Part I, Question 2: ‘‘Vincent of Beauvais in

his ‘Speculum historiale,’ quoting many learned authorities, says that he who first practised the arts of magic and astrology was Zoroaster, who is said to have been Cham (Ham), the son of Noe.” This tradition is very frequently Sound. See my note on above passage in my translation of the ‘‘Malleus Maleficarum’’ (p. 15), John Rodker, 1928.
MALEFICARUM 5
wall and broke it, and in a moment mended it again; and other like things she did. She escaped from the hands of the Inquisition with a sentence of excommunication.
From the same source we hear of a conjurer in France named _ Trois Eschelles,§ who in the sight of all and in the presence of Charles IX, called the Praiseworthy King, charmed from a certain nobleman standing at a distance from him the rings of his necklace, so that they flew one by one into his hand, as it seemed; and yet the necklace was soon found to be whole and uninjured. This man was convicted of many actions which could not have been due to human art or skill or any natural cause, and confessed that they were all devil’s work, although he had obstinately denied this before.
John Trithemius || tells that much earlier, in the year 876 during the time of the Emperor Louis, a certain Zedechias, a Jew by religion and a physician by profession, worked won- ders in the presence of Princes. For he appeared to devour a cart loaded with straw, together with the horses and the driver; he used to cut off men’s heads and hands and feet, and exhibit them in a bowl dripping with blood, and then suddenly he would restore the men unharmed each to his own place; and in mid-winter he created in Caesar’s palace a most beautiful garden, with trees, grass, flowers, and the singing of suddenly produced birds.
§ “Trois-eschelles.” For whom see “The Geography of Witchcraft,” by Montague Sum- mers, ¢. 0, pp. 398-9 and 426. Also Bodin, ‘‘Demonomanie’”’ (ed. Lyons, 1593), Il, 5, Pp. 329-30; IV, 4, pp. 421-2; and IV, 5»
. 509. P sohn Trithemius.”? The famous Bene- dictine abbot was born at Trittenheim, 1 Feb- ruary, 1462; and died at Wiirzburg, 13 De- cember, 1516. :
q ‘Louis.’ Louis le Germanique, third son of Louis le Debonnaire, born 806; died 876.
6 COMPENDIUM
Thomas Fazelli, O.P.,* relates in his De rebus Siculis, Decade II. v. 2 (also Dec. I. iii. 1) wonders of a certain Diodorus, commonly known as Lio- dorus, who was endowed with magic art and flourished at Catania by means of his marvellous skill in illu- sions. This man, by the force of his incantations, appeared to change men into brute beasts, to effect a meta- morphosis of nearly all things into new shapes, and instantly to bring to himself objects very far distant from him. Moreover by slandering and insulting and reviling the people of Catania he bound them with such vain credulity that he incited them to worship him. When he was de- livered up to be punished with death, by means of his pre-eminent skill in incantations he had himself carried out of his gaolers’ hands through the air from Catania to Byzantium, to which Sicily was then subject, and back again from Byzantium to Catania in a very short space of time. And the people so wondered at this magic that they thought there was some divine power in him, and in sacri- legious error began to worship him. At length Leo, the Bishop of Catania, received a sudden power from God and in the midst of the city caused him to be cast in the sight of all into
* “Thomas Fazelli, O.P.”? This famous historian, one of the glories of the Dominican Order, was born in 1498 at Sacca, a town of Sicily, not far from Palermo, where whilst yet young he joined the famous Priory of San Dome- nico. “‘In omni scientiarum genere excelluit. Orator enim euasit, poeta, philosophus, theolo- gus Patauti laureatus.” Thus the old bio- grapher. Amongst the works of Thomas Faz- ellt the most important are: the posthumous ““Thesaurum Antiquitatum et Historiarum Stciliarium,’? Tomi x, 1579, and the history which ts quoted here, ‘“De rebus Siculis de- cades duo,’ “‘nunc primum in lucem edita,”’ Panormi, folio, 1558. This was soon trans- lated into Italian. Fra Fazelli died at the Palermo convent, 8 April, 1570. For fuller details see Quétif-Echard, ‘‘Scriptores Ordinis Praedicatorum,”’ vol. II, pp. 212-13.
BK. I. CH. II.
a furnace of fire, in which he was burned. In this way divine justice prevailed; for he who had escaped death at the too lenient hands of the judges, could not escape from the hands of the Holy Man.
In our own times they say that one Cesare, a Maltese, was captured by the Parisians, but cunningly escaped from prison; and this, among other charges, was brought up against him in judgement by Bazius the Inquisitor. But as he was being exhorted to fear damnation, and the Governor of that time had required the Ecclesiastical Judges to preside over the enquiry, he broke away into the midst of the Court and there began to do many fresh marvels. He caused another person to hold magic cards in his hands, and standing at a distance he altered their appearance two or three times: he charmed to himself vessels placed on another part of the table by merely moving a small piece of glass: at times he divined the thoughts of others, as when he scattered on the table a great number of small grains of sugar, and told each man which grain he was thinking of; and even if any one was doubtful of his choice, he would then come to a decision after a little hesitation, boasting that he had long before known which they would choose: and many other such marvels he claimed to perform. Wherefore he was a third time called to trial by the illustrious Archbishop of Malines, the learned Hovius,f in the year 1600; and though he undertook to appear, he escaped to a refuge with a Prince who was the chief champion of Antichrist.
{ ‘“‘Hovius.”” Matthias Hovius was con- secrated Bishop of Malines, 18 February, 1590; died 30 May, 1620. This great pre- late, ‘‘qui coaeuos omnes et discendi celeritate et ingenit facilitate antecelluit,” is highly praised by his contemporaries for his “‘ingentes dotes,”’ which were the admiration of all. Cor- nelius a Lapide in the preface to his Commen- tary on the Epistles of S. Paul pays a remark- able tribute to the learning of Bishop Hovius.
BK. I. CH. Ill.
This Prince who unlawfully kept the conjurer from the Judge’s authority hardly lived two years longer, but died in the prime of his life; and after he had undertaken the defence of an evil cause nothing prospered in his government. From this it is clear that God never leaves unpunished those Princes who defend His enemies; for He has expressly commanded: ‘“Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live” (Exodus xxii, 18).
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