An Examination of Extra-Universal Systems of Government
- Thread starter Ephraim Ben Raphael
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Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
Kingdom of Corsica
Corti is a town of high hills, surrounded by mountains the frame the sky. On the top of the highest hill rises the old citadel, above a walled medieval town. Around the old town newer suburbs slouch into the folds of the earth. Only about fifteen thousand people live in Corti permanently, but the population swells to twice that during tourist season when the pilgrims come to pay homage. Other than catering to said pilgrims the primary industry of the town is government, Corti hosts the Diet of Corsica when it is in session and acts as the seat for the National Council the rest of the year. It has also been the residence of the Queen since 1797.
I will be meeting her today.
“What do you believe, Professor Chana?”
My guide, Petro Giafferi, works for the Corsican Department of Tourism, and it is he who is responsible for escorting me to the Queen. He leads the way on foot up one of the narrow streets of Corti, and converses in this world’s version of English.
I answer his question by letting him know that I am an agnostic.
“But what do you believe?” Petro emphasizes the last word. “Do you believe in an amoral universe, cold and uncaring? Do you believe that reality is centered around some fundamental justice? Do you believe that one of our religions may be right, or that if the divine is real it will nothing like what men of faith say?”
I get a strong sense that he has asked these questions before, and that this is all building up to something on his part. I say that I have seen no conclusive proof of the divine or the supernatural, and so while I do not rule out the possibility that something else may exist, I cannot believe in the absence of proof.
Petro nods and smiles. “Do you believe in man, Professor? In the goodness and potential of man?”
I suppose I do, despite everything.
“Then you believe in God.” The Corsican tells me, with the air of a chess master placing his opponent into checkmate. “You may not know that you do, but man is in God’s image and to believe in one is to believe in the other.”
And woman?
“Woman too!” He laughs. “Woman as much as man, to be sure. Believing in humanity, let us say. There are people who say they believe in humanity but not God, and they can be perfectly good people- I think you are one. It’s when you stop believing in people as well that you give in to evil.”
We come to the Cathedral of Corti, a large Mediterranean building with a brown tiled roof and cream-colored stucco walls. A tall bell-tower rises from one end. It is not a true cathedral and has never been recognized as such by the Roman Catholic Church, but its prominence in the culture and religion of the Corsican people means that the title is commonly applied regardless. There is a line of pilgrims waiting to enter, but Petro is able get us in through a side door. In the shadowy interior rows of candles cast dancing lights upon the walls.
What does Petro think of the Queen of Corsica?
“She has ruled us well for over two hundred years.” He answers confidently as he leads me onward. “She is a figure of unity, decisive when our politicians are quarrelsome, explicit when they are confused.”
The line of pilgrims passes through a pair of enormous double doors, and we walk by into a large room. Images and ornate decorations cover the walls and ceiling, showing Christian saints, the stations of the cross, the birth of Jesus, and much more. At the far end is a wooden railing to keep the pilgrims back, behind which is the famous “Wooden Bowl” of Sampiero Bartoli. And past that is a surprisingly small board, jagged and splintery on one end, affixed to the wall behind it. Scratched into the surface is a crude but iconic (for this universe) image of a woman, holding in her hands a sphere on which is etched a drawing of the island of Corsica. She has a halo and a hood that covers her hair, marking her as Mary- the mother of God in Christian mythology.
“Behold,” Petro gestures with his hand “the Queen of Corsica!”
The Kingdom of Corsica dates back to the days of the French Revolution. In 1793 Corsican rebels led by Pasquale Paoli- the leader of an earlier Corsican Republic- rose up against the new French Republic when extremist elements led by Maximillian Robespierre began talking about Paoli’s arrest. Paoli reached out the British to help eject the French from the island for good, offering to allow Corsica to become a kingdom in personal union with the British Crown. The British- who were in the process of evacuating the Royalist city of Toulon and desperate for another base in the Mediterranean- accepted. Between the Corsican and British forces the remaining French fortresses on the island were captured, and Corsica became a self-governing part of the British Empire with its own Diet and President under a British Viceroy.
