Autotheism in the Old and New Worlds
The Asian Gnostic sects that would eventually be dubbed the Hephtalites came to inspire a number of other heretics; most importantly, the Autotheists. The Hellenes, with expatriate communities all over the Western Mediterranean, exchanged ideas with the locals, and with the Mauri. While Hephtalism was a minority even in Asia Minor for quite some time, still some converts made journeys west, and influenced the "lay monks" of the Frankish lands, also known as
beghards, who devoted themselves to lives of prayer and good works without taking vows. As the authority of the Frankish state collapsed, individual virtue and piety were increasingly looked to as tokens of authority, benefitting the Catholic [1] Church, but also local holy men of varying orthodoxy, who came to be relied on as judges in local disputes.
Varying sects of Autotheism sprung up in and around the trading cities of the Western Mediterranean. These sects had in common a tendency to shun ostentatious rituals and worship, and a belief that virtue implied
literal union with God. Many held the belief that Jesus was the
adopted son of God, the most perfected human, and that all men should strive to attain union of their human and Christ-natures. Many sects also held property in common (at least at first) and encouraged communalism and "brotherly love". They also tended to be more egalitarian than the Frankish society of the day, according women expanded status or equal status to men. They differed in their degree of dualism and, later, elitism, but nearly all had a ranked community from initiates all the way to the nigh-saintly
Purificati, Perfecti, or
Virtuosi, as they were variously called.
In Ispania the sects flourished in the south and east. Most influential, ultimately, would be the Apostolic Order, founded by Rodrigo of Gadez, and brought to the New World after his martyrdom by his disciple, the "Apostle" Antonio, which siphoned off many members of the movement in southern and western Ispania. The maritime Legation [2] of Narbo, County of Barcino, and Commune of Pisa had large Autotheist communities, as did Provence and Aquitaine. Under persecution, these groups would eventually become more exclusive and private, but still maintained their community focus.
In Italy, the Italiote Hellenes of the south, were exposed directly to both the influence of the Hephtalites and the collapse of Frankish authority. The Simeonites, a strongly dualistic sect named after one Simeon of Taranto, became prevalent there and in Sicily. The Xasars came to realize eventually that their "Rumana Dhata" lumped together Hellenes and Latins , and created a new Dhata court for the "Franks" to accommodate the local customs of northern Italy. The Xasars encouraged migration of Autotheists around the Mediterranean to Italy, and so in the north, a dual legal system evolved where, in the north, the Catholics used the "Frankish" Dhata and the Autotheists used the "Roman" Dhata. Autotheists, while tending toward insularity and quietism and thus unlikely to actually serve in the Xasars' bureaucracy, were at least trusted more by the state and were encouraged to settle near important Xasar strongholds like Heneto [Venice]. After the Votive Wars and the Division of Aquitaine, Autotheists were persecuted and seen as collaborators. Ispania, Burgundy, and Aquitaine's communities were expelled entirely; Italy's was heavily persecuted but had established deep enough roots in Northern Italy to entirely extirpate. Many of the "holy republics" that now control much of southern Italy show strong crypto-Autotheist influence, especially that of Taranto...
In Africa, Autotheism had less need to offer mutual aid (society not having collapsed as much for the Mauri...) and so in places, especially the great ports, the sect became more individualistic and almost came to resemble a social club, one with a strong religious focus to be sure but one that also had a number of "dilettantes" attracted by its reputation. The heresy was accused of sexual deviancy, Pelagianism, and Satanism, among other invective, but the Mauri had a lenient attitude toward heretics and so this sect persisted and influenced those of the later Western Med. Among the Berber, Idirism enjoyed a new life as Massunaism, named after one Massuna, a goatsherd who claimed to be the
third Son of God. This strict, iconoclastic sect was seen as too deviant to tolerate and was eventually suppressed in Africa, but would come to have strong impacts on the history of Tolteca. Massuna led his followers overseas and they eventually settled around the Moorish outpost of Vivamauri [Matamoros] north of Tolteca.
