The foregoing sketch, for all its brevity, will have emphasised more
forcibly than much argument the practical and the scholarly sides of
Lull’s temperament. We shall say nothing here of the four hundred and
eighty-six treatises[4] which he is known to have written, nor of the
thousands of other works, no longer extant if indeed they ever existed,
with which he is credited. Nor is there need to describe his system
and doctrine, at once scholastic and popular in character. The _Libre
de Amich e Amat_, which is here translated, is purely a mystical work,
and this essay is concerned with the mystical side of Lull’s mind, so
wonderfully illumined by the flame which burnt through his long life of
self-sacrifice.
_The Book of the Lover and the Beloved_ takes us from the African
preachings and the disputations of the Sorbonne to those long
night-watches and days of retreat which must always have accompanied
them, but which we are apt to forget in contemplating that form of
activity which the world counts greatest. Or the thoughts which the
_Book_ gives us may first have come to the young convert in the
solitude of his monastery and the retreat of Mount Randa. Rosselló, who
some sixty years ago first published Lull’s poems, interprets a passage
from _Blanquerna_ as autobiographical. It may well be so.
Being then in his hermitage he would rise at midnight, and, opening
the windows of his cell, would fall to contemplating the heavens and
the stars, and praying with all possible devotion, that his soul
might be fixed upon God alone.... After long contemplation and much
weeping, his custom was to enter the church and ring for mattins,
and when his deacon appeared, to help him say them. At daybreak he
celebrated Mass with devotion, and spoke of God with his deacon, that
on God he might set his love. And as they talked together of God and
His works, they both wept for the greatness of the devotion which
their argument inspired in them. Then the deacon went into the garden
and busied himself with the cultivation of the trees in it, while
Blanquerna left the church to recreate his mind which was wearied by
the work he had done, to lift his eyes to the hills, and to let them
rest on the plains beneath. Feeling rested at last, he would betake
himself again to meditation and prayer, and the reading of Holy
Scripture or the great book of _Contemplation_, and so he would be
occupied until the hours of Terce, Sext and Nones.... After this he
dined ... and went into the garden, visited the spring, or walked in
the places he loved most, afterwards giving himself up for a while
to sleep in order to gather strength for the labours of the night.
On awaking he said vespers with the deacon, and then remained alone,
thinking on what pleased him most and was fittest preparation for his
hours of prayer. After sunset, he went up to the terrace, and there
remained long in devout meditation, his eyes fixed on the heavens and
the stars, discoursing with himself on the greatness of God and man’s
inconstancies. In this state he remained until he retired to rest,
and such was the fervour of his contemplation that even upon his bed
he found himself in mystic converse with the All-Powerful.
Such a background as this we must almost of necessity assume in a life
at once so active and so spiritual. No doubt Lull was able often to
spend weeks, or at the least days, in some sacred retreat, and draw
from God and from Nature strength and inspiration for his endless
tasks. To these seasons of refreshing, it may be supposed, we owe his
mystical writings.
Of Lull’s verses many are narrative or doctrinal: the hymns entitled
‘Hours of Our Lady St. Mary’ (_Horas de Nostra Dona Sancta Maria_),
for example; the ‘Sin of Adam’ (_Lo Peccat de n’Adam_), written ‘at
the request of the King of Majorca’; the short ‘Song of Ramón’ (_Lo
Cant de Ramón_), and above all the ‘Medicine for Sin’ (_Medicina de
Peccat_) and the purely didactic verse ‘Application’ of the _Art
General_. The collection of a hundred songs on the Names of God (_Els
Cent Noms de Deu_), on the other hand, is more mystical than doctrinal,
and suggests, in matter as well as in title, the mystical treatise
‘Of the Names of Christ’ (_De los Nombres de Cristo_) written almost
exactly three hundred years later by the Salamancan friar, Luis de
León. Mystical too, as well as autobiographical, is the dialogue poem
_El Desconort_, ‘made in his old age,’ though its spirit is that of
disillusion at the refusal of those in high places to help forward his
schemes of evangelisation. But neither of these has either the strength
or the beauty of the collection of prose poems here translated, a
collection which forms part of the novel-like _Blanquerna_, Lull’s
chief contribution to mystical literature.