However, tensions mounted between the British administration- led by the Viceroy Sir Gilbert Elliot- and the native Corsican people, and there was a split between the new President of Corsica (Carlo di Borgo) and the old President Paoli. Rioting and unrest swept the island, eventually forcing Paoli to flee to Britain and by 1796 actual uprisings had begun against the British. Pro-French partisans began to organize, and the entrance of Spain into the war against Britain made the British position untenable. The British began withdrawing troops from the island in order to reinforce their port at Gibraltar and by October of 1796 were completely gone. Carlo di Borgo fled to Italy, and it seemed that the entire island would fall back under French dominion.
Enter Sampiero Bartoli.
Bartoli was a low-ranking officer in the Corsican army, and a veteran of the rebellion against France. He despised the British, but as a devout Catholic and Monarchist was unwilling to accept the rule of the Republican French. He gathered to him like-minded soldiers and fought bitterly- by January of 1797 his was the only substantial force still opposing the French. It was also ragged, hungry, almost out of ammunition, and completely surrounded.
On the morning of January 27th Bartoli awoke and informed his men that he had been visited by Saint Devota- the patron saint of the island of Corsica- in the night. He claimed he had asked her what to do, and that she had told him to make an icon of the Virgin Mary, pray to it, and then put to Mary any question. He would receive his answers by drawing lots.
It was an extraordinary claim, but Bartoli had the force of personality to be taken seriously. He scratched out the icon himself on a board, and acquired a wooden bowl. Into this bowl were placed a series of tokens, each indicating a different course of action; “surrender”, “flee to Italy”, “disperse into the woods”, “flee to Britain”, etcetera. Perhaps only out of a sense of completeness did he include “attack” as one of the options. Bartoli prayed to the Virgin, asked her what he should do, and drew from the bowl.
Inevitably, the token was “attack”.
About half of the Corsican troops thought that Bartoli was mad to want to attack. The French had them vastly outnumbered, out-gunned, and held superior positions. They refused to go forward and many deserted. But the man himself was determined, and together with the soldiers who remained he led the attack.
What happened next has been so wrapped up in myth and legend and contradictory accounts, that it is difficult to say precisely what occurred. Certainly, the purported eyewitness accounts should be taken with a grain of salt- I personally doubt that an army of angels led by the Archangel Gabriel joined the Corsicans, or that the ground opened up under the feet of the French soldiers and dropped half of them straight to hell (as Corsican soldiers who were there, or claimed to have been there, later attested in primary sources).
Bartoli advanced with his men (exactly 77 strong according to Corsican folklore) and attacked two thousand French and allied Corsicans under the command of General Antoine Gentili. According to the French the “friendly” Corsicans stabbed them in the back, attacking by surprise from within their own ranks. According to the Corsicans this is a foul lie, and the French began attacking their Corsican “allies”, stabbing them in the back. We know definitively that Gentili somehow came to the conclusion that the British had returned, and that he was somehow under attack by a large British force instead of a handful of Corsican irregulars, despite the fact that they were in a mountainous inland part of eastern Corsica and there would have been no way for the British to get there. Consequently, he ordered a retreat, but what should have been an orderly, disciplined withdrawal somehow turned into a chaotic rout with French troops mistaking their Corsican allies for the enemy and fighting breaking out between the two groups.
When the feast day of Saint Devota had ended not only had Bartoli defeated an enemy force more than twenty-times his size, not only he had convinced over three hundred Corsicans who had previously been fighting with the French to switch sides, but he had also captured the Franco-Corsican commander Antoine Gentili.
It is a fact worth noting that on a macro level history usually makes sense and follows certain patterns- this is true whatever universe you’re in. But on a micro level strange and sometimes wildly unlikely things can and do occur.
What happened here was that Bartoli, in the name of the Virgin Mary and Saint Devota, and taking his marching orders by way of drawing lots, successfully drove the French out of Corsica yet again. As word of the general with his wooden bowl and his holy icon spread, Corsicans who had been with the French switched sides and others flocked to his banner. It helped that Bartoli was both openly anti-British and anti-French, and there was no concern that he was going to invite the British back. The French were left disorganized by the loss of their commander and made a series of amateur mistakes- at Calvi the French garrison even invited a group of supposedly pro-French islanders inside the fortifications, who were being led by Bartoli with his mustache shaved off.
