him to reason. After expressing to the noble-hearted lady how deeply
he felt for her misfortune, he withdrew from the house, ashamed of
the passion he had conceived, and reaching home, overwhelmed with
confusion, he cast himself at the feet of a crucifix, and vowed to
consecrate himself henceforth to the service of God alone. He passed
a more than usually tranquil night, being filled with this zealous
resolution, and the vision of Christ is said to have appeared to him,
saying, “Raymond Lully, from henceforth do thou follow me!” This vision
was repeated several times, and he judged it to be an indication
of the Divine Will. Raymond was at this period about thirty years
old; he filled one of the most noble situations at court, and might
have aspired to any honour for himself or his family. He resolved,
nevertheless, to renounce the world, and soon arranged his affairs,
dividing so much of his estate among his family as would enable
them to live honourably, retaining a small portion for his personal
necessities, and distributing the rest among the poor. His plans in the
matter were so punctually fulfilled, that he was accused of plunging
from one folly to another.
At this period he is said to have made a pilgrimage to St John in
Galicia, and a retreat thereat. He returned in due course to Majorca,
and took the habit of religion, but did not, however, embrace the
religious life. He retired to a small dwelling on the mountain of
Randa, a possession which had not been included in the general sale of
his estate. Here he fell ill, and was consoled by two visions of the
Saviour.
After his change of life, the first boon which he asked of God was
so to illuminate his mind that he might compose a book capable of
completely annihilating the errors of Mahomet, and of forcing the
infidels, by good and solid reasoning, to embrace the faith of Jesus
Christ. In answer to this prayer, he was conscious, it is asserted, of
a perfect spiritual illumination, and became instantaneously capable
of reasoning powerfully on all subjects, so that he passed henceforth
for a great and subtle doctor both in human and divine sciences. A
more sober account informs us that “he prepared himself to labour
for the conversion of the Mahometans, by studying their books in the
Arabic language,” and that his preparation continued for the space
of six years. According to another authority, this missionary zeal
did not date from an earlier period than 1268--three years after his
reformation--when in another of his visions he beheld upon the leaves
of a myrtle or a mastic tree, certain marks which resembled Turkish
or Arabic characters. On awaking, he regarded himself as called to a
mission among the heathen.
Convinced, says one of his biographers, that the Spirit of God had not
inspired him with the Celestial Science to let it rest idle, and that
he would be betraying his vocation if his light were hidden under a
bushel, he resolved to journey to Paris and there publish the eternal
truths which had been revealed to him. Others have supposed that in
undertaking this journey he was simply seeking instruction in the Latin
tongue at one of the centres of learning. Several of his treatises on
Philosophy, Theology, Medicine, and Astronomy are, however, referred
to this period, as well as some works on alchemy, but this point will
receive adequate consideration hereafter.
Still imbued with his evangelistic and missionary zeal, he engaged a
young Arab as his valet, that he might perfect himself in colloquial
Arabic; but he, discovering that his master intended to demolish the
divine principles of the Koran, and preach against the holy law of
Mahomet, piously resolved to assassinate him, and one day plunged a
dagger into his breast. He sought to repeat the blow, but Raymond
Lully, wounded and bleeding as he was, contrived to disarm him, perhaps
with the assistance of a holy and opportune anchorite, who is advanced
at this critical moment by one of the biographers. The young Arab was
imprisoned with the reluctant consent of his over magnanimous master,
who does not appear to have proceeded further against him; but the
unhappy Mohammedan enthusiast was so overwhelmed with vexation at the
failure of his heroic design to destroy, at all costs, the implacable
foe of the prophet, that he strangled himself in his dungeon in a
paroxysm of impotent fury.
It was after this episode, and after the recovery of Raymond Lully
from the violence of his valet, that, according to another historian,
he retired to Mount Randa, and that then, and then only, he received
from the Father of Lights that new illumination with which others have
accredited him at a much earlier period. This was probably a second
visit paid to his Balearic solitude; he tarried there seven months,
“always absorbed in prayer, and conversing, as it seemed to him,
continually with angels, whose consolations he received--consolations,”
says the pious writer, “which the soul can indeed realise, but which
the lips cannot worthily describe.”
