wealth in the chaos.”

When Alfonso said this, his heart was aching, and he didn’t have to think about it to know that 80% of the wealth of the 5,000 people who were executed was lost.

This execution was theoretically the result of a political struggle. In principle, the house was not raided, and the nobles only had to pay a huge fine.

But here comes the problem. Those who paid the full fines were all exiled alive, and the rest were those who failed to pay the fines. The government seized their homes as a matter of course.

But the nobles responded very quickly. Since the 3,100 people who were executed could not afford to pay, they simply refused to pay. The government basically did not find a penny from their homes.

For a moment, Alfonso wanted to follow the trail to see who was prying at the government’s roots, and then arrest them together.

But he himself knows that even this can’t stop them from transferring their property. The reason why the house can be easily raided is because the business is not developed, and the country is too big to run out for a while, and running out is also a wild place.

Spain is such a big place, and one is more developed around it, and scaring all the rich away is the quickest way to kill.

The previous matter has approached the bottom line of the big guy, and I should take it easy recently, at least not be too greedy for money.

At the end of the conversation between Alfonso and Enrique, Alfonso thought about it and decided to implement a variable definition of property.

“Enrique, how to distinguish the church’s private property and public property, it’s up to you.” Alfonso said: “Except for all gold and silver to be collected, others are divided according to rank and working years.

Anything within a certain amount is considered private property, and the excess is considered public property, and it will be fully confiscated when the church reform is implemented later. ”

When Alfonso said this, his brows were slightly wrinkled. He knew that there would be many mistakes and omissions. After all, everyone had very different family backgrounds before joining the church.

But it can only be like this, otherwise someone will definitely say that he inherited 2,000 pounds from the distant second uncle. How to determine this?

“!” Enrique was taken aback. Alfonso said a few words. He didn’t know how much workload was added to them. Deacons, priests, bishops… working years… There shouldn’t be too many variables in between.

At the same time, he was very happy, because it meant that he had mastered the lives of all the priests in the entire church, and it was up to him how much he could keep.

With such great power entrusted to him, what is Jane in the heart of the emperor, this is called Jane in the heart of the emperor.