Etrurian First Republic

Etrurian Republic Republic of Heaven Reppublica Etruriana Repubblica del Cielo
Flag Coat of arms
Motto:  Deus, Libertas, Fraternitas God, Liberty, Fraternity (official) Beati qui lugent quoniam ipsi consolabuntur Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the Earth (popular)
Anthem:  Inno dei Cieli per la Repubblica Heaven's Hymn for the Republic
Capital	Tyrrenhus (1784-1787) Solaria (1787-1810)
Religion	Solarian Catholicism
Demonym(s)	Etrurian
Government	Directorial republic (1784-1785) Theo-directorial republic (1785-1810)
President of the Convention
• 1784	Aurelio Polizzi
Member of the Aventine Triad
• 1784-1785	Francesco Cassio Caciarelli
• 1784-1785	Massimiliano Malaspina
• 1784-1785	Giovanni-Paolo Danova
First Citizen
• 1785-1810	Francesco Cassio Caciarelli
Legislature	Senate of the Republic
History
• Established	20 January 1784
• March of the Widows	9 September 1783
• Return of the Aventine Senate	3 November 1783
• Proclamation of the Tyrrenhean Republic	20 January 1784
• Execution of Grand Prince Alessandro III	10 July 1784
• La Purga	18 July 1784
• Proclamation of the Republic of Heaven	20 July 1784
• Caltrini Restoration	12 August 1810
Population
• 1784	18,398,200
• 1810	19,998,200
Currency	Etrurian piastra
Preceded by Succeeded by Commune of Altidona Commune of Ossuccio Duchy of Chiastre Grand Principality of Dinara-Faulia Exalted Republic of Povelia Duchy of Torrazza Grand Duchy of Carvagna Grand Principality of Tyrrenhus United Kingdom of Etruria Jossia Gapolania
Today part of	Etruria Gaullica Piraea Galenia

The Etrurian First Republic (Prima Repubblica Etruriana), officially known as the Etrurian Republic (Repubblica Etruriana) and co-officially known as the Republic of Heaven (Repubblica del Cielo), was founded on 20 September 1784, during the Etrurian Revolution. The First Republic would end with the Caltrini Restoration on 18 August 1810. Throughout most of its existence, the First Republic was governed by the Pantheonisti faction, under a theocratic directorial republican system. The period of the First Republic was characterised by the overthrow of the Grand Principality of Tyrrenhus, the establishment of the Popular Convention, the Aventine Triad, the Pantheonisti led La Purga, its subsequent domination, the Republic of Heaven period, the Revolutionary Wars, La Tempesta and finally, its demise with the Caltrini Reactions and the Caltrini Restoration.

Though the initial revolution within Tyrrenhus established the Popular Convention, infighting between the three principal factions over the direction of the newly formed Republic would escalate into the La Purga, a violent coup d’état instigated by the Pantheonisti. This group, defined by its esoteric mixing of enlightenment ideals and Catholicism immediately issued the Devotion of the Republic to Heaven, which instilled their ideals in the nascent Republic. This was followed by various Bonfires, with each constituting the targeting of a specific culture or supposed threat to the Republic.

Almost instantly in wake of the La Purga, the Republic found itself at war with its fellow Etrurian states, in what became known as the War of the League. The Kingdoms of Novalia and Carinthia together with the Duchies of Dinara and Peravia dispatched armies to restore the Principality, they were successively defeated by the Republic and suffered counter-invasion, resulting in the collapse and annexation of Carinthia and Novalia by 1786. In 1787, the War of the Northern League began, with the recently re-proclaimed Etrurian Republic launching invasions of Carvagna, Torrazzia and Povelia, annexing them with little to no resistance. Fighting between the Republic and the two northern Duchies ended with their annexation in 1789. This was followed from 1790 onward with numerous wars against Etruria’s neighbours, including Paretia and Gaullica. In one of the most pivotal moments in Eastern Euclean history, in 1789, republican armies invaded and occupied Solaria, with the aim of forcing the support of Pope Alexander XVIII, who however, fled to Gaullica. Solaria was duly proclaimed the capital of the Republic, restoring the city as the capital of a united Etruria for the first time since the Solarian Empire’s demise in 475.

