Page 35 - Amo Amass A-muse is some of the fruit of a lifetimes love of Freemasonry - the Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235

ThE imPORTANCE OF RuSPiNi TO mASONiC hiSTORy

T PRESENT, MASONIC HISTORY only recognises the Chevalier
RUSPINI as the Institutor of the first of our Masonic Charities. He was
A much more than that.
Until 1777, when our Lodge was founded, the Policy of the Premier Grand Lodge
had been to destroy the rival Grand Lodge of the Antients. Ruspini was a ‘Dove’
behind the scenes who rallied those opposed to this policy; turned thoughts into the
ways of Charity and Peace; and prepared the stage for Union equal and honourable to
both Grand Lodges. He died just before its consum-mation.
On arrival in London, under the protection of the Dowager Princess of Wales, he
was appointed Dental Surgeon to the Royal Family which gave him the entree to the
Royal Circle where he became very popular. The Tory Noblemen, descended from
Jacobites, were the leading ‘Hawks’ and members of Somerset House Lodge (now
No.4) or the Lodge of Friendship (now No. 6). In 1767, he had joined the New Horn
Lodge which was renamed the Royal Lodge that year because two Royal Princes,
one being the Duke of Cumberland, had joined it. One wonders how far Ruspini
was implicated.
During the heated discussions whether to ‘Incorporate’ the Grand Lodge as a City
Company, thereby hoping to gain a monopoly of the control of London Lodges,
Ruspini led a new argument against it, stating that it would handicap foreign Masons
in England and English Masons abroad and was contrary to the principle of the
Universality of the Craft.
By 1772, Ruspini had persuaded H.R.H. the Duke of Cumberland to stand as the next
Grand Master but at the last moment he declined and, the `Doves’ being unprepared for
this, Lord Petre, a ‘Hawk’, was elected. However, in 1774, the Duke did become Patron
of the Royal Arch which the Premier Grand Lodge had refused to recognise. Lord Petre’s
last two acts as Grand Master were first to Warrant our Lodge and then to approve a Rule
prohibiting any intercourse between members of the two Constitutions.
The next Grand Master was the Duke of Manchester, a member of the Royal
Lodge, a ‘Dove’ and a Whig who had refused to raise a regiment to fight against the
American Colonists.