Severus spread out an old map from before Haussmann's reconstruction of Paris, which he had found in the library, inside an empty grotto.
At the end of the eighteenth century, the Church of Saint Francis Xavier had still been farmland. By the middle of the nineteenth century, it had become a small town for the wealthy.
Across from the church stood the residences of the Prince of Bourbon-Condé and Montesquieu. The two households were neighboring estates, each larger than an ordinary home. Yet if the squares on either side were included, the Church of Saint Francis Xavier covered almost as much ground as both estates combined. For such an obscure church, its grounds were indeed excessively vast.
Saint Francis Xavier had preached in the East, and the church murals depicted much of his missionary work, including people dressed in Indian attire.
If emperors conquered other nations through military force, then the Church conquered other civilizations by another means.
The taste of power savored when breaking a person's will was far sweeter than winning his heart.
Many priests had in fact taken part in the plundering of occupied territories. Portuguese missionaries had hidden no small number of gold bricks beneath their robes.
Like the Germanic peoples and the Celts, the Gauls had once possessed their own civilization and myths, but now they had vanished completely. The resurgence of Norse mythology was also connected to Christianity's decline following the rise of the Industrial Revolution.
Thor, the god of thunder, was the patron of craftsmen. He was like a prince—young, with powerful biceps. After all, his weapon was a war hammer. Could those priests holding bells and chalices possibly defeat him?
In The Decameron's story about Siena, the priest Rinaldo secretly slipped inside while the master of the house was away. Later, the