During its existence, the Etrurian First Republic instituted numerous reforms. These included the introduction of universal suffrage for men and women aged 21 and over, the abolition of slavery, equality before law, communal property, the banning of interest rates and introduction of debt forgiveness and a codified law system, while a highly modified version of Werania’s Code of the Rights of Man was enforced through law. However, the Republic due to its own paranoia and state promoted mass violence also took to more radical decisions, such as the attempted effort to abolish currency and restore a bartering based economy, price controls and the enforcement of the Declaration of Rights of State, which proscribed the state’s right to use violence against its population. The most contentious issue of the First Republic was its formulation of the Canon of Heaven’s Devotions, a document which served to encapsulate the ideology of the revolution.

Throughout the 1790s, the Republic scored major victories against its royalist enemies. Its capable officer corps, including Giorlamo lodare-Dio Schiave, Augustino Cesare Santoro and Caio Teme-Dio Trellini and the expertly used Nobilis Hospes, providing the Republic with significant numbers of conscripts, all combined to enable the establishment of Ecumenical Republics in Paretia, Piraea, Amathia and Gaullica. However, economic mismanagement, zealotry and ever-increasing violence domestically began to undermine the Republic. Coupled with growing resistance by the Papacy to what it officially described as an “blasphemous and apostatic science”, popular support began to crumble. In 1802, the Weranian Republic collapsed, enabling the other major Euclean monarchies to aid Gaullica. From 1806 through to 1810, the exiled Etrurian aristocracies united around the House of Caltrini, who returned with a sizeable force in early 1810 and overthrew the Republic as the republican armies disintegrated.

The United Kingdom of Etruria was established several weeks later, though as a constitutional monarchy, rather than absolutist. The legacy of the Etrurian First Republic would live on through parliamentarianism, social welfarism, civic virtue enforced by law, egalitarianism, and a deference of state to the Church. The Republic’s wedding of Catholicism with republicanism and nationalism would play a prominent role within Etrurian society through to the 1880s, when the Caltrini monarchy was overthrown, and would leave marks on neighbouring Gaullica and Paretia.

The First Republic would leave a profound legacy in both Etruria and the wider world, ideologically, politically, economically and religiously. It united the territories of Etruria for the first time since Solarian times and would export its unique theocratic republicanism across much of Southern Euclea, leaving an indelible mark on the evolution of the Catholic Church. In comparison to its rival Weranic Republic, the Etrurian Republic’s ideals and principles of popular universal suffrage, utilitarianism, egalitarianism and a Catholicism-infused Etrurian nationalism, would live on almost a century through the clergy and academic circles, ultimately being reconstituted in some form with the Etrurian Second Republic, following the San Sepulchro Revolution in 1888 that overthrew the Caltrini monarchy.

History

Origin

• Grand Principality of Tyrrenhus is ruled incompetently by successive Grand Princes.
• Near two-decades of war between Tyrrenhus and Povelia over central Vespasia has bankrupted Tyrrenhus and become unpopular
• Successive agitation by clubs, societies and groups.
• Bread riots begin over a taxation on wheat
• Bread riots escalate
• March of the Widows, sees guards open fire on war widows demanding better pensions.
• Mass revolt and overthrow of the monarchy.

Popular Convention

• New national convention is established by former parliamentarians and the three prominent revolutionary groups.
• Groups; Rispettabili (gentleman revolutionaries + cult of reason types), Scugnizzo (radical poor, San Coulettes types), Pantheonisti (theo-republicans)
• Inter factional fighting and disagreements
• Grand Prince's execution
• Rising tensions between the Rispettabili and Pantheonisti over atheist and cult of reason
• Scugnizzo destroyed by Pantheonisti

La Purga

• Pantheonisti stage a coup, capturing, exiling or killing the Rispettabili

Execution of the Rispettabili on beach near Accadia, 1889.

• Pantheonisti assumed complete control of the Popular Convention and begin building a loyalist base within the republican armies.
• Secures the backing of the Archbishop of Tyrrenhus and the Principality's clergy (overwhelming majority)

Devotion of the Republic to Heaven

The Devotion of the Republic by Andrea Simone Calatrava, 1795.

• The Pantheonisti devote the republic to Heaven and vow to instil their ideological tenets.
• First Bonfire of the Heresies is launched, destroying brothels, gambling dens and coffee houses used by the upper-classes.
• War of the League begins with Carinthia, Novalia and the northern states invading Tyrrenhus.

War of the Leagues

• The League makes good progress in the north, though the Republican Armies in the west defeat the joint Carinthian-Novalian invasion at the Battle of Valle Gioviana and Battle of Villa Sirena.
• Republican Armies defeat the northern states at the battles of Santa Cecelia, Margo and Ponte di Rubicon.
• Senate issues edict for the counter-invasion of the western Kingdoms.
• Republican Armies invade Novalia toward Supetar and Dubovica, defeating the Novalian armies at the Battle of Paladini and the Battle of Krosvari, the death of King Petar IV from influenza forces a surrender.
• Republican Armies crush the Carinthians at the Battle of Podraga and capture Propoce, destroying the Kingdom of Carinthia.
• The defeat of the two Kingdoms forces the end of the War of the League.

