19 the faith conflict

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Friedrich Wilhelm II ''A war not with swords and spears, but with books and good deeds.''

Peasant Rolph

in the name of the father, of the son and the Holy Spirit'' said the monk, while I dipped me three times in the river.

After a long time of thinking I had decided, I abandoned my faith, I accepted the foreign religion of Protestantism.

''Rise up brother, you are a new man today, a brother in faith'' said the Protestant priest.

I never thought I would do this, I had hated the Prussians with all my heart, and now they embraced me and called me brother.

I, such as my father and my father's father, I am a peasant, I till the soil since the 7 name day, there is nothing memorable about me, I have survived for 21name day and nothing memorable had happened except a small fight between lords, our village is prosperous renowned for its abundant grain harvests.

One day everything changed, the rebellion of the usurper Robert Baratheon had begun, according to rumors he was defeated at ashford and forced to escape to the north, everything seemed to be over as it had begun, but they came.

The Prussians one day appeared in our quiet village

they barely gave us time to react, we managed to sharpen some sticks and we tried to defend our families, according to what the veterans of some battles said, if we lost they would rape our women and daughters and loot the village, they would kill everyone in the village, that provoked everyone who could wield a weapon to do it.

But when we saw the Prussians we were scared to death, men armed to the teeth with steel in a suit of armor that not even the richest lords in the area could afford, in perfect combat formation, no one was confident of our victory, but we would not leave the lives of our loved ones without a fight.

The Prussians were shouting words that we did not understand, we were about to start the combat until a man spoke in our language.

He came out of the formation, showing three fingers and a book in the other one

''I am Maximiliam von Poznan, brother captain of the Teutonic order, by order of his majesty the king in Prussia, lower your weapons, and you will suffer no harm,'' declared the knight.

Our village elder went to parley

''If we lay down our arms, will you spare our lives?'', asked the old man fearfully.

''You have my word as a knight, that if you lay down your arms your lives will be spared and you will not suffer any punishment, we will take 60% of their grain and all the gold and silver we can find in your houses'' said the knight.

''And our women?'' said the old man.

''they, like you, will not suffer any harm, the king's order is absolute, we must take the villages without violent looting and bloodshed'' said the knight with a serious voice.

The old man returned and began to speak to us

''Let's put down our weapons, we won't be able to resist them anyway, it is better to trust that they will respect what they promised'' said the old man with a crestfallen face.

There were many cries of doubt, but it was certain that we would not survive a combat against those men, we surrendered our weapons, and to our surprise they kept their word.

We were in the center of the village, watching as the Prussians came in and took everything of value that was in our homes, and then taking out our stored grain to pay our tax to our lord, they weighed it and took what they said was 60% there was no way to prove it, no one wanted to anger them and not that anyone could read the numbers they were handing out.

After that, the Prussians disappeared as fast as they arrived, it almost seemed like a fairy tale, only that we were all present, and we lived it.

As time went by many rumors came from travelers and survivors of the second battle of ashford, the Prussians had won, they dominated the reach completely, but also came the news about how they looted the septs in the north of the reach, something strange, since in our town the sept was forgiven, they didn't even look at it as if it didn't exist.

Our septon began to make calls for us to take up arms, against the invaders.

''we cannot allow those foreigners who plunder the house of the gods to continue without punishment, we must expel them, they must be prevented from breaking the faith'' shouted the septon.

It was an everyday thing our septon went out to shout all the misdeeds the Prussians did, how they burned the villages, raped the women, how they massacred the men at ashford.

Everyone in town developed an aversion to the Prussians, the days passed, the days turned into weeks and the weeks into moons, the rebels had won, they had made a deal with the Prussian heathens promising them our lands in exchange for their services, we were at the mercy of the heathens and all their vile deeds and our king had given his approval

the faith tried their best to secure a treaty that would protect the interests of the faithful, but they only succeeded in protecting the south of the reach, the faithful of the north were left at the mercy of the Prussian government.

During this time our former lords returned, they tried to lead a rebellion against the Prussian government, but few joined, no one wanted to fight against these men, until the lords using their knights began to recruit by force.

Our village of about 700 people, they forcibly recruited 200 men, almost leaving it empty, I was in the fields with some of my friends, and we were saved from the forced conscription.

For days, we tried to find them, but no luck, until the Prussians returned with them.

The men who had been forcibly conscripted had returned escorted by the Prussians, our former liege lord had attempted to attack a Prussian garrison force; however, the Prussian cavalry charged directly at the leaders ignoring the levies, which allowed everyone to return alive.

That day we saw the punishment of what would happen if we attempted to rise up against the Prussians, the feudal lord and his knights were ''crucified'' a form of punishment that the Prussians practice so that they can suffer the same pain of their savior and repent of their sins.

''that this remains proof, our king is merciful against those who were forcibly conscripted against his divine government, but he will show no mercy against traitors'' said the knight.

After this event, the Prussians established a permanent garrison of about 100 men, who saw to it that the crucified ones suffered as much as possible

a horrible death, one does not die by being nailed to that cross, death comes by suffocation, for 2 days we saw how they suffocated struggling to get up and breathe, until the Prussians got bored and broke their legs so that they could not get up and breathe again, causing their death.

