Cagliostro in Rome 1789-90

Much more concrete than Rohan's supposed links with Freemasonry and his knowledge of Cagliostro, but also far from exhaustive, are the sources dealing with Cagliostro's activities in Rome in the summer and autumn of 1789. It did not take long for Cagliostro to become the centre of secret seances held in Villa Malta on the Aventine. (1) Bailliffs de Brillane, de Loras, and Antinori also attended the meetings of the Egyptian Lodge which Cagliostro had established secretly in Rome. (2) According to this rite, emphasis was laid not only on the traditional feast-day of St John the Baptist, as in various rites of traditional Freemasonry, but also on the cult of St John the Evangelist. For a time it really seemed that Cagliostro was trying to adapt his lodges in Rome to a more or less orthodox Catholic religion with the rather utopian intention of getting them acknowledged as real religious Orders, like the Order of St John or the Teutonic Order.

Although at first the Conte tried his utmost to work in secret, some of his prophecies and sermons during the Lodge's seances and meetings were soon spread around. In fact, there is a remarkable difference between his former activities in France and Germany and his actions in Rome. In spite of suggestions by Loras and Maisonneuve, Cagliostro hesitated to associate the lodge more closely with the 'Les Amis Sinceres' Lodge, which included mostly French diplomats, students, and artists living in Rome. When Loras, who had arrived in Rome at the end of 1788, (3) invited him to attend the solemn gathering of the French lodge on the anniversary of the nativity of Saint John the Baptist, Cagliostro refused, (4) for reasons one can only speculate about. Was he eager not to lose the reputation and exclusivity of his own lodge or was he simply afraid of the spies of the Holy Office and therefore tried not to get involved too much? However, he still attended seances and spiritistic meetings. In late eighteenth-century Rome, Cagliostro's prophecies about the fall of the Bastille and about the pontificate of Pius VI being the last one could not have been kept secret. Cagliostro was particulary considered suspicious and dangerous owing to his perceived involvement with the Illuminists and Freemasonry. As soon as the Inquisition in Rome got notice of his stay, it started to investigate.

Cagliostro's efforts to establish contacts with members of the Order seem to have found a ready response. An interesting and often quoted letter by Cagliostro's friend Charles Abel de Loras to Grand Master Rohan, dated June 1789, indicates that Cagliostro really wanted to settle in Malta:

'. . . Count Cagliostro has been here for a couple of days. I have renewed my company with him and now I am so familiar with him that he will certainly share secrets with me he won't definitely tell to anyone else. Besides his knowledge of chemistry which is the base of his learning, he is a Freemason of all grades and founder of a rite which unifies all secrets in itself. The mother lodge of this system is in Lyon. She seems very generous, distributing considerable resources to her daughter lodges, allowing every member only what he himself achieves, and providing them with a good pension. This extraordinary man, tired of a vagabond life and persuaded by my suggestion, would be quite ready to settle in Malta for the rest of his life, if Your Highness deigned to promise him free asylum and the protection of Your government. No expense would be incurred on his behalf This proposal seems to me honourable as well as useful. Therefore I did not hesitate to communicate this secret to you. (5)

Grand Master Rohan must have certainly known about Cagliostro's mysterious role in the famous affair of Marie Antoinette's diamond necklace, particularly since his relative, Cardinal Louis de Rohan, had been a chief victim. Moreover the Grand Master was already in considerable embarrassment owing to his relationship with the Curia because of his 'enlightened' Avvocato del Principato, Dr Gio. Niccolo Muscat, (6) and knew very well the consequences of hosting such a persona non grata and demurred with an answer. It is questionable whether Cagliostro really intended to settle in tiny Malta, a place much too limited and restricted for Cagliostro's 'business', or did Loras exaggerate, gratified as he was by his friendship with such an 'extraordinary man'? Or was Cagliostro just trying to keep several options open? At the same time as Loras was writing to Malta, Cagliostro's secretary, the Capuchin Francois Joseph, drafted a Memoriale to Paris on behalf of his master:

'With the admiration and love that he felt for the French nation and the respect for its legislations and august representatives, Alexander de Cagliostro ventured to submit to the Assembly in Paris, which was striving to restore their liberty to the French people and its original splendour to the first kingdom in the world, that he desired to be allowed to return and pass the rest of his days in a country whose glory and welfare had always been dear to his heart.' (7)

Whatever Cagliostro's real intentions, his close relationship with Bailliff Charles Abel de Loras - until 1787 Rohan's secretary and still a very close advisor of the Grand Master - was becoming more and more unbearable. Cagliostro openly cultivated this friendship and, in his letters to European dignitaries, referred to the Baillif as his 'figlio Loras'. (8) In his role of 'Grand Kophta' of his lodge and making full use of his contacts, Cagliostro went so far as to promote Loras as the next ambassador of the Order in Rome. (9) The Order's ambassador in Rome, Bailliff Brillane, also frequented Cagliostro's seances. That Brillane should be removed from his post because of the bad service he was giving was an open secret. Although Loras had a supporter in Cardinal de Bemis, the influential French ambassador in Rome, Pope Pius VI opposed Loras' appointment as the Order's ambassador in Rome, according to what Cardinal de Bemis wrote to the French ministre des affaires etrangeres Armand-Marc Comte de Montmorin-Saint-Heren (1750-92) in Paris.