• War of the Northern League begins in 1787, with the Republican invasion of central Vespasia and Povelia - the latter's forced to surrender due to weak governance and popular support for the revolutionary ideals of the Republic. The surrender of Povelia marks the end of the Exalted Republic and the cedeing of its Asterian colonies to the Republic. It also marks the fall of Euclea's most influential maritime republic.
• Duchies of Dinara and Peravia are defeated at the Battle of Nuovo Marena, with near 6,000 dead - this is followed by their surrender to the Republic and their annexation. The Republic controls the entirety of Etruria excluding the Ecclesiastical States in the south.

Fall of Solaria

• Pantheonisti Senate seeks the acquiesence of Pope Alexander XVIII and his official blessing of the Republic of Heaven, as well as his endorsement of its ideology.
• The Senate issues an edict proclaiming the need for a renewed state church and the unification of the Ecumene under a singular political authority. Pope Alexander rejects the Senate's edict and issues an excommunication order for the entire Republic.
• Republican armies cross the Pomerio River into the Ecclesiastical States, they capture Solaria without firing a shot a week later.
• Pope Alexander and a number of cardinals flee to Gaullica by ship, proclaiming the Papacy to be in exile. Cardinals and bishops that remain offer their support to the Republic - pivotal "Blessing of the Soldiery" takes place.
• Senate proclaims Solaria the capital of the Republic, marking the first time the city governed a united Etruria since the fall of the Solarian Empire 1,314 years ago.

The "Blessing of the Soldiery", 1821; depicts the blessing of republican soldiers by senior church bishops who refused to flee to Gaullica with Pope Alexander XVIII. It marked the first "inferior schism" within the Church over the Etrurian Revolution and proved a major boost for the fledgling theo-republican state.

La Tempesta and the Bonfires

• Began immediately after the La Purga.
• Various uprisings and revolts in support of monarchies for the restoration of annexed nations would be persistent.
• In response, the Pantheonisti Senate issued various edicts detailing what constituted "counter-revolutionary behaviour", also began mass public events and efforts to police virtuous behaviour.
• Bonfire of the Heresies was a wide term used to describe the crackdown on opponents and rebels, though it would devolve in the targeting of religious minorities, the landed gentry and various enlightenment works and authors deemed outside the "devoted citizenry."
• Bonfire of the Vanities was aimed at disuading sinful behaviour, such as vainity - burning of make-up, perfumes, mirrors and exuberant clothing
• Bonfire of the Treasonous was the targeting of individuals within the Republic who professed loyalty but worked to restore royalty.
• This would escalate dramatically into mass denounciations, score settling and general hysteria. Worsened by the Pantheonisti's reliance on religious hysteria, such as enabling accusations of witchcraft, devil worshiping and heresy, notably without the authority of the Church to do so.

Liberation Crusades

• 1789, Senate issues its Proclamation Ecumenical Liberation, with the clear intent of "uniting the Ecumene under Heaven's Republic."
• Republican armies launch invasion of Piraea, Amathia and Paretia, this is also a pre-emptive strike to prevent the rumoured effort by Gaullica to establish a coalition against Etruria.
• Introduction of the Nobilis Hospes (Noble Host) system of mass conscription. Purges of the officer corps of the Etrurian states is ended.
• TBD

Government

From 1784 to 1785, the Republic’s system of government was chaotic and poorly defined, with competition and administrative overlap between the Popular Convention and the Council of Nine, which formed a nascent collective executive and comprised of three members from three principal revolutionary factions. Vicious infighting and power struggles between the three factions would end in early 1785, with La Purga, the coup d’état launched by the Patheonisti.

Francesco Cassio Caciarelli served as First Citizen from 1785 to 1810 and exiled to Aeolia following the Caltrini Restoration, he died a year later.

The members of the Consilium from 1785 to 1810. Together, they formed the collective executive of the Republic and toward the end would exert total dominance over the political system.

Following their seizure of power and the Convention, the Pantheonisti, proclaimed the Devotion of the Republic to Heaven and forced through the Constitution of 1785, which had been written as early 1780. This constitution established the system of government that would remain in place near intact from its inception to the restoration of monarchy in 1810. Francesco Cassio Caciarelli, who was the leader of the Pantheonisti served as First Citizen for the entirety of the Republic's existence, his personal role and leadership has led to many to debate whether the Republic was dictatorship or a legitimate directorial republic.

