His measures were genuinely neutral, but his reputation as a Voltairian freethinker and a freemason inevitably afforded his opponents an excuse for their charges.
"A History of the Third French Republic"
C. H. C. Wright
He was active as a freemason, and Illuminati, and published with the name Joannes Physiophilus a stinging illustrated satire entitled Monchalogia, or the natural history of monks.
"A Biographical Dictionary of Freethinkers of All Ages and Nations"
Joseph Mazzini Wheeler
More yet, he is a freemason, which in Italy means things anathema to the Church, and he is a very prominent freemason.
"Roman Holidays and Others"
W. D. Howells