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05 - Raymond Lull- First Missionary to the Moslems by Samuel Zwemer · Raymond Lull- First Missionary to the Moslems

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  Speaker 1: Chapter four of Raymond Lowell, First Missionary to the Moslems
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  Speaker 1: by Samuel Weimer. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter four, Preparation for the Conflict eighty twelve sixty seven
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  Speaker 1: to twelve seventy four sive ergo mohammeticus error heretico nomine
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  Speaker 1: de tupeter chive gentili al pagano infame tour agendum contre
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  Speaker 1: eum est scribendum est patrice venerabilis, eleven fifty seven agredi
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  Speaker 1: or vos no nostri se pe flacune army say verebies
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  Speaker 1: non vice ratione non odio sed amore ibid. By his
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  Speaker 1: bold decision to attack Islam with the weapons of Christian philosophy,
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  Speaker 1: and in his lifelong conflict with this gigantic heresy, Loll
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  Speaker 1: proved himself the Athanasius of the thirteenth century. The Mohammedan
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  Speaker 1: missionary problem at the dawn of the twenty tieth century
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  Speaker 1: is not greater than it was then. True, Islam was
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  Speaker 1: not so extensive, but it was equally aggressive and, if possible,
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  Speaker 1: more arrogant. The Mohammedan world was more of a unit,
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  Speaker 1: and from Baghdad to Morocco Mosums felt that the Crusades
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  Speaker 1: had been a defeat for Christendom. One half of Spain
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  Speaker 1: was under Moslem rule. In all northern Africa, Saracen power
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  Speaker 1: was in the ascendant. Many conversions to Islam took place
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  Speaker 1: in Georgia, and thousands of the Christian Copts in Egypt
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  Speaker 1: were saying farewell to the religion of their fathers and
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  Speaker 1: embracing the faith of the Mamluke conquerors. It was just
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  Speaker 1: at this time that Islam began to spread among the
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  Speaker 1: Mongols in India. Moslim preachers were extending the faith in
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  Speaker 1: admir and the Punjab. The Malay Archipelago first heard of
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  Speaker 1: Mohammad about the time when Loul was born. Babar's the first,
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  Speaker 1: the first and greatest, as the Mamluke Sultan sat on
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  Speaker 1: the throne of Egypt. A man of grand achievements and
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  Speaker 1: ceasing activity and stern orthodoxy. He used every endeavor to
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  Speaker 1: extend and strengthen the religion of the state. Islam had
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  Speaker 1: political power and prestige. She was mistress of philosophy and science.
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  Speaker 1: In the beginning of the thirteenth century, the scientific works
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  Speaker 1: of Aristotle were translated from the Arabic into Latin. Roger
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  Speaker 1: Bacon and Albertus Magnus were so learned that the clergy
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  Speaker 1: accused them of being in league with the Saracens. Such
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  Speaker 1: was the Mohammedan world which the Lul dared to defy
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  Speaker 1: and planned to attack with the new weapons of love
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  Speaker 1: and learning instead of the crusader's weapons of fanaticism and
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  Speaker 1: the sword. The Christian world did not love Moslems in
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  Speaker 1: the thirteenth century, nor did they understand their religion. Marco Polo,
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  Speaker 1: a contemporary of Lull, wrote, marvel not that the Saracens
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  Speaker 1: hate the Christians, for the accursed law which Mohammed gave
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  Speaker 1: them commands them to do all the mischief in their power,
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  Speaker 1: to all other descriptions of people, and especially to Christians,
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  Speaker 1: to strip such of their goods, and to do them
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  Speaker 1: all manner of evil. In such fashion the Saracens act
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  Speaker 1: throughout the world. Dante voices the common opinion of this
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  Speaker 1: age when he puts Mohammed in the deepest hell of
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  Speaker 1: his inferno and describes his fate in such dreadful language
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  Speaker 1: as offends polite ears. But even worse things were said
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  Speaker 1: of the Arabian prophet in prose by other of Ul's contemporaries.
