Society of Servants of Sotirias and the Liberties
Società dei Servi di Sotirio e delle Libertà | |
 Seal of the Society of Servants (1784–1810) | |
| Motto | "To Freedom or to God" (Alla libertà oa Dio) |
|---|---|
| Successor | Committee of the Star Chamber |
| Formation | 1772 |
| Founder | Tiberio Cassio Cacciarelli Umberto Benedetto Scorsi |
| Founded at | Tyrennus, Tyrennia |
| Dissolved | 12 August 1810 |
| Type | Secret society (pre-1784) Parliamentary group |
| Legal status | Dissolved |
| Purpose | Establishment of a Theocratic-Republican government
|
| Headquarters | Taverna di Angeli, Piazza Sol Invitto, Tyrennus |
Region | Etruria |
| Methods | From democratic initiatives to public violence |
Membership (1790) | Around 550,000 |
Official language | Vespasian Solarian |
President | Tiberio Cassio Cacciarelli |
Key people | Scorsi, Carafa, Orsini, Furfaro, Schiave, Mancera, Desideri, Zenatello, Calandrini, Gazzarri, Ottavi, Perucca |
| Subsidiaries | Newspapers
|
| Affiliations | All groups in the Popular Convention (early 1784) |
The Society of Servants of Sotirias and the Liberties (Vespasian: Società dei Servi di Sotirio e delle Libertà), also post-1785, Society of Servants of Sotirias and the Republic (Vespasian: Società dei Servi di Sotirio e della Repubblica) commonly known as the Pantheonists (Vespasian: Pantheonisti), was the most influential political club during the Etrurian Revolution, founding organisation of the Etrurian First Republic and dominant political force throughout its existence. Though one of many different factions in the early stages of the revolution, it violently seized total control over the revolution through La Purga in July 1784 and would hold uncontested power until the Caltrini Restoration in 1810.
Founded in 1772 as a secret society dedicated to the debate and exploration of enlightenment ideals and their relationship with Solarian Catholicism, it rapdily grew throughout the 1770s and by the early 1780s had evolved into a republican movement active across the entire Grand Principality of Tyrennia, reaching over half a million members by 1790. Unlike its initial rival revolutionary groups such as the Fraternity of Friends of the Constitution (Rispettabili) and the League of Freedom and Equality (Scugnizzo), the Pantheonisti were homogenous in their beliefs and ideology, a syncretic clerical-republicanism, providing it a significant advantage during the short-lived Tyrennian Republic and its concurrent power-struggles. Forming part of the so-called Aventine Triumvirate following the overthrow of Grand Prince Alessandro III in January 1784, the Society of Servants plotted to seize uncontested power, fearing being sidelined by the Rispettabili and Scugnizzo and in July 1784 launched La Purga, a nationwide putsch that saw the destruction of its two principal rival factions, this was swiftly followed by the Devotion of the Republic to Heaven and the founding of the Republic of Heaven. Forced into conflict with Etruria's duchies and kingdoms, the War of the First League resulted in the expansion of the Republic into Carvagna and Torrazza in 1786, this led to the renaming of the Tyrennian Republic as the Etrurian Republic. The Society of Servants used the war to launch its Bonfires, as well La Tempesta, to confront opponents of the revolution and republic, which result in the deaths of over 80,000 people by 1810 according to some estimates. Its success in unifying Etruria in the 1780s then led to repeated conflicts with Euclea's great powers and attempts at establishing the Ecumenical Republic. By the late 1800s, unrelenting conflict, political violence, economic collapse and famine had come to undermine popular support for the republic and Society of Servants and in August 1810, a coalition of Etrurian nobles, merchants and disaffected peasant groups united behind the noble House of Caltrini and overthrew the government in what became known as the Caltrini Restoration. Many of the leading Pantheonisti commited suicide or exiled themselves to the Asterias, Soravia or were imprisoned, Tiberio Cassio Cacciarelli - the leader of the Pantheonisti, was exiled to Aeolia and died in 1811.
The Society of Servants remains one of the most influential and divisive entities in Etrurian history, with its unique fusion of clericalism and enlightenment republicanism and its actions when in power. Its overseeing and orchestrating of severe political violence, state repression and military expansionism is contrasted by its construction of direct democracy, universal rights and populism. The word Pantheonisti in modern Etrurian parlance is used to equate individuals or groups with authoritarianism, centralisation of power, nationalism and deep political-religiosity.
