Molotov

The Arguin Declaration

The Holy Father in Rome currently awaits word from the explorers of the Pontifical Fleet, who have set sail for the Island of Arguin, off the coast of Mauretania on the African continent, in the Baie d'Arguin. The Holy See has, following this expedition, decided to make this "Arguin Declaration". We fear not the failure of the Papal discoverers, for while God works in mysterious ways and shall assuredly test us, we shall persevere and accomplish His will. ("Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.")

Arguin, discovered in the Year of the Lord 1443, has been settled by a host of Christian nations during the past few centuries. The Portuguese, the Dutch, the English, the French, the Brandenburgers, the Prussians, the French again, the Dutch once more, and finally the French a final time. None have stayed behind, leaving only the ruins of the Fort d'Arguin, a forlorn and crumbling stronghold. For long periods it laid abandoned, and so it has been since the Year of the Lord 1728 when the Kingdom of France left it for the last time. Now, the Consul for Life of France has ceded his nation's forgotten claim to the Island, a small deed of penance. We now claim it in the name of the Lord.

Fort coloniale à Île Arguin, 1721.

Henceforth, the Island of Arguin is to be known as the site of the Arguin Hermitage. This monastery, under the sovereign authority of the Holy See and the Roman Catholic Church, shall house a small monastic community belonging to the Ordo Camaldulensium, based from the Holy Hermitage of Camaldoli. The Camaldolese monks live according to the teachings of Saint Romuald, sleeping in individual cells but also observing a common life, worshipping daily together, and breaking bread in a communal hall. A small group of laymen from the Pontifical Fleet shall live alongside them, to maintain the now-ruined stronghold - which, once the establishment of the Hermitage is successful, no matter how long this process may take (Forgive us our sins, oh Lord), shall be converted into a fortified system of eremitic cells. The Hermitage's harbour and its facilities shall be open to all Christian travellers of every Nation of the world, according to the will of His Holiness Pius VII. Slavery within the bounds of the Hermitage shall be outlawed, the island shall be held as a neutral territory, and all volunteers to become hermits there shall be readily welcomed.

The Arguin Hermitage shall finally also be dedicated to the memory of the Order's founder, Saint Romuald, and all visitors on the 7th of February each year shall be invited to the celebration of his feast-day.

Saint Romuald, c. 951 AD - c. 19 June 1027 AD.

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• The Arguin Declaration, in short
• The Island of Arguin is claimed as the sovereign territory of the Holy See, for the purposes of founding an hermitage belonging to the Ordo Camaldulensium.
• The Consul for Life of France, whose Nation last held an internationally recognised claim to the isle, has ceded said claim to the Holy See.
• The Arguin Hermitage shall be maintained by a closed community of Camaldolese monks, who shall refurbish the local fort ruins into a sanctuary of tranquility.
• The Hermitage harbour and chapel shall be open to Christians of all Nations, for the purposes of prayer, confession, burial, baptisms, ship repairs and resupplying.
• As a Port of God, the Arguin Hermitage shall be considered neutral ground, secluded from the ways of war and strife elsewhere. Each man who raises arms within it or the grounds of its harbour shall be excommunicated, cursed in the eyes of the Lord.
• The practice of the human bondage shall not be condoned in the Hermitage, and all slaves who set foot on the isle are to be considered free subjects of God.
• Volunteers seeking to become a hermit at Arguin shall be welcomed with open arms, fed, clothed and housed, as long as their dedication seems legitimate.
• The Prior General of Camaldoli, and via him the Prior of Arguin, shall hold the authority to negotiate with local heathen and Mohammedan tribesmen and with Christian captains alike on behalf of the Papacy.

Abbé Ouvière
Apostolic Nuncio to Saint-Domingue

The Mulatto Brigadier General and Haitian Warlord known as BENOIT JOSEPH ANDRÉ RIGAUD, born on the 17th of January in the Year of Our Lord 1761 and baptised into the Roman Catholic Church, is hereby called to immediately travel to my office at Port-au-Prince or to make a holy pilgrimage to the City of Rome, to in either place answer charges regarding numerous crimes against God’s laws. Should he fail to comply with this, I shall take it upon myself to - as the sole Papal Legate on this forsaken island - immediately excommunicate Gen. Rigaud from the Church, until he has made penance for his crimes in the eyes of God Almighty.


The charges include:

• Siring six children outside of the bounds of his lawful marriage to Madame Marie Anne Villeneuve, with three separate mistresses.

• Possibly conspiring and collaborating together with the notorious heretic Romaine Rivière, also known as "Romaine-la-Prophétesse", a male Negro who led a 1791-1792 revolt during which he claimed to be possessed by and in communion with the Blessed Virgin Mary, and other heretical vodouisants.

• Instigating the ongoing conflict known as Guerre des Couteaux, pitting good Christian men against one another, leading to numerous murders and other atrocities of a most foul nature, for reasons most petty and crude.

• Above all, being complicit in the unholy murder of the Apostolic Prefect to Saint-Domingue, Père Viriot, who was apprehended by Gen. Rigaud’s soldiers during the Capture of Léogâne, sent to the City of Les Cayes in chains, kept in the dungeons for eleven days, and then publicly executed in October 1794.

THE MULATTO WARLORD ANDRÉ RIGAUD