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  Speaker 1: Gross ignorance and great hatred were joined in nearly all
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  Speaker 1: who made any attempt to describe Mohammedanism. Alaanu stay in
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  Speaker 1: Sulis eleven fourteen to twelve hundred was one of the
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  Speaker 1: first to write a book on Islam in Latin, and
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  Speaker 1: the title shows his ignorance. Contrapaganus Seyu Mahometanus. He classes
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  Speaker 1: Moslems with Jews and Waldensis Western Europe, according to Keller,
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  Speaker 1: was ignorant even of this century in which Mohammad was born,
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  Speaker 1: and Hildebert, the Archbishop of Tours, wrote a poem on
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  Speaker 1: Mohammed in which he is represented as an apostate from
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  Speaker 1: the Christian Church. Petrus Venerabilis, whose pregnant words stand at
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  Speaker 1: the head of this chapter, was the first to translate
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  Speaker 1: the Koran and to study Islam with sympathy and scholarship.
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  Speaker 1: He made a plea for translating portions of the scripture
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  Speaker 1: into the language of the Saracens, and affirmed that the
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  Speaker 1: Koran itself had weapons with which to attack the citadel
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  Speaker 1: of Islam. But Alas he added the plea of the
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  Speaker 1: scholar at his books. I myself have no time to
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  Speaker 1: enter into the conflict. He first distinguished the true and
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  Speaker 1: the false in the teaching of Mohammed, and with keen judgment,
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  Speaker 1: pointed out the pagan and Christian elements in Islam. Petruz
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  Speaker 1: Venerabilis took up the pen of controversy and approached the
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  Speaker 1: Moslem as he says, not with arms but with words,
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  Speaker 1: not by force, but by reason, not in hatred, but
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  Speaker 1: in love. And in so far he was the first
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  Speaker 1: to breathe the true missionary spirit towards the Saracens. But
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  Speaker 1: he did not go out to them. It was reserved
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  Speaker 1: for the Spanish Knight to take up the challenge and
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  Speaker 1: go out single handed against the Saracens, not by force,
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  Speaker 1: but by reason, not in hatred, but in love. It
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  Speaker 1: was Raymond Lowell who wrote, I see many knights going
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  Speaker 1: to the Holy Land beyond the seas, and thinking that
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  Speaker 1: they can acquire it by force of arms. But in
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  Speaker 1: the end all are destroyed before they attained that which
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  Speaker 1: they think to have. Whence it seems to me that
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  Speaker 1: the conquest of the Holy Land ought not to be attempted,
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  Speaker 1: except in the way in which thou and thine apostles
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  Speaker 1: acquired it, namely by love and prayers and the pouring
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  Speaker 1: out of tears and of blood. Loll was ready to
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  Speaker 1: pro out the sacrifice on the altar. The vision remained
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  Speaker 1: with him, and his love to God demanded exercise in
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  Speaker 1: showing forth that love to men. He was not in
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  Speaker 1: doubt that God had chosen him to preach to the
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  Speaker 1: Saracens and win them to Christ. He only hesitated as
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  Speaker 1: to the best method to pursue. All the past history
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  Speaker 1: of his native land and the struggle yet going on
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  Speaker 1: in Spain emphasized wore him the greatness of the task
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  Speaker 1: before him. The Knight of Christ felt that he could
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  Speaker 1: not venture into the arena unless he had good armor.
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  Speaker 1: The son of the soldier who had fought the Moors
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  Speaker 1: on many a bloody battlefield, felt that the Saracens were
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  Speaker 1: a worthy foemen. The educated Seneschal knew that the Arabian
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  Speaker 1: schools of Cordova were the center of European learning, and
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  Speaker 1: that it was not so easy to convince a Saracen
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  Speaker 1: as a barbarian of northern Europe. At one time, we
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  Speaker 1: read Loul thought of repairing to Paris and there by
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  Speaker 1: close and diligent scientific study to train himself for controversy
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  Speaker 1: with Moslems. At Paris in the thirteenth century was the
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  Speaker 1: most famous university of Christendom, and under Saint Louis Robert
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  Speaker 1: de Sorbonne, a common priest, founded in twelve fifty three
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  Speaker 1: an unpretending theological college, which afterward became the celebrated faculty
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  Speaker 1: of the Sorbonne, with authority well nigh as great as
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  Speaker 1: that of Rome. But the advice of his kinsmen, the
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  Speaker 1: Dominican Raymond de Penaforte, dissuaded him, and he decided to
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  Speaker 1: remain at Majorca and pursue his studies and preparation privately. First,
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  Speaker 1: he laid plans for a thorough mastery of the Arabic language.
