As shown in our earlier volumes, Simon was a pupil of the Tanaim of
Samaria, and the reputation he left behind him, together with the title of
“the Great Power of God,” testify in favour of the ability and learning of
his Masters. But the Tanaim were Kabalists of the same secret school as
John of the _Apocalypse_, whose careful aim it was to conceal as much as
possible the real meaning of the names in the Mosaic Books. Still the
calumnies so jealously disseminated against Simon Magus by the unknown
authors and compilers of the _Acts_ and other writings, could not cripple
the truth to such an extent as to conceal the fact that no Christian could
rival him in thaumaturgic deeds. The story told about his falling during
an aerial flight, breaking both his legs and then committing suicide, is
ridiculous. Posterity has heard but one side of the story. Were the
disciples of Simon to have a chance, we might perhaps find that it was
Peter who broke both his legs. But as against this hypothesis we know that
this Apostle was too prudent ever to venture himself in Rome. On the
confession of several ecclesiastical writers, no Apostle ever performed
such “supernatural wonders,” but of course pious people will say this only
the more proves that it was the Devil who worked through Simon. He was
accused of blasphemy against the Holy Ghost, only because he introduced as
the “Holy Spiritus” the Mens (Intelligence) or “the Mother of all.” But we
find the same expression used in the _Book of Enoch_, in which, in
contradistinction to the “Son of Man,” he speaks of the “Son of the
Woman.” In the _Codex_ of the Nazarenes, and in the _Zohar_, as well as in
the _Books of Hermes_, the same expression is used; and even in the
apocryphal _Evangelium of the Hebrews_ we read that Jesus admitted the
female sex of the Holy Ghost by using the expression “My Mother, the Holy
Pneuma.”
After long ages of denial, however, the actual existence of Simon Magus
has been finally demonstrated, whether he was Saul, Paul or Simon. A
manuscript speaking of him under the last name has been discovered in
Greece and has put a stop to any further speculation.
In his _Histoire des Trois Premiers Siècles de l’Église_(206) M. de
Pressensé gives his opinion on this additional relic of early
Christianity. Owing to the numerous myths with which the history of Simon
abounds—he says—many Theologians (among Protestants, he ought to have
added) have concluded that it was no better than a clever tissue of
legends. But he adds:
It contains positive facts, it seems, now warranted by the
unanimous testimony of the Fathers of the Church and the narrative
of Hippolytus recently discovered.(207)
This MS. is very far from being complimentary to the alleged founder of
Western Gnosticism. While recognising great powers in Simon, it brands him
as a priest of Satan—which is quite enough to show that it was written by
a Christian. It also shows that, like another “servant of the Evil One”—as
Manes is called by the Church—Simon was a _baptised_ Christian; but that
both, being too well versed in the mysteries of true _primitive_
Christianity, were persecuted for it. The secret of such persecution was
then, as it is now, quite transparent to those who study the question
impartially. Seeking to preserve his independence, Simon could not submit
to the leadership or authority of any of the Apostles, least of all to
that of either Peter or John, the fanatical author of the _Apocalypse_.
Hence charges of heresy followed by “anathema maranatha.” The persecutions
by the Church were never directed against Magic, when it was orthodox; for
the new Theurgy, established and regulated by the Fathers, now known to
Christendom as “grace” and “miracles,” was, and is still, when it does
happen, only Magic—whether conscious or unconscious. Such phenomena as
have passed to posterity under the name of “divine miracles” were produced
through powers acquired by great purity of life and ecstasy. Prayer and
contemplation added to asceticism are the best means of discipline in
order to become a Theurgist, where there is no regular initiation. For
intense prayer for the accomplishment of some object is only intense
_will_ and desire, resulting in unconscious Magic. In our own day George
Müller of Bristol has proved it. But “divine miracles” are produced by the
same causes that generate effects of Sorcery. The whole difference rests
on the good or evil effects aimed at, and on the actor who produces them.
The thunders of the Church were directed only against those who dissented
from the formulæ and attributed to themselves the production of certain
marvellous effects, instead of fathering them on a personal God; and thus,
while those Adepts in Magic Arts who acted under her direct instructions
and auspices were proclaimed to posterity and history as saints and
friends of God, all others were hooted out of the Church and sentenced to
eternal calumny and curses from their day to this. Dogma and authority
have ever been the curse of humanity, the great extinguishers of light and
truth.(208)
It was perhaps the recognition of a germ of that which, later on, in the
then nascent Church, grew into the virus of insatiate power and ambition,
culminating finally in the dogma of infallibility, that forced Simon, and
so many others, to break away from her at her very birth. Sects and
dissensions began with the first century. While Paul rebukes Peter to his
face, John slanders under the veil of vision the Nicolaitans, and makes
Jesus declare that he hates them.(209) Therefore we pay little attention
to the accusations against Simon in the MS. found in Greece.
