This ecclesiastic is said to have been one of the most celebrated Hermetic artists of his age. He worked thirty years to attain the end of alchemy, but the obscurities of the Hermetic writers, which he could not clear up, cast him into a labyrinth of errors. The more he read, the more he wondered; at last, tired of the loss of his money, and much more of his precious time, he set out to travel, and had the good fortune to meet with Raymond Lully in Italy. With him he formed a strict friendship, remaining some time in his company, edified by his penitent life, and illuminated by his philosophical conversations. The adept, though he spoke upon alchemy, would not, however, entirely discover the essential points of the operation. Cremer was insinuating and affectionate; he perceived that Lully’s zeal for the conversion of the infidels extended to the false enthusiasm of exciting open war against the Mohammedans, and easily persuaded him to visit England, in the hope of King Edward’s assistance. The adept lodged with his friend in the Abbey of Westminster, where he worked, and perfected the stone which Cremer had so long unsuccessfully sought. He was duly presented to the King, who, previously informed of the talents of the illustrious stranger, received him with regard and attention. When he “communicated his treasures,” the single condition which he made was that they should not be expended in the luxuries of a court or in war with a Christian prince, but that the King should go in person with an army against the infidels. Edward, under pretence of doing honour to Raymond, gave him an apartment in the Tower of London, where the adept repeated his process. He transmuted base metal into gold, which was coined at the mint into six millions of nobles, each worth three pounds sterling at the present day. These coins are well known to antiquarians by the name of Rose Nobles. They prove in the assay of the test to be a purer gold than the Jacobus, or any other gold coin made in those times. Lully in his last testament declares that in a short time, while in London, he converted twenty-two tons weight of quicksilver, lead, and tin into the precious metal. His lodging in the Tower proved only an honourable prison, and when Raymond had satisfied the desires of the King, the latter disregarded the object which the adept was so eager to see executed, and to regain his own liberty Lully was obliged to escape surreptitiously, when he quickly departed from England.