Having left his retreat, he determined to travel to Rome, to exhort
his Holiness to establish in Europe several monasteries, where monks
should be occupied in acquiring and teaching languages, in order to
spread everywhere the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to labour for the
conversion of the infidels. But Honorius IV., from whose piety he
had everything to hope, died as soon as Lully reached Rome, and he
therefore returned to Paris, where he explained publicly his General
or Universal Art for the acquisition of all sciences. From Paris he
went to Mont Pelin, where he also taught and wrote; thence to Genoa,
where he translated his _Art Inventif_ into Arabic. From Genoa he
again proceeded to Rome, but seeing that it was impossible to attain
his ends on account of the obstacles which presented themselves in the
Sacred Court, he returned to Genoa, intending to start for Africa, and
personally labour in the conversion of the infidels. He made terms
with the owner of a vessel, shipped his books on board, with the other
necessities of his journey, but, when he was himself on the point
of embarking, a vision of all the dangers he was about to encounter
so worked upon his mind, that he was deprived even of the power of
walking, and was obliged to renounce his intention. His effects were
consequently returned to him, and with these he re-entered Genoa in
the midst of a crowd of vagabonds, who derided his weakness. Whether
consequent on this raillery, or through shame at his cowardice, he
became dangerously ill.[K] On the Vigil of Pentecost, 1291, he was
carried to the Convent of Friars Preachers, and received the care which
his condition required. He received the last sacraments, and dictated
his last will and testament; nevertheless, he was destined to recover,
and had scarcely regained his strength when, to repair his previous
fault, he embarked upon the first vessel bound for Tunis. During the
voyage he composed his “General Tabulation of the Sciences.”
Immediately on his arrival at Tunis, he held conferences with those who
were most erudite in the law of Mahomet. He proved, at least to his own
satisfaction, that they were in error and darkness, and that truth was
on the side of Jesus Christ. He was accused before the King of Tunis
of seducing the people, was arrested, cast into prison, and ultimately
condemned to death. But a learned Arabian priest, overcome by his
arguments, obtained his pardon on condition of his instant departure.
He left the town amidst the insults and opprobrium of the populace,
prohibited to return, on pain of certain death.
In 1293 he arrived at Genoa from this disastrous mission, and he
appears to have proceeded immediately to Naples, where he remained till
the pontificate of Celestin V., teaching publicly his _Ars Magna_ and
_Arbor Scientiarum_. In December 1294, he repaired to Rome to persuade
the Pope to send missionaries to the infidels, and he appears to
have obtained the establishment of several colleges for the study of
oriental languages. Moreover, the University of Paris, by an authentic
act, adopted and recommended the use of his short method of acquiring
knowledge, and some of his more important philosophical doctrines.
Still, his missionary efforts were not generally successful, and he
again wandered from place to place, confuting heretics. He travelled
to Montpellier, where he was received with distinction by Raymond
Gauffredy, General of the Order of St Francis. He obtained letters of
association, as a benefactor to the order, the superiors of which were
put under his direction, and he taught his method in their houses. He
preached in Cyprus against the Nestorians and Georgians, striving to
bring them back to the bosom of the Church. He addressed himself for
assistance in his manifold enterprises to the Kings of France, Sicily,
Majorca, and Cyprus, but generally in vain.
In 1308 he returned to Paris, where he conversed with the celebrated
Johannes Scotus, who is known as the subtle doctor. He had the
satisfaction to find that King Philip le Bel had directed the oriental
languages to be taught in the University of Paris. This induced Raymond
to proceed in the following year to Ferdinand IV., King of Castile,
to engage him to unite with the King of France for the recovery of
the Holy Land, but this oft-repeated and invariably disastrous and
futile enterprise was fortunately not undertaken. He ventured again to
Africa, landed at Bona, that ancient Hippo which was the diocese of St
Augustine, and despite the opposition of its Mohammedan inhabitants he
succeeded in converting seventy followers of the philosopher Averroës.