Pius VI favoured Prince Camille de Roban as the Order's new ambassador, even though it is likely that he knew that the Prince was also a Freemason. When Grand Master Rohan finally proposed, Prince Camille as ambassador to Rome, Cardinal Bemis wrote to the Comte de Montmorin in Paris: 'Since it is so, it would be useless for M. de Loras to try and enlist the support of all the European governments in his favour. But he will remain, for a while, in Rome, to watch developments and try to get round Prince Camille.' (10) It was only when he realized that he could not manage to change the situation by interceding with Grand Master Rohan, Pius VI, or de Bemis, that he consulted his friend Cagliostro. The latter still felt powerful enough to write to Grand Master Rohan's nephew, the Cardinal Louis de Rohan in Strasbourg:

'Be assured that the interest of your family and the happiness of Prince Camille himself are bound up with the execution of the explicit and formal order we are giving you to use all your power and influence in this cause. Compel Prince Camille therefore to do all that is necessary to secure the appointment of our son de Loras in his place.' (11)

This intrusion into the internal affairs of the Order not only brought antipathy against Cagliostro himself but weakened de Loras's position.

The events of the French Revolution in the summer of 1789 and the resultant social upheaval greatly alarmed the Curia and the Inquisition in Rome. A considerable number of French refugees, noblemen, and members of the bourgeoisie, some of them Freemasons, also came to Rome. Many of them were of 'suspicious' political and religious character and the situation in Italy got more and more tense. Not a few of them later proceeded to Malta.

The Roman Inquisition soon turned on Freemasons, Illuminists, and freethinkers of all kinds. Even slight 'connections' and friendships caused various intellectuals and dignitaries to be investigated. On 27 December 1789 the French Academy near Santa Trinita dei Monti was the object of a raid. For a long time the Inquisition had suspected the Academy as the centre of a lodge ('Les Amis Sinceres') mostly frequented by French students. The head and mastermind of this lodge was the French painter Augustine Louis Belle. Upon interrogation, Belle reported that his lodge was in close contact with other lodges in Paris, Naples, and Malta. Indeed it was known in Rome that various members of this lodge were also members of the newly-erected 'Secret et Harmonie' Lodge in Malta, as can be confirmed by contemporary monographs on Cagliostro. (12) Also known was the exchange of letters between Rome and Malta concerning matters relative to Freemasonry. (13) Among the papers and documents found in Belle's position there was a letter to the Malta lodge with the address M. le bailli de Loras, marechal de L'Ordre'. (14)

The Curia ordered Monsignor Ranucci, the governor of Rome, to arrest Cagliostro. It is not known if it was Belle who indicated where Cagliostro could be found. Cagliostro was captured and arrested that same night, (15) together with his personal secretary Father Francois Joseph, a Capuchin monk of the convent of the Marais in Paris and a native of Saint Maurice, Switzerland. Before he took holy orders, he had been known as Hyacinthe Antoine Roulier. Cagliostro and Father Francois Joseph were imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo. By order of the Pope, Cagliostro's wife was confined to the monastery of Santa Appolonia. Serafina's comments about her husband would subsequently figure very prominently in the accusations against Cagliostro. Letters implicating de Loras and other knights were not only found at Belle's but also in the possession of Cagliostro and of his secretary. Cagliostro's various letters to Cardinal Louis de Rohan, the correspondence with the lodge of Lyon, as well as two letters by Baillif Loras to Cardinal Bemis and by Cardinal Rohan to Cagliostro would all form part of the material used in the Cagliostro trial the following year. (16)

The news of the imprisonment of other persons and new and far-reaching investigations brought quite a few knights of the Order - especially those 'partisans deLoras' (17) - to discredit. (18) The Cagliostro affair came like a bolt out of the blue and all of a sudden many of these 'subterranean cellars and cloaks of culture and society', as Goethe put it, were brought into the light. An eyewitness, the Frenchman de Pisancon, in a communcation to his friend Deodat Dolomieu, described how this affair 'drew the attention of the whole city of Rome' from the very beginning. (19)

