Inside the vast and luxurious Royal Palace of Madrid, a conversation with hidden meaning was taking place.
"Your Majesty, what is Prime Minister Prim doing? Is he trying to destroy the entire Spanish Church?" Archbishop Pedro displayed his innocence and indignation the moment he saw Carlo, attempting to win Carlo's sympathy.
"What happened, Archbishop Pedro?" Carlo knew perfectly well what the church members were suffering; in fact, Carlo was one of the planners of the church cleansing operation.
But at this critical juncture, it was better to pretend not to understand. At least Archbishop Pedro's indignation was entirely directed at Prime Minister Prim, causing Carlo no harm.
"I know the assassination attempt on Prime Minister Prim is a serious matter, but you can't just arrest bishops of the church without evidence, can you?
Your Majesty, the government has already arrested over a dozen bishops, and the arrests are still ongoing. If you don't stop this, I'm afraid I'll be arrested by Prime Minister Prim tomorrow as well," Archbishop Pedro continued.
"It's not that serious, is it, Archbishop Pedro? The full-scale search in Madrid was conducted with my approval. If bishops were arrested, it must be because they are also suspects, correct?
If you have any doubts, you can protest to Prime Minister Prim. Marquis Prim is by no means an authoritarian person; if you can prove the innocence of those bishops, the government will certainly release them." Carlo would not hinder Prim's cleansing of the church. The best method was to pass the buck to Prim.
Carlo's meaning was simple. If Archbishop Pedro had sufficient evidence to prove the innocence of those key figures, he could certainly pressure Prime Minister Prim and demand the government release the church personnel.
But the difficulty lay precisely here.
Although Prime Minister Prim didn't have complete evidence to prove the church's responsibility, it was easy to produce some incriminating evidence to frame these church members.
Proving guilt is hard, proving innocence is even harder.
Archbishop Pedro clearly lacked sufficient evidence to prove the innocence of those church members, which also meant Prime Minister Prim had ample justification to continue detaining them.
Seeing that he could find no sympathy or protection from Carlo, Archbishop Pedro finally realized things were going badly.
Either Carlo genuinely understood nothing and naively believed the government's arrests were all justified and based on evidence.
Or Carlo understood everything, and the arrests of church personnel were even planned by Carlo and the government together, intending to settle accounts with the church.
But regardless of the outcome, neither was good for the current church and Archbishop Pedro.
If they couldn't gain the king's support, relying solely on the church's power to oppose the current government would truly be like an egg hitting a rock.
The mere fact that Prim controlled the army meant that the church was unable to contend with the government.
Furthermore, Carlo's words reminded Archbishop Pedro. Compared to the church, the government was clearly on the side of public opinion.
It's reasonable that the Prime Minister's assassination led to a city-wide search, right? It's reasonable that suspects found during the search were arrested, right?
As for why most of the people arrested were church members, what responsibility does the government have for that?
As long as Archbishop Pedro couldn't prove the innocence of those arrested, the church would have to bear the charge of suspected involvement in the Prime Minister's assassination.
Looking at Carlo's calm smile, Archbishop Pedro fully understood that this young king in front of him was feigning ignorance.
Archbishop Pedro was certain that most members of the church were unrelated to the assassination attempt; after all, the church hierarchy had no knowledge of the matter at all.
But at this moment, the church simply couldn't shake off suspicion, because the only victim of Prim's reform decree regarding the abolition of the tithe was precisely the Spanish Church.
The church, dissatisfied with the government's abolition of the tithe, assassinated Prim, who was pushing for reforms, in an attempt to restore the tithe collection. This seemed like a very plausible motive.
No matter how much Archbishop Pedro and the church argued, they couldn't escape suspicion and could only passively endure in this incident.
After leaving the palace, Archbishop Pedro sighed and decided to head to Prim's residence to find a solution to this matter.
The church was currently unable to defend itself, but allowing the government to continue arresting church members was absolutely unacceptable.
The only way was to negotiate with Prim, reach a compromise on certain interests, and in return, have the government cancel the arrests of church members.
Prim was not just a simple military man. Archbishop Pedro understood that if they were to negotiate with Prim, even if the incident could be resolved, it would inevitably cost the church immense interests.
But at this moment, there was simply nothing they could do. If this were the church's heyday, Archbishop Pedro would definitely challenge the government without any hesitation.
Unfortunately, religion's influence on the populace had significantly decreased, and it currently had no ability to overthrow the government.
More importantly, even the Pope was confined to the Vatican Palace, so what could they, the archbishops, do?
The facts had already proven that ecclesiastical power could no longer be compared with political power. In the face of the vast institution of the national government, religious forces had to concede, and they had no choice but to concede.
Inside Prime Minister Prim's residence, Prim was inquiring about the arrest situation.
Hearing the news that Archbishop Pedro requested an audience, Prim smiled, looking completely unsurprised.
"Esteemed Mr. Prime Minister, when will you stop arresting church members?" Pedro entered the room looking angry, and highly dissatisfied with the government's arrest actions.
"Archbishop Pedro, shouldn't you be asking the bishops of the church? When all the remaining suspects have been apprehended, that's when the police will stop their operations," Prim said with a smile.
"Mr. Prime Minister, you are arresting church personnel, bishops of the church, not traitors who planned the assassination! I hope you can give me a reasonable explanation. Is this how you treat God's devout followers?" Archbishop Pedro constantly tried to keep himself on the offensive, continuously challenging Prime Minister Prim.
"No, Archbishop Pedro. If they had nothing to do with the assassination attempt, I believe no police would have come for them. If you wish to exonerate them, please bring sufficient evidence." Prime Minister Prim was not a weak person. After hearing Archbishop Pedro's continuous questions, he stood up and said with a cold smile, "
If you don't have enough evidence to prove their innocence, then can I understand that you are challenging the government's authority for the sake of these bishops?"
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