Thence he travelled to Algiers and converted many, which brought down
on him the persecution of the authorities. A bridle was put into his
mouth, as if he were a horse, and he was deprived by this means of the
free use of speech for the space of forty days; he was then publicly
beaten, and expelled from the kingdom. He had no other road open to
him but to return to Tunis, where sentence of death awaited him, but
he remained concealed, and shortly after proceeded to Bugia. There
he confounded the doctrines of the Mohammedan priests, successfully
avoiding innumerable deadly snares prepared by the people against him
at the suggestion of their religious teachers. He was at length cast
into a miserable dungeon, where he might well have perished, but the
solicitations of certain Genoese merchants obtained him a better
prison, in which he was confined for six months. Here the Mohammedan
doctors came to him in troops, to persuade him to embrace their law,
promising him the most alluring recompences--slaves, palaces, wealth,
beautiful women, and the King’s friendship. “The result,” says one of
Lully’s biographers, “was that they were almost persuaded to embrace
_His_ law, Who alone could promise them eternal beatitude.”
The gates of Raymond’s prison were at length thrown open, and, as a
disturber of the public peace, he was enjoined to quit those parts at
once. The illustrious wanderer embarked in a Genoese vessel with his
books and papers, but he was wrecked ten miles from the town of Pisa,
escaping hardly with the loss of all his effects. At Pisa he fell
sick, and was carefully attended by the Dominicans. On his recovery
he resumed his public teaching. The conversion of the Mohammedans and
the conquest of the Holy Land were still his chief ends, and he so
eloquently solicited the inhabitants of Pisa to institute an order of
Christian Knights for the deliverance of Judea, that they sent him with
letters to the Holy Father; he was entrusted by the inhabitants of
Genoa with similar documents, and bore also the voluntary offer of the
ladies in that town to contribute towards such a pious and praiseworthy
purpose a considerable sum of money. With these assurances he sought
the Pope at Avignon, presented his letters, and added the most powerful
reasons of his own to persuade him to proclaim another crusade.
Naturally, he obtained nothing from the Papal Court, and he retired to
Paris, sorrowful at his failure and at the coldness of the prelates of
the Church. He continued writing and teaching, and in October 1311,
hearing that a general council would be held at Vienna, he considered
this a favourable opportunity and presented himself before it to demand
three things:--1. The establishment of several monasteries composed
of learned and courageous men, who, willing to expose their lives in
the quarrel of Christ, would take pleasure in acquiring languages in
order to publish the Gospel more effectually. 2. The reduction of all
the Military Orders in the Christian world into a single order, so that
living under one religious rule, and inspired with the same desires,
they might all do battle with the Saracens, and, suppressing all seeds
of jealousy, all selfish interests, by a laudable emulation, with
true Christian piety, seek to deliver the Holy Place from the hands
of the miscreants. 3. The condemnation, by authority of the Pope and
the Council, of all the works of Averroës used in Christian colleges
and schools, because they were distinctly and directly opposed to
the doctrines of true religion. In order to throw more light on this
last point he composed a treatise entitled _De Natale Pueri_. He was
again unsuccessful, and returned to Paris without having accomplished
anything. With unconquerable perseverance he again set himself more
diligently than ever to the composition of books in Latin, Spanish, and
Arabic, for the edification of the Faithful and the instruction of the
Saracens. He became indeed one of the most voluminous authors in the
world, and when weary of the repose of letters he returned to Majorca,
far advanced in years, he embarked, despite the peril, for Tunis,
hoping to work secretly in the conversion of its inhabitants.
According to another account, he publicly proclaimed his return,
crying, “Do you not remember that I am the man whom your princes
formerly hunted from this country and from Tunis in dread that I
should illuminate your souls with the truths of our holy religion,
towards which you already had some disposition? The single hope of your
salvation, and the resolution I have taken to suffer all the torments
of the world for the love of my God, lead me back among you, to do with
me as you please.”
In either case his return was discovered; as one man the people rose
in tumult against him, and having covered him with opprobrium and
atrocious injuries, they chased him with stones from the town to the
port, where he fell miserably overwhelmed.
According to numerous biographers, certain merchants, either of
Majorca or Genoa, passing Tunis, saw a great light, in the shape of
a pyramid, near to the port, on the night of this catastrophe. This
light seemed to issue from a heap of stones, and, curious to discover
its cause, they put ashore in a boat, and thus came upon the precious
body of Raymond Lully, whom, in spite of his disfigured condition, they
immediately recognised.