Even men of letters and intellectuals, like the poet and author Carlo Castone Torre de Rezzonico who only had loose connections with Cagliostro's circles, ended up being prosecuted. (20) Cagliostro and Rezzonico had first met in Trento in December 1788. (21) Rezzonico was named by Cagliostro in his trial as one of his followers, a declaration which ultimately ruined Rezzonico's career. Later, in an attempt to get away from Italy, Rezzonico, who had met Grand Master Rohan at the court of Parma in 1756, applied to become a member of the Order and travelled to Malta in 1793. (22)

On 30 December Cardinal Bemis informed the Comte de Montmorin:

'Three days ago Count Cagliostro and his wife were arrested and taken, the one to the Chateau St. Ange and the other to a convent. The charlatan, who is more celebrated than he deserves to be, was permitted to enter Rome, last spring, at the keen solicitation of the Archbishop of Trente (sic). Little is being said about his activities here. But it is alleged that he has been holding secret Masonic meetings, which are proscribed by a bull of Benedict XIV, and that, at these meetings, he thought to introduce, by means of superstitious ceremonies, the ideas of the German and Dutch sect of Illuminists.' (23)

Presumably asked by Loras to use his influence to help in this case, (24) Cardinal Bemis concluded otherwise: 'It would be very imprudent of me to interfere directly or indirectly in the affairs of Cagliostro, and his confident, Father Joseph.' (25)

That this affair was watched carefully by European diplomats is not surprising. The position of Cagliostro's intimate friend, the Baillif de Loras, by now must have appeared especially shaky. On 2 January 1790 Loras dispatched a letter of apology to Grand Master Rohan. (26) However, the situation in Rome remained tense and uncertain. In February 1790 Comte de Montmorin wrote to Cardinal Bernis: 'I will not be surprised if Baillif de Loras will be caught in the trap of the Cagliostro case.' (27)

Another man who watched the developments in Rome very carefully was the natural scientist, traveller, author, and former knight, Deodat de Dolomieu (1750-1801). (28) Dolomieu had met Cagliostro personally in Rome in the autumn of 1789 and he was not fascinated by the man at all. The rational anti-mystical Dolomieu described Cagliostro as one of the most mediocre charlatans be ever had encountered: 'A man without esprit, without culture and rhetorical abilities. It is unbelievable how a man like him could play such an important role and could have so many followers.' (29)

Although Loras and Dolomieu were both Freemasons, they had been bitter enemies for many years. In fact, they broadly represented the two parties of the new generation of knights. Loras still kept to the aristocratic and elitist way of thought, while Dolomieu's political tendencies clearly favoured anti-clericalism, a constitutional monarchy, and theocracy. Their moral and political positions were profoundly contrasting. Even while still a knight of the Order in the 1770s and early 1780s, Dolomieu had been the decisive force in the Club de Feuillants, a group which favoured a constitutional monarchy. Dolomieu left Malta and the Order after being accused of conspiring against the Order (30) but retained an interest in the internal affairs of Hospitaller Malta.

Only two days after Cagliostro's imprisonment, Dolomieu delightedly wrote to the Sicilian scholar and antiquarian Cavaliere Gioeni: 'Cagliostro has been imprisoned because he and his assistant, a Capuchin, had tried to set up the sect of the Illuminists in Rome. It is said that they elected Baillif Loras as the head of the branch.' (31)

However, here Dolomieu is not correct. Like many others, Dolomieu jumped on the rumour that Cagliostro tried to install himself as the head of the Order of the Illuminists. Those rumours have been accepted uncritically by various modern writers: 'It is quite certain that Cagliostro was connected with the Illuminis and financed by them. The nature of the connection is not so clear.' (32)

Only a few months after Cagliostro's imprisonment a real Illuminist, the German J. Johann Christoph Bode (1730-93), refuted this theory in an anonymous treatise.

There is no documented proof of any deep involvement by  Cagliostro and Baillif Loras in the movement of the Illuminists. (33) This subject had already been discussed in the Essai sur la secte des Illumines (Paris, 1789) by the Marquis de Luchet. On 9 January 1790 Loras, in a letter to Cardinal Zelada, bitterly accused his 'enemy' Dolomieu of blackmailing him and of dragging him deeper into the affair. (34) In this letter Loras tried to style himself as someone who had hardly had any contact with Cagliostro and his main follower, the notorious Marquis Vivaldi. Despite 'all his efforts, Loras could not stop the rumours and attempts at blackmail. This mixture of fact and fiction around Cagliostro, Marquis Vivaldi, and Loras soon reached Malta. Even the well-informed Doublet, the secretary of grand master, believed that Cagliostro, Vivaldi, and Loras were engaged in practising the rites of the Illuminists. (35) At around the same time Cardinal Bemis wrote to the Comte de Montmorin about this affair:

