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

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  Speaker 1: Chapter five of Raymond Lowell, First Missionary to the Moslems
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  Speaker 1: by Samuels Wemer. This LibriVox recording is in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: Chapter five at Montpellier, Paris and Rome eighty twelve seventy
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  Speaker 1: five to twelve ninety eight. I have but one passion,
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  Speaker 1: and it is he only Zinzendorff, in his assertion of
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  Speaker 1: the function of reason in religion and his demand that
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  Speaker 1: a rational Christianity be placed before Islam. This don quixote
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  Speaker 1: of his times belongs to our day Frederick Perry Noble.
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  Speaker 1: It is difficult to follow the story of Loll's life
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  Speaker 1: in exact chronological order, because the sources at our disposal
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  Speaker 1: do not always agree in their dates. However, by grouping
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  Speaker 1: the events of his life, order comes out of confusion.
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  Speaker 1: Loll's life work was threefold. He devised a philosophical or
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  Speaker 1: educational system for persuading non Christians of the truth of Christianity.
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  Speaker 1: He established missionary colleges, and he himself went and preached
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  Speaker 1: to the Moslems, and his witness with martyrdom. The story
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  Speaker 1: of his life is best told and remembered if we
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  Speaker 1: follow this clue to its many years of loving service.
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  Speaker 1: Lowell himself when he was about sixty years old, reviews
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  Speaker 1: his life in these words. I had a wife and children,
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  Speaker 1: I was tolerably rich. I led a secular life. All
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  Speaker 1: these things I cheerfully resigned for the sake of promoting
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  Speaker 1: the common good and diffusing abroad the Holy faith. I
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  Speaker 1: learned Arabic. I have several times gone abroad to preach
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  Speaker 1: the Gospel to the Saracens. I have, for the sake
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  Speaker 1: of the faith, been cast into prison and scourged. I
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  Speaker 1: have labored forty five years to gain over the shepherds
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  Speaker 1: of the Church and the princes of Europe to the
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  Speaker 1: common good of Christendom. Now I am old and poor,
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  Speaker 1: but still I am intent on the same object. I
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  Speaker 1: will persevere in it till death, if the Lord permits it.
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  Speaker 1: The sentence italicized is a subject of this chapter, the
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  Speaker 1: story of Loll's efforts to found missionary schools and to
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  Speaker 1: persuade popes and princes that the true crusade was to
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  Speaker 1: be with the pen and not with the sword. It
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  Speaker 1: was a grand idea, and it was startlingly novel in
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  Speaker 1: the age of Loull. It was an idea that, next
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  Speaker 1: to his favorite scheme, of philosophy possessed his whole soul.
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  Speaker 1: Both ideas were thoroughly missionary, and they interacted the one
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  Speaker 1: on the other. No sooner had Lull completed his Ar's
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  Speaker 1: Major and lectured on it in public, than he set
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  Speaker 1: to work to persuade the King James the Second, who
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  Speaker 1: had heard of his zeal, to found and endow a
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  Speaker 1: monastery in Majorca where Franciscan monks should be instructed in
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  Speaker 1: the Arabic language and trained to become able disputants among
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  Speaker 1: the Moslems. The king welcomed the idea, and in the
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  Speaker 1: year twelve seventy six such a monastery was opened and
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  Speaker 1: thirteen months began to study Lull's method and imbibe of
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  Speaker 1: Loull's spirit. He aimed not at a mere school of
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  Speaker 1: theology or philosophy. His ideal training for the foreign field
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  Speaker 1: was ahead of many theological colleges of our century. It
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  Speaker 1: included in its curriculum the geography of missions and the
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  Speaker 1: language of the Saracens. Knowledge of the regions of the world,
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  Speaker 1: he wrote, is strongly necessary for the republic of believers
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  Speaker 1: and the con version of unbelievers, and forwithstanding infidels and
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  Speaker 1: anti Christ. The man unacquainted with geography, is not only
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  Speaker 1: ignorant where he walks, but whither he leads. Whether he
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  Speaker 1: attempts the conversion of infidels or works for other interests
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  Speaker 1: of the Church, it is indispensable that he knows the
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  Speaker 1: religions and the environments of all nations. This is high
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  Speaker 1: water marked for the Dark Ages. The pioneer for Africa
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  Speaker 1: six centuries before Livingstone felt what the latter expressed more concisely,
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  Speaker 1: but not more forcibly. The end of the geographical feat
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  Speaker 1: is the beginning of the missionary enterprise. Authorities disagree whether
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  Speaker 1: this missionary training school of Lowell was opened under the
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  Speaker 1: patronage of the King at Palma or at Montpelier. From
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  Speaker 1: the fact that in twelve ninety seven Lowell received letters
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  Speaker 1: at Montpelier from the General of the Franciscans recommending him
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  Speaker 1: to the superiors of all Franciscan houses, it seems that
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  Speaker 1: he must have formed connections with the brotherhood there at
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  Speaker 1: an early period. Montpelier, now a town of considerable importance
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  Speaker 1: in the south of France near the Gulf of Lyons,
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  Speaker 1: dates's prosperity from the beginning of the twelfth century. In
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  Speaker 1: twelve o four, it became a dependency of the House
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  Speaker 1: of Aragon through marriage, and remained so until thirteen fifty.
