Towards the end of January 1731 the London government received a frenzied report from Rome. Its author was a certain Baron von Stosch, a resident in the Holy city, and a personal favourite of King George II. Stosch reported that about 10 o’clock the previous Sunday he had been returning home, when suddenly his carriage had been surrounded near Prince Ruspoli’s palace by three masked assailants brandishing muskets.
    In the moonlight he could clearly see a number of ‘evil-looking men with cloaks up to their faces’ who were acting as look-outs. The assailant nearest to him took hold of the horses by the bridle and threatened to kill the coachman if he moved, while a second did the same to the footman. A third then proceeded to break the windows of the coach with the butt of his musket, wounding the startled occupant, before thrusting the muzzle of his weapon against Stosch’s chest. The terrified Baron attempted to fling himself out of the other side of the coach onto the road, but his escape was blocked by yet another masked gunman who placed a musket menacingly against his head. He held him in this position for several minutes before one, in a gruff Italian accent warned, ‘If you do not leave Rome within eight days you are a dead man.’With that the spectrelike figures withdrew into the night, allowing the coach and its startled occupant to continue on its way.
    Within days the terrified Baron had fled the holy city and was on the road north, unaware that he would never see his beloved Rome again. After an arduous journey due to heavy snow falls, Stosch arrived in Florence where he immediately set about contacting London. Upon receipt of the communiqué the British Secretary of State, the Duke of Newcastle, was infuriated and responded by lodging a protest with the Holy See. But why did the London government take such an interest in his plight, and who exactly was Stosch?

Baron von Stosch

Baron Philip von Stosch was born in Brandenburg in 1691 and was a trusted agent of King George II. He had already worked as a spy in the pay of the Dutch when, in the early 1720s, he was sent by his new British handlers to spy in Rome, where he was to watch the exiled court of the Old Pretender and claimant to the British throne, James Stuart. Acting under the alias John Walton he quickly found himself on good terms with the Pope, and struck up a friendship with the Pope’s nephew.
    However in 1730 the Papal throne fell vacant and came to be occupied by Pope Clement XII, who was sympathetic to the Stuart cause, and soon afterwards Stosch was attacked. His immediate protests to the Pope’s brother and Governor of Rome, Cardinal Corsini, elicited little response and he reluctantly decided to relocate his shadowy operations in Florence. He was now acutely aware that his career as a favoured London informant might be at an end, for gathering intelligence on the Pretender’s court would be problematic from such a distance. He made desperate attempts to keep in vogue with his London paymasters and even showered gifts on the Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole.
    That, one might think, was where the story ended, except that Stosch was about to make history. Having re-established himself, Stosch and a number of British notables, helped to found Florence’s first masonic lodge. Precise details concerning its foundation are somewhat sketchy, although it is known that the first Tuscan native, Doctor Antonio Cocchi, was initiated on 4 August 1732. Stosch later recorded:

Mylord Earl of Middlesex, one of the most learned British noblemen, was in Florence and founded a Lodge of Freemasons in Florence, and I was accepted with the usual ceremonies as a member of this respectable society...

Intriguingly, a medal was struck to commemorate the foundation of the lodge, which is the earliest known masonic breast jewel and is inscribed with the name of the founding Master, Charles Sackville, Earl of Middlesex, and dated ‘1733’. The lodge itself met in the Via Maggio, and in time many distinguished Florentines joined, including two Augustinian friars. Other notables of the lodge are known to have included the future Grand Master of England, Lord Raymond, Henry Fox (father of the radical Charles James Fox), and most notably the British spymaster in Florence, Sir Horace Mann.