'The Tribunal of the Holy Office is still making inquiries with a view to discovering if Cagliostro was not the head of this sect of Illuminists who are beginning to cause disquiet to the authorities here. It is said that a document has been found among Cagliostro's papers, announcing that Pius VI would be the last pope and that the Church would be deprived of her territories.' (36)

It was obvious that Loras's position was becoming more and more difficult. He had tried his utmost to obtain support from Cardinals Bemis and Zelada, both persons highly influential in the state affairs of France, as well as in the Curia. (37) He also tried to convince Zelada to speak on his behalf to the Pope and to hand over some of his letters to the Holy Father. (38) When Loras turned to Bemis, he was advised to exculpate himself before the Cardinal Secretary of State. Finally, in March 1790, before Cagliostro's trial really started, Loras left Rome. Dolomieu commented:

'The Cagliostro affair is going on ... Baillif Loras is surely involved in this affair. This relationship between Cagliostro and the Capuchin and Loras up to now could only be guessed at; now the papers found at Cagliostro's and at Loras' confirm it. One says that it is only out of respect towards the Order of St John that he has not been imprisoned yet. But doubtlessly he will be put in prison further on during the trial.' (39)

Obviously Dolomieu wished to have his old enemy and his friends imprisoned or removed from the political scene by all means. A few days later he communicated to his friend Gioeni, then in Naples, the latest news from Rome:

'I am very curious as to what is circulating in Naples about Baillif Loras. We know that he was refused a passport to travel to Naples. He went in public to testify that the refusal of this passport is unjustified. This week he is set to depart for Malta. The Pope has refused him a last audience.' (40)

Dolomieu's personal 'triumph', however, turned into disappointment when he found out that, owing to his influential friends in the Order and in Naples, Loras' career did not come to an end at all. At the beginning of April Dolomieu received fresh information from Gioeni about Loras' plans to travel to Malta. He replied: 'I am extremely surprised to hear that when in Naples Baillif Loras showed himself in public. This appears to me as an enigma since, as I have told you, it is sure that in Rome he was refused a passport to travel.' (41) As far as the involvement of members of the Order of St John was involved, the outcome of Cagliostro's trial would prove even more 'disappointing'.

The tribunal of the 'Cagliostro case' was presided over by Cardinal Zelada, the secretary of state, and consisted of Cardinals Ranucci, Pallotto, and Antonelli, and the governor of Rome, Campanelli. The trial began on 4 May 1790 and ended on 12 November. It cannot be said that the prosecutors did not work carefully and scrupulously. Besides the chaplain of the Order of St John, 'Sig.re Avvocato Onorato Bres', even Giovanni Modo, the cook, and a certain Romolo Allegati, a servant of Loras', were summoned as witnesses. (42) As mentioned above, Loras himself had very wisely left for Malta in March of the -year before the trial. Cagliostro had to appear in 43 sessions. He was first given a death sentence but it was later commuted to life imprisonment. However, the papers which Dolomieu hoped would be revealed by the Inquisition and damage the careers of Loras and his friends were never really used nor even presented. This aspect of the Cagliostro case was closed very discretely. No knight was involved in the trial; the only member of the Order who was summoned as a special witness, 'reo prevenuto, indi rispettivo denunciato', was the young chaplain Onorato Bres. (43)

That the documents of the Cagliostro trial were doctored and filtered has already been indicated by Goethe. (44) It is also interesting that Marcello's Compendio edited out Cagliostro's contacts with the knights of St John in Rome and carefully eliminated the relevant passages of the minutes of the trial. What the Compendio mentions is the encounter between Cagliostro and Baron de Breteuil in Rome in 1768. (45) In the long run Loras' career was not damaged and, as in the so-called 'Processo Lante' (46) in 1776, Grand Master Rohan kept both his eyes closed concerning the involvement of the knights in Freemasonry and mysticism.