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  Speaker 1: Several church councils were held there during the thirteenth century,
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  Speaker 1: and in twelve ninety two, Pope Nicholas the Fourth, probably
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  Speaker 1: at the suggestion of Louell, founded a university at Montpelier.
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  Speaker 1: Its medical school was famous in the Middle Ages, and
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  Speaker 1: had in its faculty learned Jews who were educated in
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  Speaker 1: the Moorish schools of Spain. At Montpelier, Lull spent three
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  Speaker 1: or four years in study and in teaching here. Most
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  Speaker 1: probably he wrote his medical works and some of his
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  Speaker 1: books appealing for help to open other missionary schools in
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  Speaker 1: one place. He thus pleads, with words of fire for
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  Speaker 1: consecration to this cause. I find scarcely any one, O Lord, who,
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  Speaker 1: out of love to thee, as ready to suffer martyrdom
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  Speaker 1: as thou hast suffered for us. It appears to me
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  Speaker 1: agreeable to reason if an ordinance to that effect could
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  Speaker 1: be obtained, that the monks should learn various languages, that
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  Speaker 1: they might be a to go out and surrender their
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  Speaker 1: lives and love to THEE, O Lord of Glory. If
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  Speaker 1: that blessed day should ever be in which I might
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  Speaker 1: see thy holy monks so influenced by zeal to glorify
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  Speaker 1: thee as to go to foreign lands in order to
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  Speaker 1: testify of thy holy ministry, of thy blessed incarnation, and
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  Speaker 1: of thy bitter sufferings. That would be a glorious day,
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  Speaker 1: a day in which that glow of devotion would return,
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  Speaker 1: with which the Holy Apostles met deaths for their Lord
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  Speaker 1: Jesus Christ. Lol longed with all his soul for a
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  Speaker 1: new Pentecost and for world wide missions. Montpellier was too
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  Speaker 1: small to be his parish. Although he was but a layman.
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  Speaker 1: His ambition was, in his own words, to gain over
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  Speaker 1: the shepherds of the Church and the princes of Europe
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  Speaker 1: to be commissionary enthusiasts like himself. Where should he place
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  Speaker 1: his fulcroom to exert leverage to this end save at
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  Speaker 1: the very center of Christendom. Popes had inaugurated and promoted
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  Speaker 1: the crusades of Blood. They held the keys of spiritual
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  Speaker 1: and temporal power. Their command in the Middle Ages was
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  Speaker 1: as a voice from Heaven. Their favor was the due
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  Speaker 1: of blessing. Moreover, Loll's success was the king of Aragon
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  Speaker 1: led him to hope that the chief shepherd of Christendam
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  Speaker 1: might evince a similar interest in his plans. He therefore
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  Speaker 1: undertook a journey to Rome in twelve eighty six, hoping
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  Speaker 1: to obtain from Honorius the Fourth the approbation of his
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  Speaker 1: treatise and aid in founding missionary schools in various parts
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  Speaker 1: of Europe. Honorius was distinguished during his brief pontificate for
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  Speaker 1: zeal and love of learning. He cleared the papal states
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  Speaker 1: of bands of robbers, and attempted, in favor of learning,
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  Speaker 1: to found a school of Oriental languages at Paris. Had
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  Speaker 1: he lived, it is possible that Lowell would have succeeded
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  Speaker 1: in his quest. Honorius died April third, twelve eighty seven.
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  Speaker 1: Raymond Louell came to Rome, but found the papal chair
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  Speaker 1: vacant and all men busy with one thing, the election
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  Speaker 1: of his successor. He waited for calmer times, but impediments
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  Speaker 1: were always thrown in his way. His plans met with
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  Speaker 1: some ridicule and with little encouragement. The cardinals cared for
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  Speaker 1: their own ambitions more than for the conversion of the world.
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  Speaker 1: Nicholas the Fourth succeeded to the papal's and his character
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  Speaker 1: was such that we do not wonder that Lull gave
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  Speaker 1: up the idea of persuading him to become a missionary.