Rumors of miracles and divine intervention surrounded the campaign, often contradictory and widely attested to. The general (he gave himself a promotion) continued to appeal to the Virgin for instructions, usually by assigning different options to different tokens and then drawing them out of his bowl. He may have been helped by how general these orders were, leaving him a fair bit of leeway. For simple yes or no questions Bartoli procured from a button maker at Corti a pair of wooden discs which were identical except for their color and are still used by the Corsican government today. Military distractions in Italy and Germany kept France from sending reinforcements, and eventually the remaining French forces withdrew from the island for more important fronts.
On May first of 1797, various assorted Corsican notables gathered at Corti- the old 1760s capital of the Corsican Republic. No one wanted the British back, no one wanted the Genoese- who had been conquered by the French in any case- and any voices favoring French rule were either silenced or excluded. Some wanted to restore the Corsican Republic, but it was well known that Bartoli favored a monarchy, and most expected him to declare himself king. Thus, there was little surprise when the general called for a Kingdom of Corsica- and not one ruled by any foreign adventurer or king from across the sea.
The surprise came when he nominated the Virgin Mary for the throne.
The constitution of the Corsican Republic had named Mary as protector of Corsica, Bartoli wanted to go one step further and officially make her queen of the island. Just as God’s will had been made known at several points in the Old and New Testaments by drawing lots, and just as Mary had made her will known the same way during the recent military campaign, so too would she be able to rule Corsica by lot. Of course much of the day to day governance would fall on the Diet, but if she had any objections to that she need merely make them known. While support for this unique idea was not universal (one attendee denounced it as sacrilegious) a majority of those present voted to at least ask the Blessed Virgin if she would be willing to accept the office. They decamped to the church where Bartoli had placed the icon for safe-keeping, and then formally, and with great humility, requested that she become their Queen. The general drew lots and the answer was “yes”.
So it was that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Corsica opened by naming the Blessed Virgin Mary as Eternal Queen and Protector of Corsica.
The rest of the constitution was mostly lifted directly from the constitution of the Corsican Republic, and extremely liberal for 1797. All men over the age of twenty-five could vote or run for office, and elected a Diet of fifty seats which would elect a twelve seat National Council whose head would serve as the country’s President. There were elected local governments, and although the constitution was silent on the issue long-standing tradition resulted in a few women voting in some local elections. Any constitutional amendment had to be approved by the Queen, so did any declaration of war, any foreign alliance, and “any law not covered by the laws of God”. She also selected which of the members of the National Council should become President, resolved all ties, appointed judges from among qualified candidates submitted to her, and rendered the final judgement in all cases involving either capital punishment or the impeachment of a government official. While it was not required, the Diet could seek her opinion on any law if it wished to. The implication was very much that her office was an imposition upon her, and that the government should avoid troubling their Queen with minor worldly matters.
With no less than twenty-one amendments, this constitution has remained in effect until the present day.
The practice of seeking the Queen’s approval for laws largely declined after a period in the mid-19th century when a President was found to be openly manipulating the results in his favor (she eventually sentenced him to death after he was convicted for treason), and the definition of what constitutes a “law not covered by the laws of God” has become very limited over the years. The elimination of capital punishment from the criminal code in 1978 ended the custom of seeking her final judgement for condemned criminals, although it remains part of the constitution and would resume if it were restored (it last occurred in 1923). Three times since 1797 the Queen has approved declarations of war, five times she has vetoed declarations of war, and Corsica has gained a reputation as a traditionally neutral country as a result (her assent is not needed if the island is attacked, this was learned when she said “no” to a declaration of war against the Kingdom of Italy following an Italian invasion in 1885, and was then asked if they could fight the attackers without a declaration of war, to which she replied “yes”). In addition to the twenty-one constitutional amendments which have received royal assent since 1797, nineteen amendments have been vetoed- six relating to expansion of representation for women, and three to amending away a passage in the constitution that banned any Genovese from living in the country.
She continues to appoint the President through a process by which the names of all twelve members of the National Council are placed in Bartoli’s wooden bowl, and the name of her choice drawn out. The President presides over meetings of the National Council and the Diet, determining when members may speak and keeping order during debate. When a judge in Corsica dies, retires, or is removed from office the Queen still selects their replacement from three qualified names that are submitted to her. She last broke a tie in the Diet in 2016, but has not broken a tie in the National Council since 1955 as all members of the Council tend to belong to the same party or alliance of parties.
“It is the official position of the Church that the only Vicar of Christ is the Pope, and that the Corsican practice of drawing lots does not constitute any form of communication with the Blessed Virgin Mother.”