Cagliostro was kept in prison for the rest of his lifetime. In April 1791 he was transferred to the prison of San Leo near Forli. The circurnstances of his death on 26 August 1795 are still not completely clear. According to official documents, he died of apoplexy, but a recently-published manuscript states that a Capuchin monk killed Cagliostro when the latter attempted to escape from prison. (47)

A deeper investigation of the case of Cagliostro and his Malta connections should start by the review of the protocols and minutes of Cagliostro's interrogation by the Inquisition in 1790 in Rome. Unfortunately the file 'Raccolta di scritture legali riguardanti il processo di Giuseppe Balsamo detto Alessandro Conte di Cagliostro e di P. Francesco Giuseppe da S. Maurizio Capuccino, inanzi al Tribunale del S. Uffizio di Roma' which is preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale Vittorio Emanuele di Roma (48) is not complete. In particular some references about Cagliostro's contacts with the Order of St John seem to be missing. During his interrogations Cagliostro changed his previous versions of the circumstances of his life and recanted confessions about his intentions. Some of these changes might have been caused by pressure and the use of torture. However, as far as his 'Maltese' origin was concerned, he stuck to his old version. During the trial he kept saying that he was most presumably descended from noble and 'Maltese' forebears.

As has already been mentioned, the documents which were read during the public audience - the 'Compendio della vita e delli gesti di Giuseppe Balsamo, il denominato Conte Alessandro Cagliostro' - today form part of the manuscripts and minutes of the trial preserved in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Rome. In 1791 it was edited and published by the Jesuit Father Marcello. Because of the tremendous international interest they generated, they were soon translated and published in French, English, German, Dutch, and Russian. Most of the rumours about Cagliostro's 'Maltese' connections can be traced to the 'Compendio'.

By now it was generally agreed that the Sicilian impostor and charlatan and the Conte Alessandro Cagliostro were one and the same person. It was also generally accepted that Cagliostro was not the legendary head of the Illuminists and he was not that almighty master of spiritism he had styled himself to be in previous years. The stories Cagliostro recounted in court were adventurous enough to keep the interest in his person alive.

Although Cagliostro was condemned to life imprisonment at San Leo, his memory lived on in Malta. In the National Library of Malta there are various, mostly anonymous,, contemporary manuscripts about Freemasonry and Cagliostro. For example, there is no doubt that the anti-Masonic essay Reflections, written in May 1792, is attacking Cagliostro when it speaks about 'Le Magnetiseur, le Grand Cophte' and 'L'Egiptien'. (49) On the other hand, there are also pro-Masonic writings. It was most presumably a member of the 'Secret et Harmonie' Lodge who wrote the poem 'Apologie des francmacons' also preserved in the same library. (50)

For More on Cagliostro continue to P 5 of  Russian Masonry.

Cagliostro Theosophical Charlatan P.1

Cagliostro Theosophical Charlatan P.2

Cagliostro Theosophical Charlatan P.3

Cagliostro Theosophical Charlatan P.4

Bibliography
 

 

(1) Cf. E. Silvagni, La Corte e la Socieni Romana nei secoli XVIII e XIX (Florence, 1891), Vol. I and Oppeln-Bronikowski, 12.

(2) 'Cagliostro still had followers in the Order of Malta, including Commander de Maisonneuve and the lawyer Brest (sic). But de Loras was to introduce to him a proselyte of quite a different type. . .', Photiades, 250. For the members of the Order of St John in the circle around Cagliostro in Rome, cf. the not always reliable Dumas, 254-8, 264 et seq., 273.

(3) For Loras in Rome, cf. also Petraccone, 115 et seq.

(4) Cf. Photiades, 248.

(5) English translation from the French original in NLM, AOM MS. 124 1, ff. 24 et seq.; letter from Loras to Rohan from 16 June 1789. ('Nous avons ici depuis quelques jours le celebre Cagliostro .... La loge principale dece sistime est a Lyon.... Cette proposition ... paru honnete et susceptible de procurer quelque utilite, au moyen de quoi je me suis charge avec empressement de vous la presenter au secret en vous suppliant de me donner des ordres . . .') Excerpts of this letter are published by Engel, L' Ordre de Malte en Mediterranee, 247 and Cavaliero, 179.

(6) Cf. in detail Francis Ciappara, 'Gio Niccolb Muscat: Church-State Relations in Hospitaller Malta during the Enlightenment, 1786-1793' in Victor Mallia-Milanes (ed.), Studies on Early Modern Malta and the Order of St John of Jerusalem (Malta, 1993), 605-58.

(7) BNVER, Fondo Vittorio Em. MS. 245,'Raccolta. . .', XXII 'Documenti allegati relativi al processo di Cagliostro e del Padre Francesco Giuseppe da S. Maurizio', 5. 'Memoriale di Cagliostro all' Assemblea di Francia.'; English version quoted from Photiades, 25 1.

(8) Letter from Cagliostro in Rome to Cardinal Louis de Rohan, BNVER, Fondo Vittorio. Em. MS. 245 'Raccolta . . .', XXII 'Documenti allegati relativi al processo di Cagliostro e del Padre Francesco Giuseppe da S. Maurizio'; 2 Tettera di Cagliostro al Cardinal di Rohan scritta da Roma nel Novembre 1789'.

