|
The evil power, who hates all that is good and plots against the
salvation of men, constituted Simon at that time the father and author
of such wickedness, as if to make him a mighty antagonist of the
great, inspired apostles of our Saviour. For that divine and
celestial grace which co-operates with its ministers, by their
appearance and presence, quickly extinguished the kindled flame of
evil, and humbled and cast down through them "every high thing that
exalted itself against the knowledge of God." Wherefore neither the
conspiracy of Simon nor that of any of the others who arose at that
period could accomplish anything in those apostolic times. For
everything was conquered and subdued by the splendors of the truth and
by the divine word itself which had but lately begun to shine from
heaven upon men, and which was then flourishing upon earth, and
dwelling in the apostles themselves. Immediately the above-mentioned
impostor was smitten in the eyes of his mind by a divine and miraculous
flash, and after the evil deeds done by him had been first detected by
the apostle Peter in Judea, he fled and made a great journey across
the sea from the East to the West, thinking that only thus could he
live according to his mind. And coming to the city of Rome, by the
mighty co-operation of that power which was lying in wait there, he
was in a short time so successful in his undertaking that those who
dwelt there honored him as a god by the erection of a statue. But this
did not last long. For immediately, during the reign of Claudius,
the all-good and gracious Providence, which watches over all things,
led Peter, that strongest and greatest of the apostles, and the one
who on account of his virtue was the speaker for all the others, to
Rome s against this great corrupter of life. He like a noble
commander of God, clad in divine armor, carried the costly
merchandise of the light of the understanding from the East to those
who dwelt in the West, proclaiming the light itself, and the word
which brings salvation to souls, and preaching the kingdom of heaven.
|
|