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Raymond's apartments in the Tower were only an honorable prison; and he soon
perceived how matters were. He declared that Edward would meet with nothing but
misfortune and misery for his breach of faith. He made his escape from England in 1315,
and set off once more to preach to the infidels. He was now a very old man, and none of
his friends could ever hope to see his face again.

"He went first to Egypt, then to Jerusalem, and thence to Tunis a third time. There he at
last met with the martyrdom he had so often braved. The people fell upon him and stoned
him. Some Genoese merchants carried away his body, in which they discerned some
feeble signs of life. They carried him on board their vessel; but, though he lingered
awhile, he died as they came in sight of Majorca, on the 28th of June, 1315, at the age of
eighty-one. He was buried with great honour in his family chapel at St. Ulma, the viceroy
and all the principal nobility attending."

NICHOLAS FLAMMEL

In the latter part of the fourteenth century there lived in Paris one whose business was
that of illuminating manuscripts and preparing deeds and documents. To Nicholas
Flammel the world is indebted for its knowledge of a most remarkable volume, which he
bought for a paltry sum from some bookdealer with whom his profession of scrivener
brought him in contact. The story of this curious document, called the Book of Abraham
the Jew, is best narrated

Click to enlarge
TITLE PAGE OF ALCHEMICAL TRACT ATTRIBUTED TO JOHN CREMER.

From Musæum Hermeticum Reformatum et Amplificatum.

John Cremer, the mythical Abbot of Westminster, is an interesting personality in the alchemical imbroglio
of the fourteenth century. As it is not reasonably certain that m abbot by such a name ever occupied the See
of Westminster, the question naturally arises, "Who was the person concealing his identity under the
Pseudonym of John Cremer?" Fictitious characters such as John Cremer illustrate two important practices
of mediæval alchemists: (1) many persons of high political or religious rank were secretly engaged in
Hermetic chemical research but, fearing persecution and ridicule, published their findings under various
pseudonyms; (2) for thousands of years it was the practice of those initiates who possessed the true key to
the great Hermetic arcanum to perpetuate their wisdom by creating imaginary persons, involving them in
episodes of contemporaneous history and thus establishing these beings as prominent members of society--
in some cases even fabricating complete genealogies to attain that end. The names by which these fictitious
characters were known revealed nothing to the uniformed. To the initiated, however, they signified that the
personality to which they were assigned had no existence other than a symbolic one. These initiated
chroniclers carefully concealed their arcanum in the lives, thoughts, words. and acts ascribed to these