(9) Made known by Cavaliero, 180.

(10) Here quoted from Photiades, 25 1.

(11) BNVER, Fondo Vittorio Em. MS. 245, 'Raccolta. . .', Y-XII; Tocumenti allegati relativi al processo di Cagliostro e del Padre Francesco Giuseppe da S. Maurizio'; 2. 'Lettera di Cagliostro al Cardinal di Rohan scritta da Roma nel Novembre 1789,' here English translation quoted from Photiades, 251. Tle Italian original is printed in full in Petraccone, Appendice III, 220: '. . . In virtii dunque di questa medesima autorita noi vogliamo, ordiniamo e diciamo che il Ball di Loras nostro Figlio legittimo sia Ambasciatore dell'Ordine rispettabile di Malta presso la Corte di Roma, senza che vi sia alcun concorso, ne opposizione, ne pratica contrariaperparte del Principe Camillo, ne che Egli aderisca direttamente o indirettamente ad alcun partito opposto al d. Bali di Loras. Noi lo vedremo colla. maggior soddisfazione che si unisca egualmente che Voi all'essecuzione dei nostri voti.... Siate persuaso che il bene della vostra famiglia, quello anche del Principe Camillo e congiunto all'Ordine formale et expresso che Noi vi diamo, di porre in opera tutto cio che dipendera da voi per quest'effetto. Obligate dunque il d. Principe Camillo ad agire ed operare egli stesso per far mettere e sostituire in suo luogo il d.Figlio di Loras. . . .'

(12) Cf. Giovanni Barberi, 'Leben und Taten des Joseph Balsamo, sogenannten Grafen Cagliostro', chapter 'Kurzer Begriff der Maeurerei ueberhaupt, und vollstaendige Schilderung der aegyptischen Maeurerei here quoted from Kiefer, 456-606, here 598.

(13) Cf. ibid., 600.

(14) Cf. in detail Caywood, 71-95.

(15) The decree of Cagliostro's imprisonment was issued 'la mattina del 27'. Cf. Petraccone, 162 et seq.

(16) Cf. BNVER, Fondo Vittorio Em. MS. 245, Y-XH 'Documenti allegati relativi al processo di Cagliostro e del Padre Francesco Giuseppe da S. Maurizio', 2. 'Lettera di Cagliostro al Cardinal di Rohan scritta da Roma nel Novembre 1789', 3. 'Lettera corrispondente all' antecedente del P. Capuccino al sudetto Cardinale di Rohan' 8. 'Lettera del Cardinale di Rohana Cagliostro', 10. 'Altra lettera del Cardinale di Rohan a Cagliostro', 14. 'Lettera della Loggia di Lione a Cagliostro', 15. 'Altra lettera a Cagliostro da Lione', 16.'Altra lettera a Cagliostro da Lione', 25 'Lettera del Baly de Loras al Cardinale de Bernis', XXIX 'Lettera scritta. da Baly de Loras (?) al Cardinale de Bernis (?) per scolparsi da accuse mossegli da Cagliostro nei suoi interrogatori'.

(17) Cf. Letter by Deodat de Dolomieu to Cavaliere Gioeni, dated 30 December 1789, printed in A. Lacroix Deodat Dolomieu (Paris, 192 1), i, 228 et seq.

(18) Cf. BNVER, Fondo Vittorio Em. MS. 245, 'Raccolta. . .', XIII, 'Relazione della loggia de' Liberi Muratori di Roma' and XIV, 'Catalogo de' Liberi Muratori che hanno avuto parte nella loggia di Roma'.

(19) Cf. Letter of Deodat de Dolomieu to Cavaliere Gioeni, dated 30 December 1789, in Lacroix, i, 228 et seq.

(20) Cf. D'Amato, 87 et seq.

(21) Cf. ibid.

(22) Cf. in detail Joseph Eynaud (ed.), Carlo Castone della Torre di Rezzonico. Viaggio a Malta: anno 1793 (Malta, 1989).

(23) English version quoted from Photiades, 254.

(24) Cf. BNVER, Fondo Vittorio Em. MS. 245 XXIX 'Lettera scritta da Baly de Loras (?) al Cardinale de Bemis (?) per scolparsi da accuse mossegli de Cagliostro nei suoi interrogatori'.

(25) Photiades, 255.

(26) Cf NLM, AOM MS. 1241, f. 33r.

(27) 'Je ne suis point surpris que le Bailli de Loras soit tombe dans les piege de Cagliostro', letter dated 9 February 1790. Here quoted from A. de Montaignon; J. Giffy (ed), Correspondence des Directeurs de L'Acadimie francaise a Rome (Paris, n. y.), xv, 387.