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  Speaker 1: To secure a teacher was not an easy matter, as
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  Speaker 1: Majorca had years ago passed from Saracen into Christian hands,
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  Speaker 1: and as no earnest Moslem would teach the Quran language
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  Speaker 1: to one whose prefer fast purpose was to assail Islam
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  Speaker 1: with the weapons of philosophy. He therefore decided to purchase
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  Speaker 1: a Saracen slave, and with this teacher, his biographers tell
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  Speaker 1: us that Loul was occupied in Arabic study for a
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  Speaker 1: period of more than nine years, could anything prove more
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  Speaker 1: clearly that Lul was the greatest as well as the
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  Speaker 1: first missionary to Moslems. After this long and we may
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  Speaker 1: believe successful apprenticeship with the Saracen slave, a tragic incident
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  Speaker 1: interrupted his studies. Loul had learned the language of the Moslem,
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  Speaker 1: but the Moslem slave had not yet learned the love
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  Speaker 1: of Christ, nor had his pupil. In the midst of
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  Speaker 1: their studies. On one occasion, the Sarasen blasphemed Christ. How
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  Speaker 1: we are not told, but those who work among Moslems
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  Speaker 1: know what cruel vulgar words can come from Moslem lips
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  Speaker 1: against the Son of God. When Loul heard the blasphemy,
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  Speaker 1: he struck his slave violently on the face and his
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  Speaker 1: strong indignation. The Moslem, stung to the quick, drew a weapon,
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  Speaker 1: attempted Loul's life and wounded him severely and imprisoned. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: fearing the death penalty for attempted murder, the Saracen slave
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  Speaker 1: committed suicide. It was a sad beginning for Loll in
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  Speaker 1: his work of preparation. Patience had not yet had as
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  Speaker 1: perfect work. Lol felt more than ever before. He that
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  Speaker 1: loves not lives not the vision of the thorn crowned
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  Speaker 1: head came back to him. He could not forget his covenant.
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  Speaker 1: Although he retired for eight days to amount and to
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  Speaker 1: engage in prayer and meditation, he did not walter, but
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  Speaker 1: persevered in his resolution. Even as in the case of
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  Speaker 1: Henry Martin with his Moonshi Sabat, who made life a
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  Speaker 1: burden to him, so Loul's experience with a Saracen's slave
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  Speaker 1: was a school of faith and patience. Besides his Arabic studies,
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  Speaker 1: Loul spent these nine years in spiritual meditation, in what
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  Speaker 1: he calls contemplating God. The awakened gaze turned wholly from
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  Speaker 1: the earth on things of heaven. He dwelt both day
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  Speaker 1: and night. The thought of God filled him with infinite joy.
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  Speaker 1: His craving souled well on him as a feast, as
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  Speaker 1: did the soul of wrapped Francesco in his holy cell
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  Speaker 1: in Blessed Assisi. And he knew the pain, that deep
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  Speaker 1: despondence of the saint, the doubt, the consciousness of dark offense,
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  Speaker 1: the joy of full assurance, last, when Heaven itself stands
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  Speaker 1: open to the ecstasy of faith. While thus employed, the
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  Speaker 1: idea occurred to him of composing a work which should
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  Speaker 1: contain a strict and formal demonstration of all the Christian doctrines,
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  Speaker 1: of such cogency that the Moslems could not fail to
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  Speaker 1: acknowledge its logic and in consequence embrace the truth. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: the idea was suggested to him by Raymond de Penniforte,
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  Speaker 1: for he it was who a few years previous, had
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  Speaker 1: persuaded Thomas Aquinas to compose his work in four volumes
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  Speaker 1: on the Catholic Faith or Summary against the Gentiles. In
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  Speaker 1: Laul's introduction to his Necessaria Demonstratio Articulorum Fidei, he refers
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  Speaker 1: to the time when the idea of a controversial book
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  Speaker 1: for Moslems first took possession of him, and asks the
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  Speaker 1: clergy and the one sisemen of the laity to examine
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  Speaker 1: his arguments against the Saracens in commending the Christian Faith.
