VIII. in his favourite project of establishing missionary colleges were unavailing; but a visit to Paris in 1298 was attended with a certain measure of success. He was, however, disappointed in his main object, and in 1300 he sailed to Cyprus to seek support for his plan of teaching Oriental languages in universities and monasteries. He was rebuffed once more, but continued his campaign with undiminished energy. Between 1302 and 1305 he wrote treatises at Genoa, lectured at Paris, visited Lyons in the vain hope of enlisting the sympathies of Pope Clement V., crossed over to Bougie in Africa, preached the gospel, and was imprisoned there for six months. On being released he lectured with increasing effect at Paris, attended the General Council at Vienne in 1311, and there witnessed the nominal adoption of his cherished proposals. Though close on eighty years of age, Lull’s ardour was unabated. He carried on his propaganda at Majorca, Paris, Montpellier and Messina, and in 1314 crossed over once more to Bougie. Here he resumed his crusade against Mahommedanism, raised the fanatical spirit of the inhabitants, was stoned outside the city walls and died of his wounds on the 29th of June 1315. There can be no reasonable doubt that these events actually occurred, but the scene is laid by one biographer at Tunis instead of Bougie.
The circumstances of Lull’s death caused him to be regarded as a martyr, local patriotism helped to magnify his merits, and his fantastic doctrines found many enthusiastic partisans. The doctor illuminatus was venerated throughout Catalonia and afterwards throughout Spain, as a saint, a thinker and a poet; but his doctrines were disapproved by the powerful Dominican order, and in 1376 they were formally condemned in a papal bull issued at the instance of the inquisitor, Nicolas Emeric. The authenticity of this document was warmly disputed by Lull’s followers, and the bull was annulled by Martin V. in 1417. The controversy was renewed in 1503 and again in 1578; but the general support of the Jesuits and the staunch fidelity of the Majorcans saved Lull from condemnation. His philosophical treatises abound with incoherent formulae to which, according to their inventor, every demonstration in every science may be reduced, and posterity has ratified Bacon’s disdainful verdict on Lull’s pretensions as a thinker; still the fact that he broke away from the scholastic system has recommended him to the historians of philosophy, and the subtle ingenuity of his dialectic has compelled the admiration of men so far apart in opinion as Giordano Bruno and Leibniz.
The speculations of Lull are now obsolete outside Majorca where his philosophy still flourishes, but his more purely literary writings are extremely curious and interesting. In Blanquerna (1283), a novel which describes a new Utopia, Lull renews the Platonic tradition and anticipates the methods of Sir Thomas More, Campanella and Harrington, and in the Libre de Maravelles (1286) he adopts the Oriental apologue from Kalilah and Dimnah. And as a poet Lull takes a prominent position in the history of Catalan literature; such pieces as El Desconort (1295) and Lo Cant de Ramon (1299) combine in a rare degree simple beauty of expression with sublimity of thought and impassioned sincerity.
Bibliography.—Histoire littéraire de la France (Paris, 1885), vol. xxix.; Obras rimadas de Ramon Lull (Palma, 1859), edited by G. Rosselló; Obras de Ramon Lull (Palma, in progress), edited by G. Rosselló; José R. de Luanco, Ramon Lull, considerado como alquimista (Barcelona, 1870) and La Alquimia en España (2 vols., Barcelona, 1889–1897); K. Hofmann, “Ein Katalanische Thierepos,” in the Bavarian Academy’s Abhandlungen (Munich, 1872), vol. xii. pp. 173-240; M. Menéndez y Pelayo, Origenes de la novela (Madrid, 1905), pp. 72-86; Havelock Ellis in Contemporary Review (May 1906). (J. F.-K.)
LULLABY, a cradle-song, a song sung to children to “lull” them to sleep; the melody being styled in Fr. berceuse and in Ger. Wiegenlied. “Lull,” cf. Swed. lulla, Du. lullen, &c., is of echoic or onomatopoeic origin, cf. Lat. lallare, to chatter.