The Pantheonisti maintained the collective executive through the Supremum Consilium (known more widely as just the Consilium). This body was led by the First Citizen, who in turn was subordinated by the Citizen Superiors. While members of the Consilium were to be elected by the Senate, there was only one recorded election, with the members of the Consilium holding their positions throughout the Republic’s existence.

The Republic was further governed through an immensely powerful unicameral Senate of the Republic, which had the powers of decrees (Edicts), which were inviolable and not subject to review by courts. These edicts only required a majority vote by its 300 members. All members were popularly elected by citizens, with their “constituencies” being formed out of Ecclesiastical dioceses.

The Republic also established a semi-independent judicial branch, comprised of multiple courts with competing and overlapping responsibilities. The most prominent was the Consistory of the Canon, which took a role roughly similar to a supreme court or constitutional court in the modern day. The Consistory of the Canon was tasked with ensuring that legislation by the Republican senate adhered to the principles of the Canon of Heaven’s Devotions. Alongside this court was the Consistory of Virtue, which regulated and police public virtues and punished those in office who failed to live up to them, notably issuing proscriptions of senators. The Consistory of Public Safety was the equivalent of a revolutionary tribunal and was the most expansive court of the Republic, playing a prominent role in La Tempesta and the various Bonfires. And lastly there was the Consistory of the Citizenry, which was a court devised to enable citizens to take the state to task over the violation of their rights, this Consistory however, was abolished in 1796 as it was seen to impede the ability of the Republic to deal with domestic threats, real or perceived.

Canon of Heaven's Devotions

Main article: Canon of Heaven's Devotions

The Canon of Heaven's Devotions was authored by Leonardo Metello Gruttadauria and Vittorio Arcangelo Maiolo between 1784 and 1786 and was a collection of treatises and pamphlets produced by the Pantheonisti during this time. It detailed the ideological tenets of the Revolution post-Purga and sought to detail the Republic's goals and purpose. It was mass produced for consumption by the literate population and was read out in public gatherings, Masses and feast days.

In Chapters 1-3, the Canon illustrates the dogma of the Pantheonisti and the First Republic. It's most fundamental element is the extension of free will into the political realm by arguing that the gift of free will from God was also the gift of liberty. The Pantheonisti attempted to justify their view of liberty via the Catechism, in which "God willed that man should be 'left in the hand of his own counsel,'" to the Pantheonisti, this manifested the right of man to be the ultimate arbiter of his own life, which was incompatible with the tyranny of absolute monarchy. Numerous Pantheonisti simplified this by arguing that humanity could not theoretically achieve salvation nor exercise its need for good works if condemned to control by others, they questioned the right of control by those without the "spiritual authority, morality nor virtue to be master of universal salvation of nations and the individual." Over the course of the First Republic, this position would evolve toward the ultimate condemnation of monarchism as "inherently sinful," while aristocracy would be condemned as violating the laws of creation, in which all of mankind is born equal before God. The Pantheonisti would cite Psalm 146:3 "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation," to further accentuate its claims monarchism denied salvation.

Beyond its views on liberty and free will, the Pantheonisti took to esoteric interpretatons of scripture to justify its wider views on democracy, equality and civic virtue. On democracy, the Pantheonisti argued that this would be the natural product of "free will and liberty liberated." They claimed that in place of absolute monarchy, leaders should be elected not as an exercise of rights, but rather as a means for the populace to determine who was most "virtuous and moral in character", as such any prospective leader should be the first among equals in their religiousity, virtue and dedication to exercising and protecting liberty. On equality, the Pantheonisti position is widely misconcieved to be a be a form of proto-socialism, while it does declare all of humanity to be equal in worth, this does not reach into materialism, rather its limited to equality of rights and equality before the law. The Pantheonisti based this position on Galatians 3:28 and was the principal quote for the "Edict of Universal Liberation in God's Name", which abolished slavery and granted equal legal rights to women.

While the Pantheonisti was rather dismissive of the Solarian Empire and its pre-Sotirian legacy, it did however, pay homage to virtus, the application of fixed public virtues in the citizenry. The Patheonisti claimed that universal virtues adhered by all, would serve as the "mortar of the Republic, that holds the stones in place." During the First Republic, the Pantheonisti resurrected Virtus in its original form as well as applying the "Seven Cardinal Sins and Seven Fruits of Holy Spirit", citing Galatians 5. These collective virtues would be instilled by the Republic in the populace via the pulpit and mass, as well as major public events and republican festivals.