Father Antoine Cardini is Roman Catholic priest and a native-born Corsican who ministers to the congregation of a church in Aiacciu.
“There was a period in the 1810s when one pope tried to get the Corsican government to stop by excommunicating the whole island, but in 1832 one of the Pope Innocents ended that and recognized that Corsicans were Catholics, just bad ones. As of 1971 we recognize most of the miracles that the Virgin Mother has performed in Corsica over the years, it’s only the insistence on involving her in government that we oppose.”
What’s the church’s view on the icon?
“It’s a holy icon.” The priest chuckles. “But it’s not an employee of the Diet, and one should never pray to an image of the Virgin Mother, only to the Virgin herself. Icons are guides, not idols.”
How many Corsicans actually believe that their government’s practice of drawing lots reflects divine intention?
“Mmm… it’s hard to say. There are people who claim to believe, but when you talk to them about politics, it’s clear that they don’t regard it as anything more than random chance. Then there are people who insist they follow the position of the church, but can be awfully invested in rulings made with that bowl from decades if not centuries ago. I’d say that a majority of the population either believes or supports the practice for reasons of culture and tradition.”
And what does he think?
Father Cardini laughs out loud. “Only in Corsica could the people convince themselves that the Queen of Heaven is actually the Queen of Corsica.”
Corti is a town of high hills, surrounded by mountains the frame the sky. On the top of the highest hill rises the old citadel, above a walled medieval town. Around the old town newer suburbs slouch into the folds of the earth. Only about fifteen thousand people live in Corti permanently, but the population swells to twice that during tourist season when the pilgrims come to pay homage. Other than catering to said pilgrims the primary industry of the town is government, Corti hosts the Diet of Corsica when it is in session and acts as the seat for the National Council the rest of the year. It has also been the residence of the Queen since 1797.
I will be meeting her today.
“What do you believe, Professor Chana?”
My guide, Petro Giafferi, works for the Corsican Department of Tourism, and it is he who is responsible for escorting me to the Queen. He leads the way on foot up one of the narrow streets of Corti, and converses in this world’s version of English.
I answer his question by letting him know that I am an agnostic.
“But what do you believe?” Petro emphasizes the last word. “Do you believe in an amoral universe, cold and uncaring? Do you believe that reality is centered around some fundamental justice? Do you believe that one of our religions may be right, or that if the divine is real it will nothing like what men of faith say?”
I get a strong sense that he has asked these questions before, and that this is all building up to something on his part. I say that I have seen no conclusive proof of the divine or the supernatural, and so while I do not rule out the possibility that something else may exist, I cannot believe in the absence of proof.
Petro nods and smiles. “Do you believe in man, Professor? In the goodness and potential of man?”
I suppose I do, despite everything.
“Then you believe in God.” The Corsican tells me, with the air of a chess master placing his opponent into checkmate. “You may not know that you do, but man is in God’s image and to believe in one is to believe in the other.”
And woman?
“Woman too!” He laughs. “Woman as much as man, to be sure. Believing in humanity, let us say. There are people who say they believe in humanity but not God, and they can be perfectly good people- I think you are one. It’s when you stop believing in people as well that you give in to evil.”
We come to the Cathedral of Corti, a large Mediterranean building with a brown tiled roof and cream-colored stucco walls. A tall bell-tower rises from one end. It is not a true cathedral and has never been recognized as such by the Roman Catholic Church, but its prominence in the culture and religion of the Corsican people means that the title is commonly applied regardless. There is a line of pilgrims waiting to enter, but Petro is able get us in through a side door. In the shadowy interior rows of candles cast dancing lights upon the walls.
What does Petro think of the Queen of Corsica?
“She has ruled us well for over two hundred years.” He answers confidently as he leads me onward. “She is a figure of unity, decisive when our politicians are quarrelsome, explicit when they are confused.”
The line of pilgrims passes through a pair of enormous double doors, and we walk by into a large room. Images and ornate decorations cover the walls and ceiling, showing Christian saints, the stations of the cross, the birth of Jesus, and much more. At the far end is a wooden railing to keep the pilgrims back, behind which is the famous “Wooden Bowl” of Sampiero Bartoli. And past that is a surprisingly small board, jagged and splintery on one end, affixed to the wall behind it. Scratched into the surface is a crude but iconic (for this universe) image of a woman, holding in her hands a sphere on which is etched a drawing of the island of Corsica. She has a halo and a hood that covers her hair, marking her as Mary- the mother of God in Christian mythology.
