Page:The Apocryphal Acts of Paul, Peter, John, Andrew and Thomas.djvu/183

 paralyzed one, which forcedly busied itself with higher things, and was afterward drawn downward to the perishable; also not that which loved the temporal more than the eternal; neither that which exchanged the perishable, also not that which honored that which was not to be honored works of dishonor; also not that which accepted pledges from Satan, and received the serpent into its house; not one which was reviled for God's sake and afterward was ashamed, neither one which said with the mouth, Yea, but showed it not by the deed; but one which refused to be inflamed in filthy lust, to succumb to levity, to be caught by thirst after money and to be betrayed by the strength of the body and anger."

70. While John continued to preach to the brethren, so that they despised the earthly goods for the sake of the eternal ones, the lover of Drusiana, inflamed by the activity of the polymorphous Satan, to the most ardent passions, corrupted the greedy steward of Andronicus with much money. And he opened the tomb of Drusiana and left to him to accomplish on the body that which was (once) denied to him. Since he had not procured her during her lifetime, he continually dwelt in thought upon her body after she was dead, and exclaimed, "Although when living thou didst refuse to unite with me in love, after thy death I will still commit a rape on thy body." Being in such a frame of mind he obtained the opportunity to execute his impious design through the accursed steward,