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But faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ having now been
diffused among all men, the enemy of man's salvation contrived a plan
for seizing the imperial city for himself. He conducted thither the
above-mentioned Simon, aided him in his deceitful arts, led many of
the inhabitants of Rome astray, and thus brought them into his own
power. This is stated by Justin, one of our distinguished writers
who lived not long after the time of the apostles. Concerning him I
shall speak in the proper place. Take and read the work of this man,
who in the first Apology which he addressed to Antonine in behalf of
our religion writes as follows: "And after the ascension of the Lord
into heaven the demons put forward certain men who said they were gods,
and who were not only allowed by you to go unpersecuted, but were even
deemed worthy of honors. One of them was Simon, a Samaritan of the
village of Gitto, who in the reign of Claudius C'sar performed in
your imperial city some mighty acts of magic by the art of demons
operating in him, and was considered a god, and as a god was honored
by you with a statue, which was erected in the river Tiber, between
the two bridges, and bore this inscription in the Latin tongue,
Simoni Deo Sancto, that is, To Simon the Holy God. And nearly
all the Samaritans and a few even of other nations confess and worship
him as the first God. And there went around with him at that time a
certain Helena who had formerly been a prostitute in Tyre of
Phoenicia; and her they call the first idea that proceeded from
him." Justin relates these things, and Iren'us also agrees with
him in the first book of his work, Against Heresies, where he gives
an account of the man and of his profane and impure teaching. It would
be superfluous to quote his account here, for it is possible for those
who wish to know the origin and the lives and the false doctrines of
each of the heresiarchs that have followed him, as well as the customs
practiced by them all, to find them treated at length in the
above-mentioned work of Iren'us. We have understood that Simon was
the author of all heresy. From his time down to the present those who
have followed his heresy have reigned the sober philosophy of the
Christians, which is celebrated among all on account of its purity of
life. But they nevertheless have embraced again the superstitions of
idols, which they seemed to have renounced; and they fall down before
pictures and images of Simon himself and of the above-mentioned
Helena who was with him; and they venture to worship them with incense
and sacrifices and libations. But those matters which they keep more
secret than these, in regard to which they say that one upon first
hearing them would be astonished, and, to use one of the written
phrases in vogue among them, would be confounded, are in truth full of
amazing things, and of madness and folly, being of such a sort that it
is impossible not only to commit them to writing, but also for modest
men even to utter them with the lips on account of their excessive
baseness and lewdness. For what ever could be conceived of, viler
than the vilest thing, all that has been outdone by this most
abominable sect, which is composed of those who make a sport of those
miserable females that are literally overwhelmed with all kinds of
vices.
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