Voltaire’s Folly
A Holy Roman Empire AAR
Monwar Hussain
Folio I: Of Introductions and What Brought Forth This Endeavor
In the name of our Lord in Heaven, this is to be a chronicle of the mid days of the Most Holy Roman Empire of the German People to be scribed by Wolfram of Aix-la-Chappelle (Aachen), humble chaplain in service to Peter Cardinal Scherer and lately, Arnold von Hesse, governor and Elector of Wien (Vienna), major city of the South of the Reich (Osterreich or Austria).
I, Wolfram von Aachen, swear by the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord, that the objective behind such a chronicling is a vision sent from Heaven in the form of a dream, where the Apostles St. John and St. Andrew instructed this lowly servant of the Holy See to guide and follow the lords of our holy empire as they establish the word of His Son across this land of Europe and to the Infidel East, and moreover, to ensure that they don’t slacken in this most holy of endeavors. I had, in the bewilderment of such a dream, the tenacity to ask the holy saints why such a small person has reason to doubt the wit of those who are divinely guided. In response, the Apostle St. Andrew gave me a mild smile and showed me a man, perhaps Western Frankish with dark hair and strange attire, who wrote in a rather indecipherable tongue, but which, by the grace of the most holy saint of our Lord, became clear to me as being written of our sacred empire: ‘…neither Holy, nor Roman, nor an Empire’. I assumed this sacrilegious person to be, perhaps an historian to be, and the Apostles indicated quite clearly that if this humble servant were to fail his missions, such would come to pass that the manifestation of the Kingdom of Heaven in Earth would be ridiculed and mocked for its ungodliness and segregation, for they mentioned to me again that faith on our Lord is not present in equivalent portions in our highers, such a sad and poor mortal realm we inhabit. Such omens were enough to set myself to task from preventing such a calamity, but the Apostles offered me rejuvenating health so that such a mountainous task of chronicling, and perhaps guiding, (though how such could be done this servant of God can not tell), the larger part of Europe can be carried on, for it is our Lord God’s desire, and it is He who is the decider of mortality.
[…]
The illustrations in this most magnificent volume have been kindly drawn for the Lord’s folk by Raymond of Chartres, for I who write of the events have little such skill of representing my simple words through such figures of lands.
Folio IV: Of the Fall of Our Most August Prince and The Conquering Crusade Against Venice
[…]
So it is with a heavy heart that I, Wolfram of Aachen, report that the most august Prince of the Empire, Heinrich (Henry), has been assayed by the corrupt Inquisitor (as sacrilegious as it might seem) who has then burned him in the stake, despite him professing no higher faith, as priests who know this man tells me. Woe to the Venetians, the corrupt merchants, for surely they have tested the patience of the most holy Champion of Christ, Emperor Heinrich, who did plan to conquer the East for Christendom. Even with his disagreements with the Most Holy Father Gregory, the Ninth of his name, they have agreed upon, that for such abysmal a crime against the holy empire, the Doge and his fief of Venice must be excommunicated from the Catholic Church. The loot gained from such an endeavor would be invested further in both the Holy See and our holy empire, as well as for the betterment of the warrior pilgrims to the East.
[…]
Lo and behold, such an Army of the Cross has come to avenge our Prince, and perhaps avenge later the insufferable infidels of the East. Prince Helmut Merowinger himself have led it, and the Pope has seen it fit that all the inquisitors of the Christian faith in his path behave properly this time, and with such, the army of three hundred and sixty thousand did assault the city of the lagoon and took it. The fury of the common soldier did result in some deaths inside the city, but how can we blame them for what irreparable damage has been done to our most holy empire and the cause of Christ. So it is that Christ has caused the formidable wealth and trade of this water city to fuel His cause, and to bring the barbarians and pagans to His faith.
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