1699 Edict of Dissolution
The Edict on the Dissolution of Heretical Institutions and the Eradication of their Legacy was passed by the Congress of Chryse on 17.III.1699 AN, receiving the assent of the High Presidium of the Benacian Union on the same day. The Edict was promulgated on 20.III.1699 AN through publication in the first edition of the Gazette of the Chryse Chronicle.
Purpose of the Edict
Academic institutions, and academia in general, had long been considered to be a breeding ground for Ayreonism that had fostered dissent and resistance to elected Humanist governments whenever they had been returned to the principate. Moreover, by controlling the indoctrination of each new generation of technical and managerial workers essential to the operation of a complex hierarchical society and modern economy, the academic institutions - of which the People's Academy of Elwynn was a prime example - contributed to a leftwards drift in society, which was especially egregious and pronounced in the metropolitan areas of Upper Elwynn where the inherently conservative Babkhi community did not live in sufficient numbers to act as a countervailing force in society. These tensions culminated in the attempted secession of Amokolia and Upper Elwynn in 1692 AN, leading on inexorably to the cataclysm that was the Scouring of 1695 AN.
The Edict directs the Magisters-Carnifex resident in the Bailiwicks of Elwynn to suppress all forms of institutional higher education, including the remnants of the People's Academy, which had survived the war. Academic and administrative personnel associated with these institutions, unless of proven loyalty demonstrated through service during the war, were to be taken into custody and executed through mass incineration at public festivals of faith to be organised throughout all the bailiwicks. The holders of doctorates, again unless of proven loyalty to the regime, were to be tortured to death as half-time entertainment in the reopened and restored fighting-pits of the north. Meanwhile graduates and post-graduates would be excluded from public office and from holding all but menial employment, unless they could secure a letter of recommendation from the municipal corporation of their bailiwick that was endorsed by the guild concerned with their profession, and obtain endorsing stamps from the representatives of the Honourable Company, the N&H, and the Union Defence Force resident in their bailiwick. Using the registers of the census and the signatures of the Covenant, the Magisters-Carnifex would maintain a list of all persons who had completed higher-education in their area of operations. Persons of interest identified on that list would then be obliged to attend at the local barracks of the Elwynnese Landstorm on every fifth day so as to give an account of their whereabouts and activities during the week.
A twelve year period of penance, commencing from 1700 AN, was laid upon all of Elwynn, during which time subjects of Elwynnese nationality would only receive a Humanist education, on the basis of that given in the UGB, up to the age of sixteen. Only those who had served to a satisfactory standard in the Humanist Vanguard could apply to study at the Benacian Academy in Chryse, if recommended by the N&H Regional Sector Party with responsibility for the autonomous county in which the applicant's bailiwick of residency was located. All other subjects, upon the completion of their primary and secondary stages of education would be apprenticed to the guilds via a public auction. Any persons rejected by the guilds would be entered into the Benacian Labour Reserve for a period of twelve years.
