Thomas Fazelli, O.P.,[1] relates in his De rebus Siculis, Decade II. v. 2 (also Dec. I. iii. 1) wonders of a certain Diodorus, commonly known as Liodorus, who was endowed with magic art and flourished at Catania by means of his marvellous skill in illusions. This man, by the force of his incantations, appeared to change men into brute beasts, to effect a metamorphosis 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 delivered 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 sacrilegious 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 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,[2] 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.
- ↑ “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 Domenico. “In omni scientiarum genere excelluit. Orator enim euasit, poeta, philosophus, theologus Patauii laureatus.” Thus the old biographer. Amongst the works of Thomas Fazelli the most important are: the posthumous “Thesaurum Antiquitatum et Historiarum Siciliarium,” Tomi x, 1579, and the history which is quoted here, “De rebus Siculis decades duo,” “nunc primum in lucem edita,” Panormi, folio, 1558. This was soon translated 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.
- ↑ “Hovius.” Matthias Hovius was consecrated Bishop of Malines, 18 February, 1596; died 30 May, 1620. This great prelate, “qui coaeuos omnes et discendi celeritate et ingenii facilitate antecelluit,” is highly praised by his contemporaries for his “ingentes dotes,” which were the admiration of all. Cornelius à Lapide in the preface to his Commentary on the Epistles of S. Paul pays a remarkable tribute to the learning of Bishop Hovius.
