Ramon Lull

Ramón Lull , or Raymond Lully, c.1232-1316?, Catalan philosopher, b. Palma, Majorca. Of a wealthy family, he lived in ease until c.1263, when he had a religious experience and was fired with ambition to convert Muslims to Christianity. He studied Arabic language and literature and founded (1276) a college in Majorca for the study of Arabic. In 1292 he went to Tunis and challenged Muslim scholars to public debates. He was forcibly deported but made a second trip to North Africa in 1307 to combat the teachings of Averroës and again was banished. The tradition that he was stoned to death on a third trip that began in 1315 cannot be substantiated. Lull's chief work— Ars magna [the great art]—was a defense of Christianity against the teachings of Averroës. Lull maintained that philosophy (including science) was not divorced from theology and that every article of faith could be demonstrated perfectly by logic.

Bibliography: See biographies by E. A. Peers (1946, repr. 1969) and L. Brophy (1960); study by J. N. Hillgarth (1971).

Llull, Ramon (c.1233–c.1315), also Raymond Lull, missionary and philosopher. He was born in Majorca, then recently recovered from Islamic rule, and educated as a knight. At the age of 30 he had a vision of Christ crucified; thenceforth he devoted himself to the conversion of Islam. For nine years he remained in Majorca studying Arabic and Christian thought. In a vision on Mt Randa (c.1274) the form in which he was to set out his ideas was revealed to him; he worked this out in his ‘Art of Finding Truth’. From 1287 he travelled widely, seeking support for his plans. His one practical success was the decree of the Council of Vienne (1311–2) establishing studia of oriental languages in five universities.

In his writing Llull elaborated an approach by which he sought the conversion of Islam and of the Jews by rational argument, without recourse to the authority of Scripture. He tried to relate ‘all forms of knowledge … to the manifestations of God's “Dignities” [i.e. Divine Attributes] in the universe, taking for its point of departure the monotheistic vision common to Judaism, Islam, and Christianity, and their acceptance of a broadly Neoplatonic exemplarist world-picture’ ( R. D. F. Pring-Mill). His conception of the mystic life centres in the contemplation of the Divine perfections which is achieved by the purification of memory, understanding, and will, and results in action for the greater glory of God.