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  Speaker 1: He was a man without faith, and his monstrous disregard
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  Speaker 1: of treaties and oaths in the controversy with the King
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  Speaker 1: of Aragon Alfonso struck at the root of all honor.
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  Speaker 1: He believed in fighting the Saracens with the sword only,
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  Speaker 1: and sought actively but vainly, to organize another crusade. Not
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  Speaker 1: until ten years after did Lull again venture to appeal
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  Speaker 1: to a pope. Disappointed at Rome, Lull repaired to Paris
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  Speaker 1: and there lectured in the university on his urs generalies,
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  Speaker 1: composing other works on various sciences, but most of all
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  Speaker 1: preparing his works of controversy and seeking to propagate his
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  Speaker 1: ideas of world conquest. In one of his books, he
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  Speaker 1: praised fervently that monks of holy lives and great wisdom
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  Speaker 1: should form institutions in order to learn various languages and
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  Speaker 1: to be able to preach to unbelievers. The times were
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  Speaker 1: not ripe. At length, tired of seeking aid for his plans,
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  Speaker 1: in which no one took interest. He determined to test
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  Speaker 1: the power of example, although in his fifty sixth year
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  Speaker 1: he determined to set out alone and single handed and
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  Speaker 1: preach Christ in North Africa. Of this first missionary voyage,
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  Speaker 1: our next chapter contains an account on his return from
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  Speaker 1: Tunis twelve ninety two. Lull found his way to Naples.
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  Speaker 1: Here a new influence was brought to bear on his character.
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  Speaker 1: He made the acquaintance of the alchemist and pious nobleman
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  Speaker 1: Arnault de Villeneux. Whether Lull actually acquired skill in transmuting
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  Speaker 1: medals and wrote some of the many works on alchemy
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  Speaker 1: that are attributed to him, will perhaps never be decided.
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  Speaker 1: I rather think this part of the story is medieval legend.
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  Speaker 1: But surely a man of Louel's affections imbibed a great
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  Speaker 1: deal of that spirit which brought down on Arnold of
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  Speaker 1: Villeneuve the censure of the Church for holding that medicine
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  Speaker 1: and charity were more pleasing to God than religious services.
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  Speaker 1: Arnold taught that the monks had corrupted the doctrine of Christ,
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  Speaker 1: and that saying masses is useless, and that the papacy
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  Speaker 1: is a work of man. His writings were condemned by
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  Speaker 1: the Inquisition, as were also the works of Loull. Perhaps
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  Speaker 1: these brothers in heresy were really Protestants at heart, and
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  Speaker 1: their friendship was like that of the friends of God.
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  Speaker 1: For the next few years, the scene of Lould's labours
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  Speaker 1: changed continually. He first went back to Paris, resumed his
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  Speaker 1: teachings there, and wrote his Tabula Generalies and Urs Expositiva.
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  Speaker 1: In twelve ninety eight he succeeded in establishing at Paris,
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  Speaker 1: under the protection of King Louis Philippe LaBelle, a college
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  Speaker 1: where his method was taught. But all France was an
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  Speaker 1: affirment at this time. Because of the war against the
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  Speaker 1: Knights Templars and the struggle with Pope Bonifice the eighth
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  Speaker 1: there was little leisure to study philosophy and no inclination
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  Speaker 1: to become propagandists among the Saracens. Loul's thoughts again turned
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  Speaker 1: to Rome, but alas Rome in the thirteenth century was
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  Speaker 1: the last place of all Europe in which to find
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  Speaker 1: the spirit of self sacrifice or the spirit of Christian missions.
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  Speaker 1: About the year twelve seventy four, the cessation of church
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  Speaker 1: miracles was urged by an upholder of the crusade spirit
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  Speaker 1: as compelling the church to resort to arms. Pope Clement
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  Speaker 1: the fourth twelve sixty five to twelve sixty eight advised
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  Speaker 1: fighting Islam by force of arms. As a rule, the
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  Speaker 1: popes clung to the crusade idea as the ideal of missions.
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  Speaker 1: Loll visited Rome the second time between twelve ninety four
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  Speaker 1: and twelve ninety six. He had heard of the elevation
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  Speaker 1: of Celestine the Fifth to the papal chair, and with
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  Speaker 1: some reason hoped that this pope would favor his cause.
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  Speaker 1: Celestine was a man of austerity, the founder of an
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  Speaker 1: order of friars, and zealous for the faith. On the
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  Speaker 1: fifteenth of July twelve ninety four, he was elected, but
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  Speaker 1: compelled by the machinations of his successor, resigned his office.
