he refined much gold; superintended the coinage of "rose-nobles;" and
made gold out of iron, quicksilver, lead, and pewter, to the amount
of six millions. The writers in the "Biographie Universelle," an
excellent authority in general, deny that Raymond was ever in England,
and say, that in all these stories of his wondrous powers as an
alchymist, he has been mistaken for another Raymond, a Jew, of
Tarragona. Naude, in his "Apologie," says, simply, "that six millions
were given by Raymond Lulli to King Edward, to make war against the
Turks and other infidels:" not that he transmuted so much metal into
gold; but, as he afterwards adds, that he advised Edward to lay a tax
upon wool, which produced that amount. To show that Raymond went to
England, his admirers quote a work attributed to him, "De
Transmutatione Animae Metallorum," in which he expressly says, that he
was in England at the intercession of the King. [Vidimus omnia ista
dum ad Angliam transiimus, propter intercessionem Domini Regis Edoardi
illustrissimi.] The hermetic writers are not agreed whether it was
Edward I, or Edward II, who invited him over; but, by fixing the date
of his journey in 1312, they make it appear that it was Edward II.
Edmond Dickenson, in his work on the "Quintessences of the
Philosophers," says, that Raymond worked in Westminster Abbey, where,
a long time after his departure, there was found in the cell which he
had occupied, a great quantity of golden dust, of which the architects
made a great profit. In the biographical sketch of John Cremer, Abbot
of Westminster, given by Lenglet, it is said, that it was chiefly
through his instrumentality that Raymond came to England. Cremer had
been himself for thirty years occupied in the vain search for the
philosopher's stone, when he accidentally met Raymond in Italy, and
endeavoured to induce him to communicate his grand secret. Raymond
told him that he must find it for himself, as all great alchymists had
done before him. Cremer, on his return to England, spoke to King