Lives of the Adepts.

...a seducer of the people. He would have received the crown of martyrdom at that time, but that a learned Arabian, who loved him, interceded with the King, remonstrating against putting so great a man to death. The sentence was accordingly changed into banishment. He was therefore obliged, immediately to quit the kingdom, on pain of death if he returned. It was in 1293 that he arrived in Genoa, from this disastrous mission, and from thence he went to Naples, where he met Arnold Villa Nova Arnaldus de Villa Nova, a famous physician and alchemist; and being in controversy with him against the possibility of transmutation, the fact was proved to him by an experiment. He remained at Naples during the year 1294, teaching his short method of acquiring the sciences. After this he passed some time at Rome, still laboring to execute his project for establishing the study of Eastern languages; in which attempt, he found that Boniface VIII was too much occupied with the difficulty of maintaining his temporal authority, to give him any assistance.

Raymond now gave up all hopes of success at Rome. He went to Milan, a quiet city, suited to the retirement of a philosopher, and there continued to practice some chemical operations; In his Book of Mercury original: "Liber de Mercuriis", he relates, that he endeavored to obtain a solution of that metal, at Milan, in 1296; and the house where he lived is still shown in that city. He next traveled to Montpellier, and 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 of science in their houses. He was still disquieted for the fate of his plan, and successively addressed the Kings of France, Sicily, Majorca, and Cyprus; but all was in vain! Never was a more active life; he taught everywhere he went; and preached in Cyprus against the Schismatics, for which he had the good fortune to be persecuted.

At length he returned to Paris, in 1308, where he conversed with the celebrated Dr. John Scott, who was called the subtle doctor Doctor Subtilis, a famous medieval scholastic philosopher. He had the satisfaction to find that King Philip had the Oriental languages taught in the University of Paris. This induced Raymond to proceed next year to Ferdinand IV, King of Castile, to engage him to join with the King of France in recovering the Holy Land; and to prove his zeal, he ventured again to Africa, landed at Bona, formerly called Hippona Hippo Regius, the ancient diocese of St. Augustine, and in spite of the opposition of the Infidels, its inhabitants, he did not leave it till he converted seventy followers of the philosophy of Averroes Ibn Rushd, an influential Al-Andalusian philosopher. From thence, taking his road to Algiers, he converted many Mahometans; but the persecution he suffered in this city, went to a much greater height: they put a bridle in his mouth, as if he was a horse, and deprived him, by this means, of the free use of his mouth for forty days, he was then publicly beaten, and ex-

Raymond Lully.

pelled from the kingdom. He had no other road but to return to Tunis, where sentence of death awaited him since 1292; but he remained concealed, and in a short time went to Bugia, where he publicly announced the Gospel.

The Mahometan doctors apprehending the success of his preaching in that city, had him arrested, and placed in confinement. They went in a crowd to the prison, to persuade him to take the turban symbol of converting to Islam. The controversy lasted for some time, and neither party were persuaded; upon which they liberated him from captivity, and considering him a dangerous character, who disturbed the public peace, put him on board a vessel bound to Genoa.

In this voyage, he was shipwrecked within sight of the port of Pisa. He, and all on board, were saved; but he lost his effects, and fell sick at Pisa, where he was carefully attended by the Dominicans. He was recovered at the time that a General Council was held at Vienne, in 1311; and hoping to obtain success in some propositions he had to make, he attended it. It was in this city he received letters from Edward, King of England, who ascended the throne in 1307, and Robert, King of Scotland, who both invited him, with much persuasion, to visit their realms. Raymond hoped to encourage these princes to assist him in his views against the Infidels, and he soon arrived at London, where he had apartments given him in the tower. He promised the King to supply all necessary sums of money for carrying his project into effect, and he was now pressed to fulfill his proposals. Raymond accordingly transmuted base metal into gold, which was coined, at the mint, into six millions of Nobles a gold coin, each worth three pounds Sterling at the present day. These coins are well known to Antiquarians, by the name of the Rose Noble. They prove, in the assay of the test, to be a purer gold than the Jacobus a later gold coin named for King James, 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 (about 50,000 lb.) of quicksilver, lead, and tin, into Gold.

He sent to King Robert, of Scotland, a book of the art of transmuting metals, in which he mentions a codicil sent by him to King Edward, in 1312.

Robert Constantine, who wrote a History of Medicine, in 1545, observes, that he found public documents, by which it appeared that Raymond Lully made gold, in the tower of London, by the order and license of the King; and that the coin was, in his time, called the Raymond Noble; and Dr. Edmund Dickenson relates, that the workmen who removed the cloister, which Raymond occupied, at Westminster, found some of the powder, by which they enriched themselves. The historian, Camden, who was not too credulous, records, that these Rose