For the next few days, the septon remained silent, with the end of the rebellion the flow of merchants again occurred bringing rumors, the Prussians had not committed any act that our septon proclaimed earlier

the only act was an extortion in some septs by orders of Prussian officer that was punished, and the Prussians had apologized to the faith, there were doubts among all, why our septon had lied?

In time, the Prussian garrison had built a wooden ''church'' where they worshiped their god, which was crucified.

The opinion of the Prussians by the townspeople had changed quite a lot, many still hated them and I included myself, but many were grateful, they had recovered sons, fathers and husbands from dying on the battlefield, but something made a lot of difference.

The Prussian priests, many of them were knights, and they performed acts of charity all over town whenever they could, giving food, helping to rebuild damaged houses and even helping us till the fields.

The day that changed my opinion of them, was when my wife contracted the fever

I was desperate, my wife had a terrible fever, the local healer charged me almost 20 stags for a treatment that didn't work, I went to ask for help to the septon who only gave a prayer for my wife, there was nothing to do, I had no more coins to pay for a treatment, the only thing left was for my wife to die.

''everything will be fine my love, the fever will pass, and we will continue our life, and we will have our beautiful family that we always dreamed of'' I said with teary eyes while I held her hand.

My wife tried to say something, but the fever was so high that she only said incongruities, I felt a huge pain to see her with her glassy eyes, until I heard a knock at my door.

I didn't want to separate from my wife, but the knocking wouldn't stop, I went to open it and I saw that knight Maximilian with 3 men with black robes and a bird head.

''what...what...what...what do you want from me?'', I asked with fear.

''we heard that your wife is with a high fever, I got our company's physicians to come, so we can treat her'' the knight said with a serene voice.

''I have no coin to pay'' I said sadly ''who is asking you for payment, this is charity, from the king in Prussia, may we come in?'' said the knight.

I was in doubt, I had never seen these bird men before, but I had no choice.

''It's all right, my wife is here'' I said, letting them pass and leading them to my wife.

''I'd better let them work quietly, have peace of mind, they are the best physicians you can find in the area'' the knight said to me as he led me away from my wife.

They put rags with water on them, and began to boil certain plants, I didn't know what they were doing, for a few hours they were moving around my wife, until finally a birdman approached me.

''we have regulated the woman's fever, you must change her towels every time they dry, make sure she drinks a lot of boiled water also give her this liquid every 8 hours, it will help lower the fever if the symptoms worsen you can meet us at the church in this village, have a nice day'' said the bird man.

Wait, when do I owe you for this?'', I asked, ''nothing this is charity from the king in Prussia, but if you want to pay, you can help with the church's charity work, more hands are always welcome'' said the birdman as he left with his companions.

Over the next few days my wife's fever broke, she could eat again and continued to improve day after day, until she got out of bed again, I was delighted, I was coming to accept the reality that my beloved wife would die, but she was alive, just a little worried about the amount of coin we owed to the village healer.

''Rolph, how much do we owe to the healer for this? My wife asked "Janna, don't worry, they didn't charge us anything, they just asked us if we could go help with their charity from time to time" I said with a smile.

''honey, I know you don't like the Prussians, but we shouldn't let their help pass us by like it's nothing'' my wife said ''I know, I wanted to pay, but I had already spent it all on that idiot healer and the next harvest is still to come, I'm going to go help the church like they asked'' I said with a serious tone.

My wife just smiled

After that, I swallowed my pride and went to that famous church, it was not sumptuous at all, there were no luxuries, only the wooden cross symbol of their god.

''good morning, how can this servant of god help you?'' the priest asked me ''recently my wife suffered a fever and the physicians helped me, they told me they needed hands here'' I said seriously

''oh I see, hands always are helpful, do you have some kind of experience with construction or do you just know the field?'' asked the priest.

''I have worked in the fields all my life'' I said with a bit of embarrassment, ''well you can help serve the food in the canteen''.

After that conversation, they took me to a canteen and I worked serving bowls of soup and a few pieces of dried meat, I was surprised at the number of people who turned to Prussian charity, the canteen was full the Prussians did not ask for donations one could give, but they did not ask for them.

The days went by, and I did all kinds of work for the church, I learned carpentry and how to make shoes and even Maximiliam agreed to teach me how to read.

Without realizing it, all my life and that of my family was passing near the church, as well as the town, without realizing it, we had abandoned the sept.

Weeks went by, and we saw the first protestant marriages, the soldiers of the garrison were marrying the women of the village, there was a great celebration and a banquet paid by the king in Prussia, he gave copper rings for all those who were getting married, it was a wonderful ceremony and I could see how my wife looked with shining eyes this kind of marriage.

That's when I thought I wanted to get married in that same way, when I consulted Maximilian he told me that he could only marry Protestants and that's when I asked what I needed to convert to the Protestant faith.

''You just have to accept God in your heart, if you really want to, I can baptize you tomorrow in the river'' said Maximiliam with his serene tone.

After much thought, I had decided, the faith of the seven had lied to me and when i asked for help it only spit in my face, while the men who taught me to hate, helped me in my time of greatest need and did not stop there, they taught me a job and how to read, in our village the protestant faith had spread, and we had formed a community stronger and more united than ever before.

Now I profess the word of god, the one and only true god.