Bl. Raymond Lull Feastday: June 30 Possibly The Inventor of the first computer
Raymond was the son of one of the military leaders who reconquered Majorca from the Moslems. He was born at Palma, Majorca. He entered the service of King James I of Aragon, was appointed grand senechal by James and in 1257 married Blanca Picany.
After pilgrimages to Compostela and Rocamadour, he became a Franciscan tertiary, provided for his family, gave the rest of his wealth to the poor, and determined to devote the rest of his life to converting the Mohammedans.
He spent the next nine years learning all he could of Moslem philosophy, religion, and culture, and learning Arabic.
He visited Rome in 1277 to enlist the Pope's support and in 1290 joined the Friars Minor at Genoa.
After a serious illness, he went to Tunis in 1292, began preaching, but was almost immediately forcibly deported by the Muslims.
Further appeals to Popes Boniface VIII and Clement V for aid in his mission to the Mohammedans were of no help.
After lecturing at Paris on Arabic metaphysics for a time, he was successful in getting to Bougie in Barbary in 1306 but was again imprisoned and deported by the Muslims.
He wrote voluminously - more than 300 treatises (many in Arabic) on philosophy, music, navigation, law, astronomy, mathematics, and theology, chief among his writings being Arbre de philosophia de armor. He also wrote mystical poetry of the highest order and is considered the forerunner of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross; his Blanquera is the first novel written in Catalan.
Raymond's literary activity was inspired by the same purpose as his missionary and educational efforts. In the numerous writings (about 300) which came from his facile pen, in Catalonian as well as in Latin, he strove to show the errors of Averroism and to expound Christian theology in such a manner that the Muslim Saracens themselves could not fail to see the truth.
With the same purpose in view, he invented a mechanical contrivance, a logical machine, in which the subjects and predicates of theological propositions were arranged in circles, squares, triangles, and other geometrical figures, so that by moving a lever, turning a crank, or causing a wheel to revolve, the propositions would arrange themselves in the affirmative or negative and thus prove themselves to be true.
This device he called the Ars Generalis Ultima or the Ars Magna, and to the description and explanation of it he devoted his most important works.
Underlying this scheme was a theoretical philosophy, or rather a theosophy, for
the essential element in Raymond's method was the identification of theology with philosophy. The scholastics of the thirteenth century maintained that, while the two sciences agree,
so that what is true in philosophy cannot be false in theology, or vice versa, they are, nevertheless, two distinct sciences, differing especially in that theology makes use of revelation as a source, while philosophy relies on reason alone.
The Muslim Arabians had completely separated them by maintaining the twofold standard of truth, according to which what is false in philosophy may be true in theology.
Raymond, carried on by his zeal for the refutation of the Arabians, went to the opposite extreme.
He held that there is no distinction between philosophy and theology, between reason and faith, so that even the highest mysteries may be proved by means of logical demonstration and the us of the Ars Magna.
This of course removed all distinction between natural and supernatural truth.
Unlike Abelard's, however, Raymond's rationalism was of the mystic type: he taught expressly that, for the understanding of the highest truths, reason must be aided by faith; that once faith has flooded the soul with its radiance, reason, enlightened and strengthened by faith, "is as capable of showing that there are three persons in one God as it is of proving that there cannot be three Gods".
"Relying on the grace of God", he writes, "I intend to prove the articles of faith by convincing reasons" ("Opera", Strasburg ed., p. 966). On the other hand, he held that, although reason needs the Divine assistance, faith is just as much in need of reason; faith may deceive us unless reason guides it.
He who relies on faith alone is like a blind man who, relying on the sense of touch, can sometimes find what he wants but often misses it; to be certain of finding his object he needs sight as well as touch.
So Raymond held that a man, in order to find out the truth about God, must bring reason to the task as well as faith.
These principles were taken up by the followers of Raymond, known as Lullists, who for a time had so great an influence, especially in Spain, that they succeeded in founding chairs at the Universities of Barcelona and Valencia for the propagation of the doctrines of the "Illuminated Doctor".
The Church authorities, however, recognized the dangerous consequences which follow from the breaking down of the distinction between natural and supernatural truth.
Consequently, in spite of his praiseworthy zeal and his crown of martyrdom, Raymond has not been canonized. His rationalistic mysticism was formally condemned by Gregory XI in 1376 and the condemnation was renewed by Paul IV.
Raymond's works were published in ten folio volumes at Mainz, 1721-1742. There are, besides, several editions of portions of his writings.
His poems and popular treatises, written in Catalonian, had a very wide circulation, in his own day, and their style has won him a high place in the history of medieval Spanish literature. The best know edition of the works in which he describes his logical machine is the Strasburg edition of 1651. The "Rivista Lulliana", a periodical devoted to the exposition of Raymond's philosophy, was started at Barcelona in 1901.
He continued his appeals for aid to the Pope and to the Council Vienne in 1311 but agin with no success and again he returned to Bougie in 1315.
This time he was stoned and left for dead but was rescued by the Genoese sailors and died on board ship near Majorca on September 29th.
His cult was confirmed in 1858 by Pope Pius IX. His feast day is June 30th.
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