“Behold,” Petro gestures with his hand “the Queen of Corsica!”
The Kingdom of Corsica dates back to the days of the French Revolution. In 1793 Corsican rebels led by Pasquale Paoli- the leader of an earlier Corsican Republic- rose up against the new French Republic when extremist elements led by Maximillian Robespierre began talking about Paoli’s arrest. Paoli reached out the British to help eject the French from the island for good, offering to allow Corsica to become a kingdom in personal union with the British Crown. The British- who were in the process of evacuating the Royalist city of Toulon and desperate for another base in the Mediterranean- accepted. Between the Corsican and British forces the remaining French fortresses on the island were captured, and Corsica became a self-governing part of the British Empire with its own Diet and President under a British Viceroy.
However, tensions mounted between the British administration- led by the Viceroy Sir Gilbert Elliot- and the native Corsican people, and there was a split between the new President of Corsica (Carlo di Borgo) and the old President Paoli. Rioting and unrest swept the island, eventually forcing Paoli to flee to Britain and by 1796 actual uprisings had begun against the British. Pro-French partisans began to organize, and the entrance of Spain into the war against Britain made the British position untenable. The British began withdrawing troops from the island in order to reinforce their port at Gibraltar and by October of 1796 were completely gone. Carlo di Borgo fled to Italy, and it seemed that the entire island would fall back under French dominion.
Enter Sampiero Bartoli.
Bartoli was a low-ranking officer in the Corsican army, and a veteran of the rebellion against France. He despised the British, but as a devout Catholic and Monarchist was unwilling to accept the rule of the Republican French. He gathered to him like-minded soldiers and fought bitterly- by January of 1797 his was the only substantial force still opposing the French. It was also ragged, hungry, almost out of ammunition, and completely surrounded.
On the morning of January 27th Bartoli awoke and informed his men that he had been visited by Saint Devota- the patron saint of the island of Corsica- in the night. He claimed he had asked her what to do, and that she had told him to make an icon of the Virgin Mary, pray to it, and then put to Mary any question. He would receive his answers by drawing lots.
It was an extraordinary claim, but Bartoli had the force of personality to be taken seriously. He scratched out the icon himself on a board, and acquired a wooden bowl. Into this bowl were placed a series of tokens, each indicating a different course of action; “surrender”, “flee to Italy”, “disperse into the woods”, “flee to Britain”, etcetera. Perhaps only out of a sense of completeness did he include “attack” as one of the options. Bartoli prayed to the Virgin, asked her what he should do, and drew from the bowl.
Inevitably, the token was “attack”.
About half of the Corsican troops thought that Bartoli was mad to want to attack. The French had them vastly outnumbered, out-gunned, and held superior positions. They refused to go forward and many deserted. But the man himself was determined, and together with the soldiers who remained he led the attack.
What happened next has been so wrapped up in myth and legend and contradictory accounts, that it is difficult to say precisely what occurred. Certainly, the purported eyewitness accounts should be taken with a grain of salt- I personally doubt that an army of angels led by the Archangel Gabriel joined the Corsicans, or that the ground opened up under the feet of the French soldiers and dropped half of them straight to hell (as Corsican soldiers who were there, or claimed to have been there, later attested in primary sources).
Bartoli advanced with his men (exactly 77 strong according to Corsican folklore) and attacked two thousand French and allied Corsicans under the command of General Antoine Gentili. According to the French the “friendly” Corsicans stabbed them in the back, attacking by surprise from within their own ranks. According to the Corsicans this is a foul lie, and the French began attacking their Corsican “allies”, stabbing them in the back. We know definitively that Gentili somehow came to the conclusion that the British had returned, and that he was somehow under attack by a large British force instead of a handful of Corsican irregulars, despite the fact that they were in a mountainous inland part of eastern Corsica and there would have been no way for the British to get there. Consequently, he ordered a retreat, but what should have been an orderly, disciplined withdrawal somehow turned into a chaotic rout with French troops mistaking their Corsican allies for the enemy and fighting breaking out between the two groups.
