Ritual , Secrecy , and Civil Society
Further confirmation of this can be found in a letter addressed by Ramsay to the Cardinal on June 30 , 1741 : “ I have been bold enough to flatter myself for nearly twenty-five years that Your Excellency deigns to take an interest in my person .” 2 Their relations therefore had to go back to 1717 when Ramsay arrived in Paris at the home of the Earl of Sassenage , and they continued until the Cardinal ’ s death in January 1743 .
The Cardinal was known to have emissaries and intelligence agents in many countries and corporations . We can be sure then that he would have had contacts within the famous Club de l ’ Entresol , founded in Paris in 1720 , of which Ramsay became a member in 1726 , two years after his return from Rome .
2 . The Club de l ’ Entresol
Ramsay ’ s membership in this Club provided him with an audience to which he read extracts of his first great work , The Travels of Cyrus , prior to its publication in 1727 . The Club thus became an excellent platform for his ideas .
As we have seen , Ramsay rendered great service to the Cardinal , who was , at that time , conducting a policy of “ rapprochement ” with the Hanoverians .
However , in a letter dated July 1 , 1725 , and addressed to the Cardinal de Polignac , Fleury mentioned that Ramsay could be very dangerous when associating with Princes . So , while having recourse to his services , the Cardinal kept Ramsay away from the French
Court , no doubt wishing to avoid any risk of the young Louis XV falling under the Chevalier ’ s influence . On certain matters , the Cardinal thus showed himself to be somewhat wary of him . Was this perhaps because he had been informed of the relations that Ramsay had established , during his time in Italy , with a man who was , to say the least , suspicious ? Baron Philipp von Stosch was a Hanoverian spy who , according to Marialuisa Baldi , “ was paid also by the Jacobites , and whose residence , the headquarters of a Masonic lodge , would become a centre of propagation for libertine ideas ” ( Marialuisa , 2008 ). It is impossible to imagine that , in Paris , the discovery of such a relation on Ramsay ’ s part would have been appreciated by Cardinal Fleury , for whom a person reputed to be a double agent , a Freemason , and a libertine was in no way someone to associate with .
All these facts testify to the ambivalence which existed between Ramsay ’ s Jacobite affiliations on the one hand and his cultural and religious interests on the other , together with the personal relationships which he maintained in France , where he constantly sought to consolidate his standing among men of influence in political life . A real ambiguity is thus clearly discernible in his relation-seeking at all levels . To quote Albert Chérel : “ Despite his reputation — maybe wholly apparent — as a Jacobite , he has now become reconciled with Hanoverian England ” ( Albert , 1917 ).
Without going as far as this , it does indeed appear that the Chevalier ’ s
2 The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs , 1324 , f ° 224 . 42