Freemasonry itself under suspicion

Ironically, it was soon after Stosch’s resettlement in Florence, that Freemsonry itself fell under an unwelcome spotlight. In November 1735 the Protestant government in Holland outlawed the Craft, and three months later the society had attracted the attention of the Inquisitor in Bologna. In the opening months of 1737 the French government also prohibited all masonic gatherings, and on 12 June the same year the Minister of the Italian Republic of Lucca, then resident in Florence, announced that two Papal Inquisitors were going to open an investigation. Four days later the same Minister confirmed that the lodge in Florence was frequented by nobles, ecclesiastics, townsmen and intellectuals, having been founded several years before by ‘Milord Mildesses’ [Middlesex], and a certain ‘Baron Stosch’ who, he added, was the real danger in Florence. The inquisitors took little time to deliberate and at a meeting held in Rome on 25 June 1737 Freemasonry was roundly condemned.
    On 9 July 1737 matters were further complicated when the Grand Duke of Tuscany died without an heir, and was succeeded by Francis Duke of Lorraine who was also a Freemason. The fact that he had been made a master mason at the country seat of the British Prime Minister Sir Robert Walpole, along with the British Secretary of State, the Duke of Newcastle, who had so staunchly defended Stosch after his attack, was not destined to calm the rising fears of the ecclesiastical authorities. A week later the Ambassador of the Republic of Lucca filed a report in which he announced ‘Word is sent that the Duke of Lorraine is a Freemason, belonging, with several other Florentine patricians, to the group of English Freemasons.’ He added that, ordinarily this ‘old-established group’ was not really worth worrying about, but it appeared to be evolving into something quite different in Florence and further measures might well become necessary to stem its activities.
    Such measures were not long in coming for on 24 April 1738 Pope Clement XII issued his Bull against Freemasonry which prohibited the order on pain of excommunication, and in the Papal States membership was even punishable by death. The main reason cited for the prohibition was the secrecy of the lodges. However, correspondence of the Pope’s own brother, Cardinal Corsini, reveals a far more likely reason. In a letter written in the wake of the Bull the Cardinal stressed how he realised Freemasonry in England was merely an ‘innocent amusement’, but added that in Florence it had ‘degenerated’ into a ‘school of ungodliness’ and clearly identified Stosch as the main culprit for this degeneration. A British newspaper also added that the Stuart Pretender ‘had lately had an audience’ with the Pope in which Freemasonry had been discussed. Both parties were evidently concerned that Stosch was using masonry as a cover for espionage and therefore, rather than risk the betrayal of any Jacobite secrets, they simply decided to ban Freemasonry altogether.
    The Duke of Lorraine, now the Duke of Tuscany, suddenly found himself in a highly precarious situation. He did not wish to offend London as most of the Tuscan State revenue consisted of taxes paid by British resident merchants there, and yet he also knew he had to avoid offending the Papacy. After much consideration he finally succumbed. On 27 April 1739, he outlawed Freemasonry and signed the expulsion order on Baron von Stosch, before informing Cardinal Corsini of his actions. Yet before the order could be carried out the Duke was approached by Sir Horace Mann, who urged him to write to his fellow mason, the Duke of Newcastle. This he did, and informed Newcastle that he had slightly relaxed the order and would allow Stosch a week’s grace. Then later the same day, the Duke of Lorraine left Florence never to return. Before long Horace Mann deftly engineered a suspension on Stosch’s banishment and a week’s grace was extended to an indefinite period. Accordingly Stosch continued to reside in Florence until his death in 1757.
    For more than two centuries successive Pontiffs upheld the ban on the craft. However today the Vatican has adopted a more tolerant stance towards ‘regular’ Freemasonry, and the current edition of the Code of Canon Law, released in 1984, tellingly makes no mention of the subject. Yet despite the improved relations there remains widespread puzzlement as to why such a ban should have been promulgated in the first place, and many have assumed that it was based purely on theological grounds, when in fact it probably had far more to do with the secret machinations of the exiled Stuarts than has hitherto been realised.

© Matthew Scanlan, 2003.

Matthew Scanlon MA is a member of the Duke of Wharton Research Lodge, No. 18, Barcelona, and the Centro Estudios Historicos de la Masoneria Española, Zaragoza. He was editor of The Canonbury Papers and is currently completing a book on the origins of Freemasonry.