The Monastic City-State of Pesaro is a city-state located in the Romagna, in Italy. The city is a dominion of the Holy Order of the Knights of Saint Petroc, which current Head of State is Grand Master Domenico Puricelli, while the Government is formed by the Grand Master and many institutions.
History[]
The city was purchased by Calais from Milan during the late XV Century, as it was the only domain of the House of Sforza outside of Milan at the time, and it held importance cause it was an enclave in the Romagnan Lordships, by then in process of unification with the States of the Church.
Edmund I, Prince of Calais, decided to give the city to the Knights of Saint Petroc, who would help unifying the Patrimony of Saint Peter. He was Grand Master of such Order at the time.
A Romagnan knight, Alessandro di Gradara, led the settlement of the Order in the city, and the Prince officially transferred its administration to the order by the Pesaro Administration Act; though the land remained, and remains, property of the Prince, and it's thus considered officially part of the Principality of Calais.
As Edmund died, the Chapter-General received, through the Act on the Governance of the Holy Order of the Knights of Saint Petroc, the prerogative of electing his successor. The alfosinian knight Francesco d'Alfons was elected, and the institution of the Order settled definitely.
Currently, the city is in the middle of a secret civil war, fought between the Order of Saint Petroc and its Holy Tribunal of Inquisition and the Order-in-Shadows, run by opposers of the catholic traditional doctrine, mainly supporters of kappelianism, galluranism and vauxism.
Division[]
The Knights of the Order are divided into "Brotherhoods", corresponding to the Brotherhood of the protector that knighted them. Each Brotherhood has assigned an specific territory in Pesaro or its outskirts, and the knights, unless they have granted Princely Charter as diplomats or warriors in foreign wars, are obligated to actually live in their Brotherhood Districts. This makes common that the populace of knights and squires concentrates in Communal Halls, Academies of Our Lord, Colleges of the Order and Universities; while the common people lives in the rest of the city or in chapels, among the Knights of Charity. Each Brotherhood District has assigned at least one parish, which governs the cathedrals and other ecclesiastical building, also permitted to the knights fro living in.
The Academies of Our Lord are schools where the kids are taught in the ways of God, and later can choose to go to University or to a College of the Order. In the first, they may learn professional skills, useful for the general life in the city, while in the alter they may become squires, soon to be knighted into the Order.
Government[]
Each Brotherhood District has its own Chapter, composed by all knights and ecclesiastical ministers, excluding most seculars, and presided by the Master and secondly by the parish priest or archpriest. The Chapter elects its functionaries once a year, the most important being the Master, responsible for the daily administration and the command of the forces of law enforcement and other services.
Non-members of the Order are admitted to discuss, but not to vote, though it is not permitted to participate to squires and children. The common citizens form Assemblies, managing the daily affairs of the Neighborhoods, which are reapportioned at the Chapter's will.
The Central District is under jurisdiction of the Chapter-General, and the Assemblies are cored into the General Assembly.
The Chapter-General is made up of two representatives of each Brotherhood, a knight and a priest, both appointed by the Master, with consent of the presiding priest of the Chapter. It is presided by the Archbishop of Pesaro. The Chapter-General elects the higher functionaries, including the Archbishop and the Grand Master (algo member of the Chapter-General, and highest officer of the administration and army, and representative of the Prince) and enacts Acts of Chapter-General in name of the Prince, needing Princely Assent to any action. This makes the officer elections the only real choices of the Chapter-General to take immediate effect, as the laws first need to be sent to Calais to receive Princely Assent, and if they do, they usually come to force a year after they were enacted.
The General Assembly is made up of five members for each Brotherhood District, each monthly elected by the Chapter of the District from a nominees' list provided by the common Assemblies. It runs daily affairs such as the Post Office and minor law enforcement matters. They usually administer the finances and the scientific research, as it is commonly made up of university scholars.
Justice[]
The tribunals are established by the Acts and other laws such as Princely Ordinances, with power extending to Pesaro, or Chivalric Ordinances, decreed by the Grand Master.
Most tribunals have ecclesiastical judges, both knights and priests, usually experts on Canon law, Roman law, English law and Imperial law. It is common in criminal affairs and cases on morality (such as accusations and debts) to have juries, randomly selected from a list of good citizens made jointly by the priests and the assemblies, all of them passed the tests of the Inquisition.
The Inquisition of the Order is in charge of enforcing Catholic rightness in the city, though some minorities are permitted, but without most citizenship rights, except for Orthodox Greeks and some Jews, permitted to study and exercise professions of law and economy respectively.
The Inquisition is composed of lesser officers appointed by those elected by the Chapter-General, the District Inquisitors, the High Inquisitors (for foreign regions such as the rest of Italy) and the Inquisitor-General, with power to call for impeachment.
The Inquisitor-General sits but does not vote in the Chapter-General, but he usually acts as a key officer, as he is the most senior member of the Inquisition and expert on law, with unlimited knowledge on most matters of morality, faith and men's law, so the Prince uses to withhold Princely Assent on his advice.
A curious thing is that women are allowed to vote in the Assemblies, if they are married with men of proven loyalty and faith to the Inquisition, or in the Chapters, if they are abbesses, nuns and such, though they can't be elected for the higher offices.