AMIS REUNIS, LOGE DES

The Lodge of United Friends, founded at Paris in 1771, was distinguished for the talents of many of its members, among whom was Savalette de Langes, and played for many years an important part in the affairs of French Masonry. In its bosom was originated, in 1775, the Rite of Philalethes. In 1784 it convoked the first Congress of Paris, which was held in 1785, for the laudable purpose of endeavoring to disentangle Freemasonry from the almost inextricable confusion into which it had fallen by the invention of so many rites and new degrees. The Lodge was in possession of a valuable library for the use of its members, and had an excellent cabinet of the physical and natural sciences. Upon the death of Savalette, who was the soul of the Lodge, it fell into decay, and its books, manuscripts, and cabinet were scattered, according to Clavel's Histoire Pittoresque de la Franc-Maçonnerie (page 171).

All of its library that was valuable was transferred to the archives of the Mother Ledge of the Philosophic Scottish Rite. Barruel gives a brilliant picture of the concerts, balls, and suppers given by this Lodge in its halcyon days, to which “les Crésus de la Maçonnerie,” meaning the wealthy ones of Freemasonry (Crésus being the name of the proverbially rich king of Lydia), congregated, while a few superior members were engaged, as he says, in hatching political and revolutionary schemes, but really in plans for the elevation of Freemasonry as a philosophic institution (see Barruel, Mémoires pour servir à l'Histoire du Jacobinisme iv, 343).