Fowle's New Hampshire Gazette And General Advertiser

Letters from Rome, dated February 26, mention, that the Pope had repealed that part of the decree against the Society of Free Masons, or, as they are still called, the Assemblies De Liberi Muratori, passed at Rome in the year 1739; by which, if they were detected performing the rites of that secret art, they were not only excommunicated, but condemned to the galleys. This is a fresh instance of the benevolence and toleration which distinguish the present Pontiff.

Within these few years most of the Italian Nobles and dignified Ecclesiastics have been made Free Masons; they held their meetings generally in private houses, though they have established lodges, at Naples, Leghorn, Venice, Verona, Turin, Messina in the island of Sicily, Genoa, and Modena; the members of which are exceedingly liberal to poor and distressed travellers of every country.