History
Origins
The exact date of the Society's founding is not known, though it is general understood that it emerged in 1772. Throughout its early existence, the Society was limited in function and scope to being a debate club and literary club for the middle class professionals of Tyrennhus. It's area of focus was the discussion and debate around enlightenment ideals and topics and their relationship with Solarian Catholicism. It is also known that from its founding, the Society was wholly supportive of the Solarian Catholic Church and they would also regularly debate matters centered around the decline in its primacy, its supermacy over temporal and civil institutions and the threat posed by rationalism. The Society was based out of a function room on the second floor of the Taverna degli Angeli, a public house on the Piazza Sol Invitto, across the street from the Basilica of Our Lady of Martyrs, also known as the Pantheon of Sol Invictus - this would constitute the origins of their popular name of Pantheonisti. It is known that the Society was founded by at least six individuals, though the only two to remain on historical record were Tiberio Cassio Cacciarelli and Umberto Benedetto Scorsi, two lawyers native to the city. These two individuals would go onto serve as First Citizen and Second Citizen throughout the First Republic's existence. It is believed, the original six founders were drawn to establishing a debate club due to the widespread consumption of enlightenment-linked works by the petit bourgoise class of Tyrennus and strong undercurrent of religiosity among the professional class.
The group was formed in secret and would maintain a strict code of conduct to protect its members from persecution owing to the Alexandrine Repression that would go on to form a major cause of the revolution.
Secret society
From 1772 through to 1778, the Society existed in strict secrecy, membership was secured via invitation only and the group is recorded to have utilised secret handshakes and passwords in order to maintain its obscurity when meeting in the Taverna degli Angeli. Membership during this time was restricted entirely to the middle classes of the city, though the addition of Patrizio Urbano Della Penna (a prominent aristocrat) as a member in 1775, enabled the group to expand its membership and make wide use of Della Penna's Villa Minerva, located 20km north of Tyrennus. However, a marked change in the pamphlets and journals produced by the Society was recorded from 1774 onward, this has been accredited to the introduction of Giovanni Battista Orsini and Aurelio Cassiodoro Loredan, two aristocratic clergymen with links directly to the Papacies of Pope Leo XI and Pope Alexander XVIII. Both Orsini and Loredan brought with them their fierce advocacy of the Condemnatio Throni (Condemnation of the Throne), which claimed the temporal and spiritual power of the Church was being undermined by the centralisation of secular civil matters, while also claiming the interests of the Catholic Church were being subordinated to that of the State, at the expense of the faithful masses they ruled over. The championing of Condemnatio Throni by Orsini, Loredan and future clergy members of the Society would play a pivotal role in the development and evolution of the Society's republicanism.
By 1775, the Society had markedly become more radical in its writings and debates. It is accepted that by this time they had come to promote republicanism and fully articulated their foundational belief of liberty and freedom being spiritual gifts from God as the temporal evolution of free-will. Etrurian historian Ignazio Gamelli argued that by the mid-1770s, the Society had already become deeply committed to its religiosity and the infusion of select enlightenment ideas with that of a highly politicised Catholicism. Gamelli and many others would argue that the inclusion of Tyrennian clergymen had this stark effect, marking its divergence from its contemporary groups who would go on to embrace the anti-clericalism and rationalism that would define the Weranian Republic for example.
In 1777, the Society was infiltrated by a member of the Royal Watchmen, a dedicated group of agents responsible to the Grand Prince and taksed with infiltrating suspected subversive secret societies. His findings were later replicated in a short book and stored in the Palazzo Gianna. In this book, the Watchman detailed how the ball-room of the Villa Minerva had been rebuilt into a "faux-chapel and meeting place." He remarked that in its southern end was an altar and pulpit, as would be found in any Catholic church, while in its northern end sat "two wooden thrones, one carrying a crown of thorns and the other a pair of copper keys." Between the two thrones sat a replica of a fasces used during the Solarian Republic. This diaoramic depiction of the Society's beliefs - the Throne of God, the Throne of Saint Peter and the Fasces of the Republic being the three pillars of their idealised society, would be replicated in the future Senate of the Republic. The Watchman further depicts the Society of Servants as "wholly ineffectual and unthreatening in nature" in comparison to other groups infiltrated by the monarchy, this view would protect the Society of Servants and constitute a fatal mistake by the monarchy.
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