When the feast day of Saint Devota had ended not only had Bartoli defeated an enemy force more than twenty-times his size, not only he had convinced over three hundred Corsicans who had previously been fighting with the French to switch sides, but he had also captured the Franco-Corsican commander Antoine Gentili.
It is a fact worth noting that on a macro level history usually makes sense and follows certain patterns- this is true whatever universe you’re in. But on a micro level strange and sometimes wildly unlikely things can and do occur.
What happened here was that Bartoli, in the name of the Virgin Mary and Saint Devota, and taking his marching orders by way of drawing lots, successfully drove the French out of Corsica yet again. As word of the general with his wooden bowl and his holy icon spread, Corsicans who had been with the French switched sides and others flocked to his banner. It helped that Bartoli was both openly anti-British and anti-French, and there was no concern that he was going to invite the British back. The French were left disorganized by the loss of their commander and made a series of amateur mistakes- at Calvi the French garrison even invited a group of supposedly pro-French islanders inside the fortifications, who were being led by Bartoli with his mustache shaved off.
Rumors of miracles and divine intervention surrounded the campaign, often contradictory and widely attested to. The general (he gave himself a promotion) continued to appeal to the Virgin for instructions, usually by assigning different options to different tokens and then drawing them out of his bowl. He may have been helped by how general these orders were, leaving him a fair bit of leeway. For simple yes or no questions Bartoli procured from a button maker at Corti a pair of wooden discs which were identical except for their color and are still used by the Corsican government today. Military distractions in Italy and Germany kept France from sending reinforcements, and eventually the remaining French forces withdrew from the island for more important fronts.
On May first of 1797, various assorted Corsican notables gathered at Corti- the old 1760s capital of the Corsican Republic. No one wanted the British back, no one wanted the Genoese- who had been conquered by the French in any case- and any voices favoring French rule were either silenced or excluded. Some wanted to restore the Corsican Republic, but it was well known that Bartoli favored a monarchy, and most expected him to declare himself king. Thus, there was little surprise when the general called for a Kingdom of Corsica- and not one ruled by any foreign adventurer or king from across the sea.
The surprise came when he nominated the Virgin Mary for the throne.
The constitution of the Corsican Republic had named Mary as protector of Corsica, Bartoli wanted to go one step further and officially make her queen of the island. Just as God’s will had been made known at several points in the Old and New Testaments by drawing lots, and just as Mary had made her will known the same way during the recent military campaign, so too would she be able to rule Corsica by lot. Of course much of the day to day governance would fall on the Diet, but if she had any objections to that she need merely make them known. While support for this unique idea was not universal (one attendee denounced it as sacrilegious) a majority of those present voted to at least ask the Blessed Virgin if she would be willing to accept the office. They decamped to the church where Bartoli had placed the icon for safe-keeping, and then formally, and with great humility, requested that she become their Queen. The general drew lots and the answer was “yes”.
So it was that the Constitution of the Kingdom of Corsica opened by naming the Blessed Virgin Mary as Eternal Queen and Protector of Corsica.
The rest of the constitution was mostly lifted directly from the constitution of the Corsican Republic, and extremely liberal for 1797. All men over the age of twenty-five could vote or run for office, and elected a Diet of fifty seats which would elect a twelve seat National Council whose head would serve as the country’s President. There were elected local governments, and although the constitution was silent on the issue long-standing tradition resulted in a few women voting in some local elections. Any constitutional amendment had to be approved by the Queen, so did any declaration of war, any foreign alliance, and “any law not covered by the laws of God”. She also selected which of the members of the National Council should become President, resolved all ties, appointed judges from among qualified candidates submitted to her, and rendered the final judgement in all cases involving either capital punishment or the impeachment of a government official. While it was not required, the Diet could seek her opinion on any law if it wished to. The implication was very much that her office was an imposition upon her, and that the government should avoid troubling their Queen with minor worldly matters.
With no less than twenty-one amendments, this constitution has remained in effect until the present day.
