Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 13.djvu/874

 SIMON

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SIMON

this early god with similar inscriptions have been found on the island in the Tiber and elsewhere in Rome. It is plain that the interchange of c and i in the Roman characters led Justin, or the Roman Chris- tians before him, to look upon the statue of the early Sabine deity, of whom they knew nothing, as a statue of the magician. Whether Justin's opinion that Simon Magus came to Rome rests only on the fact t liat he beheved Roman followers had erected this statue to him, or whether he had other information on this point, caimot now be positively determined. His testimony cannot, therefore, be verified and so re- mains doubtful. The later anti-heretical writers who report Simon's residence at Rome, take Justin and the apocryphal Acts of Peter as their authority, so that their "testimony is of no value. Simon brought with with him, so Justin and other authorities state, a par- amour from Tj're called Helena. He claimed that she was the first conception {twoia.) whom he, as the "great power of God", had freed from bondage.

Simon plays an important part in the "Pseudo- Clementines". He appears here as the chief antag- onist of the Apostle Peter, by whom he is everywhere followed and opposed. The alleged magical arts of the magician and Peter's efforts against him are described in a way that is absolutelj^ imaginary. The entire ac- count lacks all historical basis. In the "Philoso- phumena" of Hippolytus of Rome (vi, vii-xx), the doctrine of Simon and his followers is treated in de- tail. The work also relates circumstantially how Si- mon laboured at Rome and won many by his magic arts, and how he attacked the Apostles Peter and Paul who opposed him. According to this account the reputation of the magician was greatly injured by the efforts of the two Apostles and the number of his followers became constantlj^ smaller. He conse- quently left Rome and returned to his home at Gitta. In order to give his scholars there a proof of his higher nature and divine mission and thus regain his au- thority, he had a grave dug and permitted himself to be buried in it, after previously prophesying that after three days he would rise alive from it. But the promised resurrection did not take place; Simon died in the grave. The apocryphal Acts of St. Peter give an entirely different account of Simon's conduct at Rome and of his death (Lipsius, "Die apokryphen Apostelgeschichten und Apostellegenden", II, Pt. I (Brunswick, 1S87). In this work also great stress is laid upon the struggle between Simon and the two Apostles Peter and Paul at Rome. By his magic arts Simon harl also sought to win the Emperor Nero for himself, an attempt in which he had been thwarted by the Apostles. As proof of the truth of his doctrines Simon offered to ascend into the heavens before the eyes of Nero and the Roman populace; by magic he did rise in the air in the Roman Forum, but the pray- ers of the Apostles Peter and Paul caused him to fall, so that he was severely injured and shortly afterwards died miserably. Amobius reports this alleged at- tempt to fly and the death of Simon with still other particulars ("Adv. nationes", ii, xii; cf. "Constit. Apost.", vi, ix). This legend led later to the erec^tion of a church dedicated to the Apostles on the alleged fepot of Simon's fall near the Via Sacra above the Forum. The stones of the pavement on which the Apostles knelt in prayer and which are said to contain the impression of their knees, arc now in the wall of the Church of Santa Franc(!sca Romana.

All these narratives belong naturally to the do- main of legend. It is evident from them, however, that, according to the tradition of the second century, Simon Magus appeared as an opponent of Christian doctrine and of the Apostles, and as a heretic or rather as a false Messias of the Apostolic age. This view rests on the sole authoritative historical account of him, that given us by the Acts of the Apostles. It cannot be determined how far one or another detail

of his later life, as given in essentially legendary form in the authorities of the second century and the fol- lowing era, may be traced to historical tradition. Baur ("Die christl. Gnosis", 310) and some of his ad- herents have denied the historical existence of Simon and his sect. This view, opposed to the account in the Book of Acts, and to the tradition of the second century, is now abandoned by all serious historians. Further this "legendary" Simon was made an essen- tial hnk by the Tubingen School of Baur and his fol- lowers for historical evidence of the alleged "Pe- trine" and "PauUne" factions in the early Church, which had fought with one another and from whose union the CathoUc Church arose. For the same rea- sons this school, especially Lipsius, assigns the labours of St. Peter at Rome, which it claims are first made known by these apocryphal writings, to the domain of legend. All these theories, however, are without basis and have been abandoned by serious historical scholars, even among non-Cathohcs (cf. Schmidt, "Petrus in Rom", Lucerne, 1892). A developed sys- tem of doctrines is attributed to Simon and his fol- lowers in the anti-heretical writings of the early Church, especially in Irenaeus ("Adv. hair.", I, xxiii; IV; VI, xxxiii), in the " Philosophumena " (VI, VII sq.), and in Epiphanius ("Haer. ", XXII). The work "The Great Declaration" ('An-60acrij fxeyaX-^) was also ascribed to Simon, and the "Pseudo-Clementines" also present his teaching in detail. How much of this system actually belonged to Simon cannot now be de- termined. Still his doctrine seems to have been a heathen Gnosticism, in which he proclaimed himself as the Standing One (^o-rcos), the principal emanation of the Deity and the Redeemer. According to Iren- aeus he claimed to have appeared in Samaria as the Father, in Judea as the Son, and among the heathen as the Holy Ghost, a manifestation of the Eternal. He asserted that Helena, who went about with him, was the first conception of the Deity, the mother of all, by whom the Deity had created the angels and the aeons. The cosmic forces had cast her into corporeal bonds, from which she was released by Simon as the great power. In morals Simon was probably Anti- nomian, an enemy of Old Testament law. His magi- cal arts were continued by his disciples; these led unbridled, hcentious lives, in accordance with the principles which they had learned from their master. At any rate they called themselves Simonians, giving Simon Magus as their founder.

EusEBiDS, Church Hist., II, 13; HiLOENrELD, Ketzergeschichte des Urchrisfenlums (LeipziK, 1884); Hagemann, Die romische Kirche (Freiburg, 1864), 655 sqq.; Langen, Die Cletncnsromane; ihre Entstehung u. ihre Tendenzen (Gotha, 1890); Waitz, Die Pneudo-Klemenlinen (Leipzig, 1904); Lugano, Le memorie leggendarie di Simone Mago e della sua volata in " Nuovo Bull, di arch, crisl." (1900), 29-66; Savio, S. Giustino martire e I'apo- teosi del Simone Mago in Roma in Civiltd cattolica (1910), IV, 632 sq., 673 sq.; Prafcke, Leben u. Lehre Simons des Magiera nach den pseudo-klementinischen Homilien (Ratzeburg, 1895); Redlich, Die simonianische Schrift 'Awoi^oo-is /xeyaA^ in Arch. f. Gesch. der Philosophie (1910), 374 sq.; Weber, Hist, of Simony in the Christian Church (Baltimore, 1909); Salmon in Diet. Christ. Biog., 8.V. Simon (1) Magus.

J. P. KiRSCH.

Simon of Cascia (Stmeone Fidati), Blessed, Italian preacher and ascetical writer, b. at Cascia, Italy; d. at Florence, 2 l<\'bruary, 1348. At an early age he entered the Order of Augusiinian Hermits, where he became distinguished for learning and as a model of every monastic virtue, lie displayed great ability as a preacher, and his sermons at Perugia, liologna, Siena, and Florence bore muf^li fruit. He was esi)e- cially successful in his work among fallen women, making many conversions and founding for them a house of penance. He also established at Florence a convent of women under the Augustinian rule. He was beatified by Gregory XVI in 1833. He wrote " De gestis Christi", a history of the Gospels in fifteen books wherein the mystical sense of the sacred narra-