Page 12 - The Early History of The Lodge of Nine Muses No. 235. UGLE

12 The Early History - Lodge of the Nine Muses

Portuguese noblemen who joined or were made in the Lodge and helps to clarify
why no Frenchman, royalist or republican, was ever a member of the Lodge, unless
H. E. General F. A. P. de Paoli, who liberated his island of Corsica from the Genoese
and turned out the Bonaparte family, be considered one. 11
The final accolade and perhaps the most indisputable testimony to Ruspini’s
character must surely be “The order of Knighthood and dignity of a Count of the
sacred Palace of the Lateran, Chevalier of the Golden Spur.” This was a Papal honour
bestowed upon him in 1789, in spite of the fact that he had deserted the Catholic
Faith upon his marriage in 1767, “In recognition of his well known benevolence and
hospitality to foreigners, distinguished and inpecunious alike.” This is the only known
instance of a Papal honour being conferred upon an Anglican and a Freemason. At
his death R.W.Bro. the Rev. William Peters, Grand Portrait Painter and Provincial
Grand Master for Lincolnshire, wrote of him “His life has been one continuous series
of kind and friendly actions”.
One wonders whether Ruspini’s Coat of Arms, registered with the English Court
of Heralds when he received his Papal Honour, was not emblematical of his personal
concern. It has only recently been discovered that these arms were entirely new and
nothing to do with his Italian origin.

His shield bore two Lions climbing the same tree.
His motto was ‘Deo et Amicis.’ {For God and Friends.)
His crest was a Dove bearing an Olive Branch.

As he died only a week before the Union, could the new emblem for a Deacon have
been introduced in his memory?

11 Initiated in the Lodge of the Nine Muses, 15 June, 1778. Dr. Johnson had
something to say about him.