The practice of seeking the Queen’s approval for laws largely declined after a period in the mid-19th century when a President was found to be openly manipulating the results in his favor (she eventually sentenced him to death after he was convicted for treason), and the definition of what constitutes a “law not covered by the laws of God” has become very limited over the years. The elimination of capital punishment from the criminal code in 1978 ended the custom of seeking her final judgement for condemned criminals, although it remains part of the constitution and would resume if it were restored (it last occurred in 1923). Three times since 1797 the Queen has approved declarations of war, five times she has vetoed declarations of war, and Corsica has gained a reputation as a traditionally neutral country as a result (her assent is not needed if the island is attacked, this was learned when she said “no” to a declaration of war against the Kingdom of Italy following an Italian invasion in 1885, and was then asked if they could fight the attackers without a declaration of war, to which she replied “yes”). In addition to the twenty-one constitutional amendments which have received royal assent since 1797, nineteen amendments have been vetoed- six relating to expansion of representation for women, and three to amending away a passage in the constitution that banned any Genovese from living in the country.
She continues to appoint the President through a process by which the names of all twelve members of the National Council are placed in Bartoli’s wooden bowl, and the name of her choice drawn out. The President presides over meetings of the National Council and the Diet, determining when members may speak and keeping order during debate. When a judge in Corsica dies, retires, or is removed from office the Queen still selects their replacement from three qualified names that are submitted to her. She last broke a tie in the Diet in 2016, but has not broken a tie in the National Council since 1955 as all members of the Council tend to belong to the same party or alliance of parties.
“It is the official position of the Church that the only Vicar of Christ is the Pope, and that the Corsican practice of drawing lots does not constitute any form of communication with the Blessed Virgin Mother.”
Father Antoine Cardini is Roman Catholic priest and a native-born Corsican who ministers to the congregation of a church in Aiacciu.
“There was a period in the 1810s when one pope tried to get the Corsican government to stop by excommunicating the whole island, but in 1832 one of the Pope Innocents ended that and recognized that Corsicans were Catholics, just bad ones. As of 1971 we recognize most of the miracles that the Virgin Mother has performed in Corsica over the years, it’s only the insistence on involving her in government that we oppose.”
What’s the church’s view on the icon?
“It’s a holy icon.” The priest chuckles. “But it’s not an employee of the Diet, and one should never pray to an image of the Virgin Mother, only to the Virgin herself. Icons are guides, not idols.”
How many Corsicans actually believe that their government’s practice of drawing lots reflects divine intention?
“Mmm… it’s hard to say. There are people who claim to believe, but when you talk to them about politics, it’s clear that they don’t regard it as anything more than random chance. Then there are people who insist they follow the position of the church, but can be awfully invested in rulings made with that bowl from decades if not centuries ago. I’d say that a majority of the population either believes or supports the practice for reasons of culture and tradition.”
And what does he think?
Father Cardini laughs out loud. “Only in Corsica could the people convince themselves that the Queen of Heaven is actually the Queen of Corsica.”
Corsica is very much like central and southern Italy when it comes to religion: in theory, it's a deeply Catholic country; in practice, the local Catholicism often looks like someone put a Christian coat of paint on pre-existing folk and pagan beliefs.
As someone whose family is from there and has visited several times, that is a very accurate portrayal. That is from an early tactic of the church to whitewash old pagan traditions with catholic teachings to make conversions of the local populace easier.
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
Awesome, glad you guys liked it.
It's good to have a seal of approval from people who've actually been to Corsica- I was just inspired by the drawing lots thing that just happened in Virginia.
Somehow, this sort of government wouldn't seem out of place in my own country.
Somehow, this sort of government wouldn't seem out of place in my own country.
Well, it's got the same borderline heretical admixture of Catholicism and folk beliefs as Latin America and Latin Europe; but when it comes to creative interpretations of Christianity, Japan kind of went overboard.
Well that level of syncretism was pretty much forced on them.Well, it's got the same borderline heretical admixture of Catholicism and folk beliefs as Latin America and Latin Europe; but when it comes to creative interpretations of Christianity, Japan kind of went overboard.
Ephraim Ben Raphael
Banned
Thank you.
That's high praise.Somehow, this sort of government wouldn't seem out of place in my own country.
Where are you from?
Well, it's got the same borderline heretical admixture of Catholicism and folk beliefs as Latin America and Latin Europe; but when it comes to creative interpretations of Christianity, Japan kind of went overboard.
I love folk Catholicism, and I just learned something new about Japan.
The furthest bastion of Christendom: the Philippine Islands! Where the Santo Niño was the last and greatest of our pagan gods before the Conversion!
Deleted member 108228
The furthest bastion of Christendom: the Philippine Islands! Where the Santo Niño was the last and greatest of our pagan gods before the Conversion!
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