According to the original Greek, idiota means private (also as a soldier), simple, or peculiar, and it is probable that the writer in question employed it in this sense to signify that he was a person of no consequence.
In his preface to one of the works of Idiota, the Oculus Mysticus, which he published in 1641, he accounts for this discovery by the testimony of idiotic writers, and by the fact that some of the original manuscripts had been signed by Raymundus.
Biographical writers have, in general, accepted Raynaud's theory since 1654, when, under his editorship, a complete edition of the works of Idiota was published in Paris under the name of Raymundus Jordanus.
In an account of a transaction between the Canons Regular and the Bishop of Uzès in the year 1377, Raymundus is styled licentiate, and it is stated that he was elected by the chapter of his order to present and conduct its cause before an ecclesiastical tribunal presided over by Cardinal Sabinensi, which he did with ability and success.
They have all been printed several times in the "Bibliotheca Patrum", and the "Contemplationes de amore divino" are often found in small manuals bound up with the meditations of St. Augustine, St. Bernard and St. Anselm.