Plausibility Check: Can Jerusalem Be a Republic?

When the crusaders first captured Jerusalem, there was some confusion as to whether it would be proper to establish anyone as king. Is it possible that instead of a kingship, a theocratic republic was established in Jerusalem?
 

Lunarwolf

Banned
Well the Kings of Jerusalem were Elected by the High Court, and were accounted only as First among Equals.

2ndly it's fundamentally impossible to have a Theocratic Republic, that's very much an either or.
 
Well the Kings of Jerusalem were Elected by the High Court, and were accounted only as First among Equals.

2ndly it's fundamentally impossible to have a Theocratic Republic, that's very much an either or.

You could totally have a theocratic republic, in this case I'd propose a situation where the patriarch of Jerusalem, in this case the head of government, would be elected by the parish priests and monastic knights, who then form a sort of legislative body that meets for lets say the summer (with the possibility of an extraordinary congress in case of a crisis) in the city of Jerusalem to preside over the laws of the republic and check the authority of the patriarch. I mean it's not a very ideologically republican construct, but that would be a republican government ruled as a theocracy.
 
When the crusaders first captured Jerusalem, there was some confusion as to whether it would be proper to establish anyone as king. Is it possible that instead of a kingship, a theocratic republic was established in Jerusalem?

I mean I'd say it's possible, but it's probably going to be a problem for it to be republican in structure. Instead you'd probably see a sovereign bishopric like exists in the holy roman empire, where the archbishop of Jerusalem is temporal ruler over the kingdom of Jerusalem.
 

Lunarwolf

Banned
interestingly a Roman Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem would pose the lovely theological issue of, presumably the greeks asking, "why exactly did you cut off contact with us if your still gonna go for the Pentarchal structure".

Technically Islamic Republics in almost all cases aren't theocratic, much like how Israel isn't run by Rabbi's even though it's a Jewish State.

Iran, well together with the Vatican and the Tibetan Government in Exile, are very much the only actual theocracies.

Even then Iran is Elective, to a point.

The Vatican is an Elective Monarchy, and Tibetan GiE is a Reincarnatic Theocratic Monarchy.
 
interestingly a Roman Catholic Patriarch of Jerusalem would pose the lovely theological issue of, presumably the greeks asking, "why exactly did you cut off contact with us if your still gonna go for the Pentarchal structure".

That actually does exist in real life, differentiated from the Orthodox Patriarch as the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, and established in the first crusade. And the lack of modern theocratic states does not make the existence of a theocratic republic impossible. As I said, any system where the church hierarchy is the dominant part of the state aparatus, and where the church hierarchy is elected could qualify.
 
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