May it be your
fate
to live in interesting times-
Ancient Chinese Proverb
When a man takes a 300-year nap, he may find out that the world he wakes up to is not the same world that it was when he went to sleep. The world has changed since 1495. When I went to sleep there were two distinct Churches in Christendom, the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. These two Churches had been united until the Great Schism of 1054, and could trace their roots back to the time of Jesus and the Apostles.
But within twenty years of my rest a German Catholic priest named Martin Luther challenged the Catholic Church's authority, and his protest would result in a movement known as Protestantism. From what I have read there appears hundreds of these different Protestant churches—most of whom have no connection whatsoever to Martin Luther's original protest—and each with a different theological understanding of God.
Protestantism has not made much of an impact in Romania, but Richter is completely against it. He argues that some Protestants deny the real presence of Christ in Communion, will not listen to the authority of the Church, and do not have a firm understanding of Christian history, because if they did, according to Richter, they would not be Protestant.
That of course is the position of Father Richter Belmont. I hold a much different position. I truly do not care what anybody believes. All I care about is protecting my family. If someone's religious beliefs do not harm my family then they are free to worship however they wish.
When I was growing up a child in Romania the feudal style of government was accepted universally. "Every man needs a lord, and ever lord needs a king" and no one dared to ever question it.
In Western Europe, Feudalism is becoming a thing of the past, led in part by the revolution in France, and its emperor-general Napoleon Bonaparte. Filled by the nationalism of the French people, Napoleon has been leading his massive army into the east, seizing new territory along with it.
Taverns in our town are filled with patrons discussing the possibility of Napoleon entering our country, but I tell them that is highly doubtful. I do not believe that a Mediterranean European like Napoleon can handle the harsh climate of the Carpathians, and I base my belief on another legendary general, Alexander the Great. Alexander came from the same Mediterranean climate as Napoleon, but once he reached the harsh winter mountains of northern India he suffered his first major blow, which would lead to his downfall. Napoleon will be much the same.
Nationalism is not only strong in France, it is strong in Romania as well, and perhaps I am misleading when I use the term 'Romania.' Romania is a term that we use in Wallachia to designate the people not only of our state, but also the states of Moldavia and Transylvania. Yet we are not a united country, nor are our rulers Romania. Currently we are under the rule of the Russian Tsar Alexander I, and in Russia Feudalism is law.
Serfdom exists in Russia, although it does not have a major impact in Romania, which I tend to prefer. Growing up with an aristocratic background I was taught to respect people of all classes (although my father did detest the Turks), but peasants and surfs were viewed as people who simply could not advance to the next class. The philosophy was "if you're born poor, you'll die poor, so just do the best you can in life and God will reward you in Heaven." I too accepted this philosophy until I became more familiar with working class people. Everybody deserves the chance to make something of themselves, and they should be judged on their merits, not on the status of their birth.
Obviously there is so much more I can talk about, but I will stop for now. In closing, the 330-years of my life have been filled with ups and downs, but so are the lives of many others. Still if I was to wade the bad (my mother's death, Father's returns, and Lysander's kidnapping) with the good (my marriage to Maria, defeating my Father, the birth of my two sons, and recovering Lysander) the good outweighs the bad. I hope that when Lysander and Alcander are old enough to look back on their lives that they see that their lives were filled with more positive moments than negative moments.
The End
Cody the Impaler
July 22, 2004
"Up the Irons!"