LULLY, JEAN-BAPTISTE (c. 1633–1687), Italian composer, was born in Florence. Through the duc de Guise he entered the services of Madame de Montpensier as scullery-boy, and with the help of this lady his musical talents were cultivated. A scurrilous poem on his patroness resulted in his dismissal. He then studied the theory of music under Métra and entered the orchestra of the French court, being subsequently appointed director of music to Louis XIV. and director of the Paris opera. The influence of his music produced a radical revolution in the style of the dances of the court itself. Instead of the slow and stately movements which had prevailed until then, he introduced lively ballets of rapid rhythm. In December 1661 he was naturalized as a Frenchman, his original name being Giovanni Battista Lulli. In 1662 he was appointed music master to the royal family. In 1681 he was made a court secretary to the king and ennobled. While directing a Te Deum on the 8th of January 1687 with a rather long baton he injured his foot so seriously that a cancerous growth resulted which caused his death on the 22nd of March. Having found a congenial poet in Quinault, Lully composed twenty operas, which met with a most enthusiastic reception. Indeed he has good claim to be considered the founder of French opera, forsaking the Italian method of separate recitative and aria for a dramatic consolidation of the two and a quickened action of the story such as was more congenial to the taste of the French public. He effected important improvements in the composition of the orchestra, into which he introduced several new instruments. Lully enjoyed the friendship of Molière, for some of whose best plays he composed illustrative music. His Miserere, written for the funeral of the minister Sequier, is a work of genius; and very remarkable are also his minor sacred compositions. On his death-bed he wrote Bisogna morire, peccatore.
LUMBAGO, a term in medicine applied to a painful ailment affecting the muscles of the lower part of the back, generally regarded as of rheumatic origin. An attack of lumbago may occur alone, or be associated with rheumatism in other parts of the body. It usually comes on by a seizure, often sudden, of pain in one or both sides of the small of the back, of a severe cutting or stabbing character, greatly aggravated on movement of the body, especially in attempting to rise from the recumbent posture and also in the acts of drawing a deep breath, coughing or sneezing. So intense is the suffering that it is apt to suggest the existence of inflammation in some of the neighbouring internal organs, such as the kidneys, bowels, &c., but the absence of the symptoms specially characteristic of these latter complaints, or of any great constitutional disturbance beyond the pain, renders the diagnosis a matter of no great difficulty. Lumbago seems to be brought on by exposure to cold and damp, and by the other exciting causes of rheumatism. Sometimes it follows a strain of the muscles of the loins. The attack is in general of short duration, but occasionally it continues for a long time, as a feeling of soreness and stiffness on movement. The treatment includes that for rheumatic affections in general (see Rheumatism) and the application of local remedies to allay the pain.
LUMBER, a word now meaning (1) useless discarded furniture or other rubbish, particularly if of a bulky or heavy character; (2) timber, when roughly sawn or cut into logs or beams (see Timber); (3) as a verb, to make a loud rumbling noise, to move in a clumsy heavy way, also to burden with useless material, to encumber. “Lumber” and “lumber-house” were formerly used for a pawnbroker’s shop, being in this sense a variant of “Lombard,” a name familiar throughout Europe for a banker, money-changer or pawnbroker. This has frequently been taken to be the origin of the word in sense (1), the reference being to the store of unredeemed and unsaleable articles accumulating in pawnbrokers’ shops. Skeat adopts this in preference to the connexion with “lumber” in sense (3), but thinks that the word may have been influenced by both sources (Etym. Dict., 1910). This word is probably of Scandinavian origin, and is cognate with a Swedish dialect word lomra, meaning “to roar,” a frequentative of ljumma, “to make a noise.” The English word may be of native origin and merely onomatopoeic. The New English Dictionary, though admitting the probability of the association with “Lombard,” prefers the second proposed derivation. The application of the word to timber is of American origin; the New English Dictionary quotes from Suffolk (Mass.) Deeds of 1662—“Freighted in Boston, with beames . . . boards . . . and other lumber.”
LUMBINĪ, the name of the garden or grove in which Gotama, the Buddha, was born. It is first mentioned in a very ancient Pali ballad preserved in the Sutta Nipāta (verse 583). This
de Tárraga (c. 1370), a converted Jew who studied the occult. Others are ascribed by Morhof to a Raymundus Lullius Neophytus, who lived about 1440. See Alchemy, and also J. Ferguson, Bibliotheca chemica (1906).