But M. E. J. Delécleuze, writing in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_, gives
us the same narrative unadorned by the veneer of the miraculous. “The
night fell, and the body of Raymond Lully remained on the sea-shore.
During the whole of this terrible scene none of the converts, and still
less the European Christians then sojourning in the town, had dared
to defend the missionary, or even to intercede in his favour. Certain
Genoese merchants, however, desiring to pay the last honours to his
corpse, came in a boat, under cover of the darkness, to bear it away.
In the accomplishment of this pious duty they perceived that Raymond
Lully was still breathing. They carried him in haste to their ship, and
immediately set sail for Majorca, in sight of which island that holy
and learned man expired on the 29th of June 1315, at the age of eighty
years.”[L]
It has already been stated that Raymond Lully was one of the most
prolific writers of his own or of any age. The following list of his
works is given by Alfonso de Proaza in 1515, and is reproduced by A.
Perroquet:--
Names of Subjects. No. of Treatises.
On the _Ars Veritatis Demonstrativus_, 60
Grammar and Rhetoric, 7
Logic, 22
On the Understanding, 7
On Memory, 4
On Will, 8
On Moral and Political Philosophy, 12
On Law, 8
Philosophy and Physics, 32
Metaphysics, 26
Mathematics, 19
Medicine and Anatomy, 20
Chemistry, 49
Theology, 212
---
Total number of treatises, 486
This list is accepted without suspicion or criticism by M. Delécleuze,
but as Raymond Lully did not begin writing till 1270, and as he died
in 1318 at latest, this calculation requires us to suppose that he
produced ten treatise every year without intermission for the space
of eight and forty years, which would have been perfectly impossible
for the most cloistered, book-devoted student, and Raymond Lully was a
man of indefatigable activity, as the facts of his itinerant existence
abundantly reveal. A writer in the _Biographie Universelle_, Paris,
1820, has the following pertinent remarks on this subject:--“Some of
his biographers have extended the number of his treatises to several
thousand.[M] The more moderate have reduced them from five hundred to
three hundred, which lie scattered among the libraries of Majorca,
Rome, Barcelona, the Sorbonne, St Victor, and the Chatreux at Paris;
but scarcely two hundred can be found distinguished by their titles
and the first words of the work; and this number must be still further
diminished as the difference between some of them is very slight, as
chapters have been given for the titles of separate works, and as the
explanations of professors or disciples have often been mistaken by
uncritical writers for the lessons of the master.”
* * * * *
Now, the great problem in the chequered life of the illuminated
theosophist and possessor of the universal science who died thus
violently at Tunis, or Bugia, in the cause of his Master, is
this--whether or not he is to be identified with that Raymond Lully
whom Éliphas Lévi terms “a grand and sublime adept of Hermetic
science,” who is said to have made gold and Rose nobles for one
Edward, King of England, and who left behind him, as monuments of his
unparalleled alchemical proficiency, those world-famous treatises,
testaments, and codicils which, rightly or wrongly, are attributed,
under the title “chemistry, 49 treatises,” to the heroic martyr of
Majorca. On this important point, the writer, already quoted, in the
_Bibliothèque Universelle_, testifies that “the works on alchemy must
be referred to another Raymond, of Ferrago, a Jewish neophyte, who
lived after 1315, and with whom Abraham Bzovius confounded the first
in attributing to him some propositions condemned by Gregory XI.” And
again:--“The works on alchemy attributed to him are too opposed to
the evangelical poverty of a man who had renounced everything in his
zeal for the religion of Jesus Christ, and who protests in many places
against the chimera of the philosopher’s stone, sought in his time
by Arnaud de Villeneuve, whose disciple he was supposed to be. The
circumstances and the dates even in several of these books--of which
that on natural wisdom is addressed to Edward III.--prove, moreover,
that they must be referred to a later epoch.”
The problem is eminently difficult of solution, and must be considered
at some length.
Raymond Lully repaired to Vienna to be present at a general council of
the Church in the year 1311. While in this city it is alleged that he
received letters from Edward, King of England, who had ascended the
throne in 1307, and from Robert, King of Scotland, who both invited
him with much persuasion to visit their realms. Hoping to encourage
these princes to assist him in his plans against the infidels, he soon
arrived in London in the company of John Cremer, Abbot of Westminster.