Modern study of the Devotions isolated them to four distinct pillars, alongside their principal verse cited by the Pantheonisti:

Devotion	Theme	Scripture	Interpretation
Liberty - Libertas	This devotion was the dogmatic and legal basis for the introduction of universal civil rights and liberties - and the abolition of monarchy and aristocracy.	Psalm 146:3 "Put not your trust in princes, in a son of man, in whom there is no salvation"	Princes being sinful creatures themselves and possessing absolute power, were inhibitors of man's ability to exercise its free will (gifted from God) and would endanger the ability of mankind to pursue good works and morality through subservience.
Democracy - Dēmocratia	The natural consequence of liberty, rule by the people. Necessary in the need of the people to determine their leaders ability and right to rule via their personal character - religiousity, morality and virtue. As they were elected through Liberty, their rule would be sacrosanct though not predetermined.	Deuteronomy 1:13: "Choose wise, understanding, and knowledgeable men from among your tribes, and I will make them [a]heads over you."	By choosing among themselves, the wise understanding knowledegable, they would be endowed with authority from God, though this would be invalidated if the leaders were to be unworthy of their bestowed authority, as such they would be required to do good by those who chose them and God himself, providing a moralistic, virtuous and faithful government.
Equality - Aequitās	As all mankind is made equal in God's image and before him, so too should mankind be equal on earth before temporal law and the republic. Each being would be afforded the same rights and liberties under the Republic, and each would be equally responsible for the maintenance of the Republic.	Galatians 3:28: "There is neither Atudite nor Piraean, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Sotirias Jesus."	As mankind was made equal, there can be no distinction temporally between peoples. Due to the spiritual equality of mankind, the institution of slavery is an evil and an obvious denial of liberty. This would also be extended to women, who should be afforded the equal rights of men under law, even if it did not extend to equality in societal roles.
Virtue - Virtūs	Shared civic virtues would be the resilience of the Republic against moral and spiritual decline. Through shared virtues in public, there would be consolidation of the Republic through the body politic, while also making it easier to identify and isolate individuals outside the "Republic's embrace."	Galatians 5:22–23: "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law."	The application of select virtues within scripture would provide a framework for civic engagement by the populace, through which they would collectively embattle sinful acts and behaviours. This would provide furhter, the Republic's virtuous society. Notably, the Republic also resurrected various Solarian-era virtues, including virtus, which provided a framework for a "good man" of the Republic, though this would be subsumed by focuses on masculinity and the warrior as the various wars fought by the Republic worsened or turned against it.
Obedience - Oboedientia	Once a Republic is established and it is shared among the citizenry, the very same should offer total obedience to the Republic for it is of their own creation, choosing and the product of Liberty. As its leaders are afforded God's authority owing to their elevation by the people, their decisions and the choice of leader itself should be respected by all.	Solarians 13:1-7: "Let everyone be subject to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God."	While opponents of the Republic attempted to cite this chapter of Solarians in defence of monarchy, the Pantheonisti reacted by claiming that God would not call for obedience to rulers who sinned against him and abused his gift of authority. They claimed further that Solarians 13:1-7 would only be viable for virtuous and moral governments chosen by the people through the gift of free will. While this Devotion would later be abused by the Pantheonisti, modern historians read it as a call for the respect of democratic results and at worse, a justification for ultra-majoritarianism or a more draconian interpretation of the general will.

As numerous historians have noted, the Canon of Heaven's Devotions serves as physical depiction of the "Etrurian revolutionary social contract", which is markedly different to one found in Revolutionary Werania, the social contract of Etruria's Republic was notably more authoritarian in its approach to defining the end result of democracy (i.e the majority will). While it afforded truly radical policies such as gender, racial and popular equality before the law, it also afforded the Republic significant power over its subjects by virtue of being created by its subjects. The extensive use of scripture and the inherently theocratic nature of the Etrurian Republic, while a procedural consequence of the Pantheonisti's overt religiousity in itself sought to marry key enlightenment ideals with Catholicism, even if it ventured into esoteric interpretation. The Pantheonisti dismissed the Weranic school of reason being mutually exclusive with religion, owing to wider view of free will being reason and rationality and that only through democracy and liberty could mankind truly exercise the Godly gift of free will.

Role of the Catholic Church

Leaders of the Catholic Church in Etruria taking the Devotion Oath to the Republic before the Consilium in 1788.