But indeed, when faith in our Saviour and Lord Jesus Christ had already been spread abroad among all men, the enemy of men's salvation, contriving to seize beforehand the imperial city, brought thither Simon, of whom we have spoken before; and, lending aid to the man's artful sorceries, he drew over to error very many of the inhabitants of Rome.
And this is made plain by Justin, who not long after the apostles distinguished himself in our teaching, concerning whom I will set down what is fitting in due time. And do you take and read for me his writing, in which, writing in the former Apology to Antoninus on behalf of our doctrine, he says thus:
«And after the ascension of the Lord into heaven, the demons put forward certain men who said that they themselves were gods; and these were not only not persecuted by you, but were even deemed worthy of honours. There was a certain Simon, a Samaritan, from a village called Gitthon, who in the time of Claudius Caesar, through the art of the demons working in him, wrought magical powers in your imperial city of Rome, and was reckoned a god, and was honoured by you as a god with a statue, in the river Tiber between the two bridges, bearing this Roman inscription: SIMONI DEO SANCTO, which is, «To Simon, the holy god.»
「主昇天之後，眾鬼差遣了某些人，自稱是神；這些人不但不被你們逼迫，反倒被尊以榮耀。有一個名叫西門的撒瑪利亞人，出自一個叫吉同的村莊，在革老丟該撒的時代，藉著在他裡面運行之諸鬼的伎倆，在你們的帝都羅馬行了種種法術，便被當作神，且被你們像對神一般以雕像尊崇，立在臺伯河中兩橋之間，上有這拉丁文的題字：SIMONI DEO SANCTO，意思就是『獻給聖神西門』。
And almost all the Samaritans, and a few also among other nations, worship him, confessing him as the first god. And a certain Helen, who went about with him at that time, having formerly stood upon a roof in Tyre of Phoenicia, they call the first Thought that came from him.»
These things, then, says Justin. And Irenaeus also agrees with him, in the first book of the work Against Heresies, describing together the things concerning the man and his unholy and abominable teaching; which it would be superfluous to recount at present, since it is possible for those who wish to learn in detail the beginnings and the lives of the heresiarchs who came after him, and the foundations of their false doctrines, and the practices pursued by them all — things delivered, not as a mere side-matter, in the aforesaid book of Irenaeus.
We have received, then, that Simon was the first to become the originator of every heresy; from whom, even down to this day, those who follow the heresy after him — feigning the temperate philosophy of the Christians, which for its purity of life is renowned among all — none the less again lay hold of that superstition concerning idols from which they seemed to have departed, falling down before pictures and images of Simon himself and of the aforesaid Helen who was with him, and undertaking to worship these with incense and sacrifices and libations.
But their more secret rites, of which they say that he who first hears them will be astounded, and — according to a certain written oracle among them — will be struck with amazement, are in truth full of amazement and of derangement of mind and of madness; being such that they cannot only not be committed to writing, but cannot even be uttered by the lips alone to sober-minded men, by reason of the excess of shamefulness and unspeakable deeds.
For whatever might be, or might be conceived, more abominable than every shameful thing, this their most loathsome heresy has surpassed it all, making sport of wretched women laden, in very truth, with evils of every kind.