It is entitled _Philosophumena_. Its author, regarded as Saint Hippolytus
by the Greek Church, is referred to as an “unknown heretic” by the
Papists, only because he speaks in it “very slanderously” of Pope
Callistus, also a Saint. Nevertheless, Greeks and Latins agree in
declaring the _Philosophumena_ to be an extraordinary and very erudite
work. Its antiquity and genuineness have been vouched for by the best
authorities of Tübingen.
Whoever the author may have been, he expresses himself about Simon in this
wise:
Simon, a man well versed in magic arts, deceived many persons
partly by the art of Thrasymedes,(210) and partly _with the help
of demons_.(211)... He determined to pass himself off as a god....
Aided by his wicked arts, he turned to profit not only the
teachings of Moses, but those of the poets.... His disciples use
to this day his charms. Thanks to incantations, to philtres, to
their attractive caresses(212) and what they call “sleeps,” they
send demons to influence all those whom they would fascinate. With
this object they employ what they call “familiar demons.”(213)
Further on the MS. reads:
The Magus (Simon) made those who wished to enquire of the demon,
write what their question was on a leaf of parchment; this, folded
in four, was thrown into a burning brazier, in order that the
smoke should reveal the contents of the writing to the Spirit
(demon) (_Philos._, IV. iv.). Incense was thrown by handfuls on
the blazing coals, the Magus adding, on pieces of papyrus, the
Hebrew names of the Spirits he was addressing, and the flame
devoured all. Very soon the _divine_ Spirit seemed to overwhelm
the Magician, who uttered unintelligible invocations, and plunged
in such a state he answered every question—phantasmal apparitions
being often raised over the flaming brazier (_ibid._, iii.); at
other times fire descended from heaven upon objects previously
pointed out by the Magician (_ibid._); or again the deity evoked,
crossing the room, would trace fiery orbs in its flight (_ibid._,
ix.).(214)
So far the above statements agree with those of Anastasius the Sinaïte:
People saw Simon causing statues to walk; precipitating himself
into the flames without being burnt; metamorphosing his body into
that of various animals [lycanthropy]; raising at banquets
phantoms and spectres; _causing the furniture in the rooms to move
about_, by invisible _spirits_. He gave out that he was escorted
by a number of shades to whom he gave the name of “souls of the
dead.” Finally, he used to fly in the air ... (Anast., _Patrol.
Grecque_, vol. lxxxix., col. 523, quæst. xx.).(215)
Suetonius says in his _Nero_,
In those days an Icarus fell at his first ascent near Nero’s box
and covered it with his blood.(216)
This sentence, referring evidently to some unfortunate acrobat who missed
his footing and tumbled, is brought forward as a proof that it was Simon
who fell.(217) But the latter’s name is surely too famous, if one must
credit the Church Fathers, for the historian to have mentioned him simply
as “an Icarus.” The writer is quite aware that there exists in Rome a
locality named Simonium, near the Church of SS. Cosmas and Daimanus (Via
Sacra), and the ruins of the ancient temple of Romulus, where the broken
pieces of a stone, on which it is alleged the two knees of the Apostle
Peter were impressed in thanksgiving after his supposed victory over
Simon, are shown to this day. But what does this exhibition amount to? For
the broken fragments of one stone, the Buddhists of Ceylon show a whole
rock on Adam’s Peak with another imprint upon it. A crag stands upon its
platform, a terrace of which supports a huge boulder, and on the boulder
rests for nearly three thousand years the sacred foot‐print, of a foot
five feet long. Why not credit the legend of the latter, if we have to
accept that of St. Peter? “Prince of Apostles,” or “Prince of Reformers,”
or even the “First‐born of Satan,” as Simon is called, all are entitled to
legends and fictions. One may be allowed to discriminate, however.
That Simon could fly, _i.e._, raise himself in the air for a few minutes,
is no impossibility. Modern mediums have performed the same feat supported
by a force that Spiritualists persist in calling “spirits.” But if Simon
did so, it was with the help of a self‐acquired blind power that heeds
little the prayers and commands of rival Adepts, let alone Saints. The
fact is that logic is against the supposed fall of Simon at the prayer of
Peter. For had he been defeated publicly by the Apostle, his disciples
would have abandoned him after such an evident sign of inferiority, and
would have become orthodox Christians. But we find even the author of
_Philosophumena_, just such a Christian, showing otherwise. Simon had lost
so little credit with his pupils and the masses, that he went on daily
preaching in the Roman Campania after his supposed fall from the clouds
“far above the Capitolium,” in which fall he broke his legs only! Such a
lucky fall is in itself sufficiently miraculous, one would say.