His chief contribution it is, mainly, though not entirely, by virtue
of the sections entitled the _Art of Contemplation_ and our _Book of
the Lover and the Beloved_. _Blanquerna_, as a whole, is a somewhat
fantastic, and in places extravagant, religious romance--a religious
_Utopia_, if parallels to it must be found, or a Catholic _Pilgrim’s
Progress_. The story is of a certain gallant and wealthy youth named
Evast, who marries a beautiful and virtuous girl called Aloma. They
live together in great piety and happiness, but have no children, until
Aloma in her sorrow prays to God, and a boy, Blanquerna, is born to
them. The child is brought up with great care, and in the fear of God;
and when his father sees that he is a youth of discretion, he resolves
to devote himself to the religious life. Aloma, however, disapproves,
saying that they can both serve God best in the state to which He has
called them; they decide in the end to lead lives of greater austerity
in their home, and to give Blanquerna the oversight of the household.
But, on proposing this to the boy, they find that he has resolved to
become a hermit.
Aloma is grieved, and endeavours to marry Blanquerna to a beautiful
girl called Cana. Blanquerna’s reply is to persuade Cana to become a
nun, while he himself retires to the desert to carry out his resolve.
The story then describes circumstantially and with some prolixity the
lives of Evast and Aloma after Blanquerna has left them; it passes on
to Cana, who eventually becomes abbess of her convent; and finally,
after some long digressions upon convent life, to the later history of
Blanquerna, which occupies the rest of the romance.
The second book of _Blanquerna_ deals with the hero’s life before he
is ordained priest and rises to the rank of abbot in the monastery
which he has entered. A digression follows, entitled ‘The Book of Ave
Maria,’ purporting to be an account of the devotions to Our Lady which
the hero established. The third book presents him as a bishop, and the
fourth as pope.
The various religious ideals presented by Lull in succession lead
up to the great ideal of his life: the evangelisation of the world.
Blanquerna’s supreme aim as pope is to strive ‘that all infidels and
schismatics may be brought into the union of the Holy Catholic Faith.’
His cardinals are quaintly named after the clauses of the _Gloria in
Excelsis Deo_, and every clause is expounded so as to illustrate the
activity which the Church should show in converting the heathen.
To the court of the Pope comes at length a jester,--one Ramón the
Fool,--none other, of course, than Lull himself. ‘I would be as a
fool,’ he says, ‘to do reverence and honour to Jesus Christ, and by
reason of my exceeding love I would know no measure in my speech.’ Thus
disguised, the author can write much which he might not otherwise have
dared to put into words. And above all he can deliver himself of the
shame he feels because the Head of the Church will grant so little aid
to those who aim at following Christ’s last recorded command to convert
all nations.
The story ends with the decision of Blanquerna, the pope now grown old
in the service of the Church and the conversion of the heathen, to
renounce his high office, retire to a hermitage, and devote his last
days to contemplation and prayer. His new life is described in detail,
and it is interwoven with this description that we come upon the _Book
of the Lover and the Beloved_ and the _Art of Contemplation_.
The former is by far the simpler and more appealing of the two, the
_Art of Contemplation_ being considerably longer and full of doctrinal
teaching. It is, nevertheless, still read, less for its didactic
passages than for its close relation with the whole romance, its
mystical aspect, and in particular its prayers, which are of great
beauty. The _Book of the Lover and the Beloved_ is mystical throughout.
It was written, the author himself declares, ‘that the hearts of
men might be moved to true contrition, their eyes to abundance of
tears, and their wills and understandings to loftier flights in the
contemplation of God.’ How well it attains its object, and how truly it
reflects the mystic’s being, the reader must judge.