This ecclesiastic is said to have been one of the most celebrated
Hermetic artists of his age. He worked thirty years to attain the end
of alchemy, but the obscurities of the Hermetic writers, which he
could not clear up, cast him into a labyrinth of errors. The more he
read, the more he wondered; at last, tired of the loss of his money,
and much more of his precious time, he set out to travel, and had the
good fortune to meet with Raymond Lully in Italy. With him he formed
a strict friendship, remaining some time in his company, edified by
his penitent life, and illuminated by his philosophical conversations.
The adept, though he spoke upon alchemy, would not, however, entirely
discover the essential points of the operation. Cremer was insinuating
and affectionate; he perceived that Lully’s zeal for the conversion
of the infidels extended to the false enthusiasm of exciting open war
against the Mohammedans, and easily persuaded him to visit England, in
the hope of King Edward’s assistance. The adept lodged with his friend
in the Abbey of Westminster, where he worked, and perfected the stone
which Cremer had so long unsuccessfully sought. He was duly presented
to the King, who, previously informed of the talents of the illustrious
stranger, received him with regard and attention.
When he “communicated his treasures,” the single condition which he
made was that they should not be expended in the luxuries of a court or
in war with a Christian prince, but that the King should go in person
with an army against the infidels.
Edward, under pretence of doing honour to Raymond, gave him an
apartment in the Tower of London, where the adept repeated his process.
He transmuted base metal into gold, which was coined at the mint into
six millions of nobles, each worth three pounds sterling at the present
day. These coins are well known to antiquarians by the name of Rose
Nobles. They prove in the assay of the test to be a purer gold than the
Jacobus, or any other gold coin made in those times. Lully in his last
testament declares that in a short time, while in London, he converted
twenty-two tons weight of quicksilver, lead, and tin into the precious
metal.
His lodging in the Tower proved only an honourable prison, and when
Raymond had satisfied the desires of the King, the latter disregarded
the object which the adept was so eager to see executed, and to regain
his own liberty Lully was obliged to escape surreptitiously, when he
quickly departed from England.
Cremer, whose intentions were sincere, was not less grieved than
Raymond at this issue of the event, but he was subject to his
sovereign, and could only groan in silence. He declares his extreme
affliction in his testament, and his monastery daily offered up prayers
to God for the success of Raymond’s cause. The Abbot lived long after
this, and saw part of the reign of King Edward III. The course of
operations which he proposes in his testament, with apparent sincerity,
is not less veiled than are those in the most obscure authors.[N]
Now, in the first place, this story is not in harmony with itself. If
Raymond Lully were at Vienna in 1311, how did John Cremer contrive
to meet him in Italy at or about the same time? In the second place,
the whole story concerning the manufacture of Rose Nobles is a series
of blunders. The King who ascended the throne of England in 1307
was Edward II., and the Rose Nobles first appear in the history of
numismatics during the reign of Edward IV., and in the year 1465.
“In the King’s fifth year, by another indenture with Lord Hastings,
the gold coins were again altered, and it was ordered that forty-five
nobles only, instead of fifty, as in the last two reigns, should be
made of a pound of gold. This brought back the weight of the noble to
one hundred and fifty grains, as it had been from 1351 to 1412, but its
value was raised to 10s. At the same time, new coins impressed with
angels were ordered to be made, sixty-seven and a half to be struck
from one pound of gold, and each to be of the value of 6s. 8d.--that is
to say, the new angel which weighed eighty grains was to be of the same
value as the noble had been which weighed one hundred and eight grains.
_The new nobles to distinguish them from the old ones were called Rose
Nobles_, from the rose which is stamped on both sides of them, or
ryals, or royals, a name borrowed from the French, who had given it to
a coin which bore the figure of the King in his royal robes, which the
English ryals did not. Notwithstanding its inappropriateness, however,
the name of royal was given to these 10s. pieces, not only by the
people, but also in several statutes of the realm.”[O]
In the third place, the testament ascribed to John Cremer, Abbot of
Westminster, and to which we are indebted for the chief account of
Lully’s visit to England, is altogether spurious. No person bearing
that name ever filled the position of Abbot at any period of the
history of the Abbey.