After the French Pope Gregory XI moved the Holy See back from Avignon to Rome in 1377, the pope no longer lived outside Vatican City.
No matter how fragile stone walls were against modern weapons, they could still provide a certain degree of protection.
In fact, after Gregory XI died of illness, riots broke out in Rome because people feared that the new pope would move the Holy See away again. Mobs marched and demonstrated outside the churches, declaring that they would not stop until an Italian pope was elected. The walls played a major defensive role at the time.
To ensure the city's safety, every guard was carefully selected.
Atheism was also a kind of faith. Its followers simply believed in science, believing that science could explain everything, just as clerics in the Middle Ages believed the Bible could explain every problem.
When a people changed their beliefs, they were destined to change every aspect of their civilization as well. Clothing and appearance were the most obvious examples.
In ancient times, Asians whose civilization centered on Confucianism wore their hair long. They considered it an honor bestowed by their parents, and damaging it was an affront to their dignity. When short-haired missionaries entered that land, they were treated as freaks. Now, most Asian men wore short hair. If one wore his hair long, teachers instead considered it something that needed correcting.
If someone stood out too much in a crowd, they would seem deeply out of place. In this era when most people believed in atheism, pretending to have no faith was very necessary.
The military needed soldiers loyal to their country, but some people believed faith was more important than the nation. Not everything the government did was right, and the same was true in police departments.
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