Page:A history of the Inquisition of the Middle Ages, volume 3.djvu/595

 RAYMOND LULLY. 579 suit, Leonor, with consent of her husband, exhibited to him her bosom, which was ravaged by a foul and mortal cancer. The shock brought to him so profound a recognition of the vanity of earthly things that he renounced the world and distributed his wealth in charity, after making provision for his family ; and the same indomitable ardor which had rendered him extravagant in his pleasures sustained him to the end in his new vocation. Thence- forth he devoted his life to the rescue of the Holy Sepulchre, to the conversion of the Jews and Saracens, and to the framing of a system which should demonstrate rationally the truth of the Chris- tian faith, and thus overcome the Averrhoism in which he recog- nized its most dangerous adversary.* Ten years or more were spent in preparation for this new career. We hear of a pilgrimage to Compostella in 12G6, and of his retirement to the Monte de Randa, near Palma, in 1275. He was so ignorant of letters that he was not even acquainted with Latin, the key to all the knowledge of the age. This he studied, and also Arabic, from a Saracen slave purchased for the purpose, and the earnest labors of an indefatigable mind can account for the enormous stores of learning which he subsequently displayed ; so wonderful that to his followers they appeared necessarily the result of inspiration. In his retreat on Monte de Eanda, where he conceived his Ars Universalis, he is said to have had repeated visions of Christ and the Virgin, which illuminated his mind ; and the mastic-tree under which he habitually wrote bore testimony to the miracle, in its leaves inscribed with Latin, Greek, Chaldee, and Arabic characters. It continued to put forth such leaves. In the seventeenth century Vicente Mut vouches for the fact, and says he has some of them, while Wadding tells us that in his time they were carried to Rome, where they excited much wonder. When his work was completed an angel in the guise of a shep- herd appeared, who kissed the book many times, and predicted that it would prove an invincible weapon for the faith. f Emerging from his retreat, for forty years he led a wandering doxos Espaiioles, I. 514-15. — Nic. Anton. Bibl. Hispan. Lib. ix. c. iii. No. 73. t Mariana, Hist, de Espaiia, Lib. xv. c. 4. — Hist. Gen. de Mallorca, I. 601, III. 44_6._Nic. Anton. 1. c. No. 74.— Wadding, ann. 1275, No. 12.
 * Historia General de Mallorca, III. 40-2 (Palma, 1841). — Pelayo, Hetero-