In Antillia [Cuba], the Apostolic Order had
formed a society along what they considered Autotheist principles. This society was bucolic, community-focused, strictly Latin-speaking, and over time would come to integrate the local Taino population, though never completely; still, the Taino increasingly spoke Latin and worshipped with the
Purificati while Taino customs like ball games became popular with the settlers. Taino practices like polygamy were frowned on, but tolerated. Local caciques became baptized as bishops and brought the various clans into their church. The Taino and other natives on Antillia had weathered the plagues with the Order's help and increasingly adopted European techniques.
The settlers, it turned out, would have a symbiotic relationship with the Taino. Being agrarian-focused, the settlers ironically had little love for the sea, but the New World was full of threats from that direction. The Andilander Norse launched raids from Sankt-Jan, Rothulland, and other ports-of-call. A lost Fula expedition, en route to Tolteca, landed, raided Antioch, and then after negotiations, surrendered, converted, and became a notable part of that community. Most threateningly, the raid of the Norse corsair "Black" Hakon af Island turned into an outright invasion when his pirates seized Agapia [Havana] with little resistance. He then marched on Jerusalem-Ultramar [Santiago], declaring himself "King of Antillia", pillaging the settlers' small family farms and capturing natives to sell into slavery. Ultimately, it was the Taino who were most familiar with the arts of war, and they were able drive out Black Hakon with numerical superiority and guerilla warfare. The threats from overseas only grew larger, however, and only the arrival of the Aquitainian exiles and the Mauri likely prevented them from being conquered around this time.
Over the nearly two centuries since the founding of Antillia, the island had acquired a reputation as a strange place, half wildly savage, half rigidly ordered, and all heretical. Despite occasional shiploads of immigrants, the settlers remained very isolated from European influence for quite some time, until the Votive Wars brought a new wave of persecution. Burgundian, Aquitainean, and Italian exiles came flocking to Africa, Sicily and southern Italy. They also went overseas, to New Aquitaine, but most especially, to Antillia. Despite some culture shock, the groups came to an understanding and the new arrivals brought their knowledge of naval matters and other more recent European technology to bear for the island's advantage. They maintained their commercial ties to the Mauri as well, tying the island into transoceanic trade networks for the first time. In New Aquitaine the authorities took the most token of measures to express official disapproval of Autotheism, while unofficially welcoming the (disproportionately urban and skilled) wave of European migrants. Autotheist refugees would settle heavily around Lac-Sant-Marie [Maracaibo] and would also be heavily involved in developing the Imperial Arsenal's weapons manufacturing industries.
Antillia was not the only Autotheist island. The history of Lux, home of the splinter group of Alphonsians and namesake of the Lucaias [Bahamas] has been mentioned in a
previous post. Smaller splinter groups resided on Perdition Isle [Key West] and other islands in the Lucaias. The colony at Patmos [Andros Island], founded by a crypto-Autotheist but primarily millenarian sect called the Johnites from Aquitaine, came under attack by Ispanian freebooters, who invaded the colony, expelled the settlers, and turned it into a notorious pirate haven. This haven would form the pretext for Aquitaine's eventual takeover of the islands, which would then pass to Ispanian control after the Division of Aquitaine.
In the Xasar lands, a wave of Autotheist exiles accompanied their armies' withdrawal, many of whom would be settled in Epirus and on the Dalmatian coast. Raugia [Ragusa] may be the largest Autotheist city in Europe. North of Aquitaine, Autotheism won some converts in Neustria, Brittany, and Carinthia, but made little headway in the Anglo-Norse or Germanic world. Their influence would be felt, though, on certain latter-day dissident movements that were beginning to gather steam there...
[1] I should clarify for whoever asked about it, that the Catholic and Orthodox churches of OTL never split so these guys are also "orthodox"
[2] From its status as as being ruled by an Imperial Legate