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  Speaker 1: On December thirteenth of the same year, he was cruelly
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  Speaker 1: imprisoned by the new Pope, Boniface the Eighth, and died
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  Speaker 1: two years later. Boniface was bold, avaricious, and domineering. His
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  Speaker 1: ambitions centered in himself. He carried his schemes for self
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  Speaker 1: aggrandizement to the verge of frenzy, and afterward became insane.
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  Speaker 1: Loll found neither sympathy nor assistance in this quarter. From
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  Speaker 1: twelve ninety nine to thirteen o six, when he made
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  Speaker 1: his second great journey to North Africa, Loull preached and
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  Speaker 1: taught in various places, as we shall see later. In
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  Speaker 1: thirteen ten, the veteran hero, now seventy five years old,
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  Speaker 1: attempted once more to influence the heart of Christendom and
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  Speaker 1: to persuade the Pope to make the church true to
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  Speaker 1: its great mission. Full of his old ardor. Since he
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  Speaker 1: himself was unable to attempt the great plans of spiritual
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  Speaker 1: conquests that consumed his very heart, he conceived the idea
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  Speaker 1: of founding an order of spiritual knights who should be
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  Speaker 1: ready to preach the Saracens and so recover the tomb
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  Speaker 1: of Christ by a crusade of love. Footnote not, as
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  Speaker 1: wrongly stated in some articles about Loll, a proposal to
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  Speaker 1: use force of arms and footnote. Pious noblemen and ladies
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  Speaker 1: of rank at Genoah offered to contribute for this object
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  Speaker 1: the sum of thirty thousand guilders. Much encouraged by this
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  Speaker 1: proof of interest, Loll set out for Avignon to lay
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  Speaker 1: his scheme before the Pope Clement the fifth. He was
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  Speaker 1: the first pope who fixed his residence at Avignon, thus
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  Speaker 1: beginning the so called Babylonian captivity of the papacy. Contemporaneous
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  Speaker 1: writers accused him of licentiousness, nepotism, simony, and avarice. It
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  Speaker 1: is no wonder that with such a man holding the
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  Speaker 1: keys of authority, Lol again knocked at the door of
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  Speaker 1: the Vicar of Christ all in Vain. Once more. Loul
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  Speaker 1: returned to Paris, and, strong in mind, although feeble in frame,
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  Speaker 1: attacked the Arabian philosophy of Avrose and wrote in defense
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  Speaker 1: of the faith and the doctrines of revelation footnote. See
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  Speaker 1: the bibliography and consult Rhenan's Avrajoust at la avrooss Me
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  Speaker 1: for particulars of his method and success. The Avroists from
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  Speaker 1: the thirteenth century onward opposed reason to faith. Lol's great
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  Speaker 1: task was to show that they were not irreconcilable, but
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  Speaker 1: mutually related and in harmony. It was, in fact the
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  Speaker 1: battle of faith against agnosticism and footnote. At Paris, he
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  Speaker 1: heard that a general conference was to be summoned at Vienne,
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  Speaker 1: three hundred miles away in the south of France on
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  Speaker 1: October sixteenth, thirteen eleven, a general council might favor what
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  Speaker 1: popes had scarcely deigned to notice. So he retraced the
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  Speaker 1: long journey he had just taken. Nearly three hundred prelates
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  Speaker 1: were present at the council. The combat of heresies, the
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  Speaker 1: abrogation of the Order of Templars, proposals for new crusades,
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  Speaker 1: and discussions as to the legitimacy of Boniface the Eighth
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  Speaker 1: occupied the most attention. Nevertheless, the council gave heed to
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  Speaker 1: at least one of Lull's proposals, and passed a decree
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  Speaker 1: that professorships of the Oriental languages should be endowed in
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  Speaker 1: the universities of Paris, Salamanca and Oxford, and in all
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  Speaker 1: cities where the Papal court resided. Thus, at last he
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  Speaker 1: had lived to see one portion of his lifelong pleadings
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  Speaker 1: brought to Fruition, who was able to follow out the
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  Speaker 1: result permissions of these first Oriental language chairs in the
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  Speaker 1: European universities, even as far as Saintly Martin and Ian
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  Speaker 1: Keith Falconer, Arabic professor at Cambridge. For this great idea
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  Speaker 1: of missionary preparation in the schools. Lull thought single handed
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  Speaker 1: from early manhood to old age until he stood on
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  Speaker 1: the threshold of success. He anticipated Loyola, Sinzendorf, and death
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  Speaker 1: in linking schools to missions, and his fire of passion
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  Speaker 1: for this object equalled if no surpassed their zeal. End
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  Speaker 1: of Chapter five read by Alethia Chris