(28) For life and times of Diedonne Sylvian Guy Tancred de Gratet de Dolomieu, cf. A. Lacroix, Notice sur Deodat de Dolomieu (Paris, 1918) and id., Deodat de Dolomieu.

(29) 'On continue le proces de Cagliostro, il se fait dans le plus grand secret, de maniere qu'on ne sait pas quels sont ses crimes. Mais il est certain que c'est un des plus charlatans que j'aie connu. Sans esprit, sons connaissances, sans eloquence, il est inconcevable qu'un pareil homme ait pujouer un role et se faire des partisans; tant il est vrai que le seul ton d'impudence suffit pour en imposer au vulgaire.' Letter from Dolomieu to Friedrich Muenter, dated Rome 5 June 1790. Here quoted from Lacroix, Deodat de Dolomieu, i, 244.

(30) Cf. a letter by Loras in Rome to Grand Master Rohan, dated 16 February 1790, headed by the remark 'secrets importants'. Here Loras, although still involved in the Cagliostro affair, accused Dolomieu and other members of the Order of planning a secret conspiracy, NLM, AOM MS. 1241, f. 34r-35r.

31) Cf. the French original: 'Mon ami.... le M. de Pisancon pourra vous donner les details concernant le fameux. Cagliostro qui a ete arrete pour avoir essaye d'introduire a Rome la secte des Illumines; un capucin etait son associe et lui servait de secretaire. Ils avaient, dit-on, mis a leur tete et reconnu pour leur chef le bailli de Loras. Si ce dernier n'est pas encore arrete, c'est par egard pour I'Ordre, mais on croit qu'on ne tardera pas a lui faire partager la prison de ses intimes. Le Gouvernement ne le perd pas de vue, et on croit que s'il voulait se sauver, on l'en empecherait. C'est donc ainsi que doivent finir tous les plats intrigants, et ceux qui les out proteges doivent etre bien honteux. Un marquis Vivaldi qui etait compromis dans cette meme affaire a pu s'echapper. Cet evenement occupe toute la ville, et surement, il fournira aux conversations de Naples. Le nombre des gens impliques dans cette affaire sera peut-etre tres grand. Vous devez croire que je n'en suis pas fache. On connaitra enfin ce qu'etaient mes adversaires. Les partisans de Loras apprendront a quel homme ils ont fait prodiguer les faveurs de la Cour de Naples.' Lacroix, Deodatde Dolomieu, ig 228 et seq. Excerpts of this letter were partly printed in Engel, L'Ordre de Malte en Mediterranee, 249, cf. also id., Knights of Malta, 174 and Dumas, 264.

(32) King, 28 1.

(33) Ist Cagliostro der Chef der Illuminaten? (n. p., 1790).

(34) Loras to 'S. E. Mgr. Le Cardinaux Zelada, Secretaire d'Etat, samedi 2 Janvier 1790:
'Monseigneur, plein de confiance dans les bontes de Votre Eminence, je prends la liberte de lui faire part de ce qui s'est passe hier au soir a I'Assemblee de Son Em. Mgr. Le Cardinal de Bernis: vingt personnes au moins de cette nombreuse Societe m'ont repete le discours suivant: "M. Le Com. De Dolomieu, citant I'autorite de Son Em. Mgr. Le Cardinal Secretaire d'Etat, ainsi que des Em. Cardinaux qui composent la commission etablie contre le Comte Cagliostro, repand de tous cotes le bruit que ce matin Sa Saintete a donne ordre de transferer ce prisonnier a l'Inquisition et de vous affeter vous meme. Ce Chevalier ajoute ensuite, avec un air de mystere, qu'il sait a n'en pouvoir douter que vous avez ete prevenu cinq fois par des Emissaires que Mgr. Le Cardinal Zelada a eu la generosite de vous deputer pour vous engager a quitter Rome, mais que vous avez l'obstination de vous y refuser ... quelqu'un lui a repondu - mais, le Bailli de Loras est ici, et il ne se montre pas comme un homme poursuivi, ni meme menace; - cela est vrai, a-t-il republique, et c'est ce qui m'etonne, car avant deux jours vous verrez l'accomplissement de ce que je vous annonce." Cette conduite terneraire de mon enemi ne saurait me troubler, parce que d'aussi fausses insinuations tourneront dans deux jours a la honte de celui qui les accredite, mais je n'en suis pas moins dans l'obligation d'informer votre Eminence de tout ce qui vient a ma connaissance relativement a un objet auquel elle a daigne prendre part. C'est aujourd'hui, Monseigneur, que Votre Eminence a eu la bonte de communiquer mes deux lettres autres St. Pere; je la supplie de permettre que lundi matin j'aille m'informer aupres d'elle des dispositions du Souverain Pontife.... Le tres humble et obeissant serviteur. Bailli de Loras.' NLM, AOM 1241 f. 33r-33v. In excerpts also printed in Lacroix,Deodat de Dolomieu, i, 229 et seq., footnote 5.