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  Speaker 1: He pleads earnestly that any weak points in his attempt
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  Speaker 1: to convince the Maslem be pointed out to him before
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  Speaker 1: the book is sent on its Errand with such power
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  Speaker 1: did this one idea take possession of his mind, that
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  Speaker 1: at last he regarded it in light of a divine revelation,
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  Speaker 1: and having traced the outline of such a work, he
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  Speaker 1: called it the ARS Major Sieg generalis. This universal system
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  Speaker 1: of logic and philosophy was to be the weapon of
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  Speaker 1: God against all error, and more especially against the errors
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  Speaker 1: of Islam. Lol was now in his forty first year.
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  Speaker 1: All his intellectual powers were matured. He retired to the
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  Speaker 1: spot near Palma where the idea had first burst upon him,
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  Speaker 1: and remained there for four months, writing the book and
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  Speaker 1: praying for divine blessing on its arguments. According to one biographer,
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  Speaker 1: it was at this time that Lol held interviews with
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  Speaker 1: a certain mysterious shepherd quayum ipse nunquam vide rat alias
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  Speaker 1: ni que de ipso out verat quenquam loqui. Is it
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  Speaker 1: possible that this refers only to the great Shepherd and
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  Speaker 1: to Lol's spiritual experiences far away from his friends and family,
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  Speaker 1: in some lonely spot near Palma. The RS Major was
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  Speaker 1: finally completed in the year twelve seventy five. Loll had
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  Speaker 1: an interview with the King of Majorca, and under his
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  Speaker 1: patronage the first book of his new method was published.
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  Speaker 1: Loll also began to lecture upon it in public. This
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  Speaker 1: remarkable treatise, while in one sense intended for the special
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  Speaker 1: work of convincing Moslems, was to include a universal art
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  Speaker 1: of acquisition, demonstration, confutation, and was meant to cover the
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  Speaker 1: whole field of knowledge and to supersede the inadequate methods
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  Speaker 1: of previous schoolmen. For the method of Lolll's philosophy, we
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  Speaker 1: will wait until we reach the chapter specially devoted to
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  Speaker 1: an account of his teaching and his books. A few words, however,
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  Speaker 1: regarding the purpose of the Lolian method, are in place
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  Speaker 1: in the age of scholasticism, when all sorts of puerile
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  Speaker 1: questions were seriously debated in the schools, and philosophy was
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  Speaker 1: anything but practical. It was Loul who proposed using the
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  Speaker 1: great weapon of this age, dialectics, in the service of
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel and for the practical end of converting the Saracens.
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  Speaker 1: Let us admit that he was a scholastic, but he
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  Speaker 1: was also a missionary. His scholastic philosophy is ennobled by
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  Speaker 1: its fiery zeal for the propagation of the Gospel, and
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  Speaker 1: by the love for Christ, which purifies all its trosts
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  Speaker 1: in the flame of passion for souls. We may smile
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  Speaker 1: at Lull's dialectic and his circles and tables for finding
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  Speaker 1: out the different ways in which categories apply to things,
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  Speaker 1: but no one can help admiring the spirit that inspired
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  Speaker 1: the method. In his assertion of the place of reason
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  Speaker 1: and religion, in his demand that a rational Christianity should
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  Speaker 1: be presented to Heathendom, Lull goes far beyond the ideas
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  Speaker 1: and the aspirations of the century in which he lived.
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  Speaker 1: In judging the character of Lul's method and his long
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  Speaker 1: period of preparation, one thing must not be forgotten. The
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  Speaker 1: strength of Islam and the age of Scholasticism was its philosophy.
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  Speaker 1: Having thoroughly entered into the spirit of Arabian philosophical writings
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  Speaker 1: and seen its errors, there was nothing left for a
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  Speaker 1: man of Lull's intellect but to meet these Saracen philosophers
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  Speaker 1: on their own ground. Avicena, al Gazelle and Avrose sat
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  Speaker 1: on the throne of Moslem learning and ruled Moslem thought.
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  Speaker 1: Lull's object was to undermine their influence, and so reached
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  Speaker 1: the Moslem heart with the message of salvation. For such
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  Speaker 1: a conflict, and in such an age, his weapons were
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  Speaker 1: well chosen. End of chapter four read by Aleathia Karis,