(35) '... Le Bailli de Loras revint de Rome non seulement sans avoir gagne son proces, mais s' y etant fortement compromis dans la societe des farneux Marquis Vivaldi, Comte de Cagliostro et autres illumines, et par consequent perdu de reputation.' Doublet, 137.

(36) English translation from Photiades, 256.

(37) Cf. his letter to Cardinal Zelada, 2 January 1790. NLM, AOM 1241 f. 34r-35r. Cf. also Engel, Les Chevaliers de Malte, 250. For Loras' attempt to obtain support, see also Petraccone, 239 et seq.

(38) NLM, AOM 124 1, f. 33r & v.

(39) Letter Dolomieu's to Gioeni dated Rome, 8 March 1790:
'Le proces de Cagliostro se poursuit; c'est l'Inquisition qui le fait, mais on croit qu'il sera rendu publie, lorsque le jugement sera prononce. On s'imagine toujours que son principal delit est d'avoir voulu introduire la secte des Illumines, par le moyen de laquelle il aurait peut-etre pu executer des projets plus coupables encore. Le B. De Loras est res certainement implique dans cette affaire. Ses liaisons intimes avec Cagliostro et le capucin le faisaient soupconner, mais les papiers trouves chez l'un et chez I'autre en ont fourni des preuves. C'est, dit-on, par egard pour I'Ordre de Malte qu'on nel'apas encore arrete, mais onnedoutepasqu'il nele soitdans le cours de cette affaire. On lui avait conseille de fifir, mais je crois qu'il ne saitou aller, amoins qu'il n'hasarde de se refugier a Naples, et je doute qu'il y soit bien accueilli, carj'ai oui dire que le gouvernement empechait a toutes ses sectes differentes de s'introduire dans l'etat ou elles pourraient etre une occasion de grands desordres. J'espere que la conduite de mon adversaire fera enfin ouvrir les yeux a ceux qui le protegent a Naples et que l'on jugera avec plus d'impartialite entre lui et moi. Je suis curieux de savoir ce qu'on pense a Naples de cette affaire de Cagliostro.' Here quoted from Lacroix, Deodat de Dolomieu, i, 232. Cf. partly wrongly quoted by Engel, L'Ordre de Malte en Mediterranee, 251.

(40) Letter from Dolomieu to Gioeni, Rome, 16 March 1790; quoted from Lacroix, Deodat de Dolomieu, i, 233.

(41) 'J'ai ete extremement surpris d'apprendre que le Bailli de Loras etait a Naples et qu'il s'y montrait publiquement; expliquez moi ce qui est pour moi une enigme, car vous m'avez mande que tres reellement on lui avait refuse un passeport. . .' Letter from Dolomieu to Gioeni, dated Rome, 2 April j 790. Here quoted from ibid., 235.

(42) BNVER, Fondo Vittorio Em. MS. 245, V, 'Ristretto della denunzia, arresta, perquisizioni e testimonianze per il processo di Cagliostro'.

(43) Cf. ibid.: 'Sig.re Avvocato Onorato Brest (sic), Cappelano Conventuale di Malta, reo prevenuto, indi rispettivo denunciante'. The 'lawyer (sic) Brest' is also referred to in Photiades, 248. Dumas, who calls Bres a 'Knight of St John' (p. 255), is completely wrong. Later Bres gained fame as an antiquarian and scholar. In 1816 he published his Malta antica illustrata co' Monumenti e coll'Istoria in Rome.

(44) Cf. Conrad, 50.

(45) Cf. Compendio della vita, e delle gesta di Giuseppe Balsamo denominato il Conte Cagliostro (Rome, 1791), 15; for Malta, cf. also 14, 55.

(46) Cf. Cathedral Archives, Mdina (Malta), A.I.M. 'Processo Lante'. For a detailed investigation of the 'Processo Lante' and its consequences for the Maltese nobility, see Montalto, Chap. xix.

(47) Cf. Gian Luigi Berti (ed.), La vera fine di Cagliostro (Milano, 1995).

(48) BNVER Fondo Vitt. Emanuele, MS. 245.

(49) NLM, AOM MS. 6408, ff. 37 et seq., dated 4 May 1792.

(50) NLM, Libr. MS. 133, ff. 294-6.

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