Sermons 67

Among ecclesiastical writers, mention of this homily is celebrated, because it renders a clear testimony concerning the sudden fall of Simon from the air to the earth. By very nearly all of these it is adjudged to St Maximus, although by copyists it has been described under various names. In the first place, the manuscripts of the Vatican library ascribed it to Ambrose—1277 p. 43, 1269 p. 53 verso—the Vatican Regina 539 p. 129 verso, the Laurentian 10, Plut. 14 p. 18, and 4, Plut. 33 in the left part, of the library formerly of Holy Cross of the Minorites p. 161 verso, now in the Laurentian. To others it seemed to be a work of Augustine, as is clear from the Vatican codices 1195 p. 310 verso, 3835 p. 200 verso; then from two manuscripts

the Cassino ones 102 and 305, as well as from the Orvieto codex p. 157, in which it bears this title: 'Here likewise begin the sermons of St Augustine on the birthday of the apostles Peter and Paul.' But the Benedictine monks of the congregation of St Maur, who most diligently examined the sermons both of Ambrose and of Augustine, granted it to neither, but wrote that Maximus is to be held its author. So in the appendix of the sermons of St Augustine, 3rd class, sermon 210. Nor were there lacking those who reckoned it as belonging to Leo the Great, as the codex of the basilica of St Peter F 40, the Vallicellian A 7, the Vatican Ottobonian 106, and a few others. By the Ballerini, however, they were held of no account, as neither were the old editions of Leo, as has been said in the preceding admonitions.

By number and antiquity, those codices deserve to be preferred whose inscription announces St Maximus as the author. In the first place we present three codices of Holy Cross in Jerusalem, namely 90, most ancient, in which it is the first of the sermons with this title: 'Here begins the sermon on the birthday of the holy Peter and Paul'; the codex 99, homily 70, with the same epigraph prefixed; and codex 12 p. 67 verso. Then we add the codices Martinensis, the Regensburg of St Emmeram, homily 5 on the same feast, the Reichenau 15, the Vallicellian 15 p. 62, the Farfa B, the Cistercian of Monte Amiata, 2 Plut. 33, formerly of the library of Holy Cross of the Minorites, now Laurentian p. 129, the Ambrosian 146, and finally the Monza B 11, whose title is: 'On the third day before the Kalends of July, the Nativity of the holy

apostles Peter and Paul. A sermon of blessed Maximus the bishop.' Older than these many codices, Alcuin adjudged the homily to St Maximus, as is established from his Homiliary, p. 326 of the Venice edition of 1571, with whom agree the editors Gymnicus p. 218, Galesinius p. 155, Combefis vol. 6 p. 230, Cumdius vol. 4 p. 447, Raynaud, homily 5 On the holy apostles Peter and Paul, p. 231, and Margarinus in the Bibliotheca Maxima vol. 6 p. 36. After so many and so weighty champions, who will refuse to grant this homily to St Maximus? Although all the most blessed apostles obtain equal grace of holiness with the Lord, yet by some means or other Peter and Paul seem to excel above the rest by a certain special virtue of faith;

which indeed we can approve from the judgment of the Lord himself. For to Peter, as to a good steward, he gave the key of the heavenly kingdom; to Paul, as to a fit teacher, he enjoined the mastery of ecclesiastical instruction; namely, that those whom the latter should instruct unto salvation, the former should receive unto rest; so that those whose hearts Paul opened by the doctrine of words, for their souls Peter might open the kingdoms of heaven. For Paul also, in a certain manner, received from Christ a key of knowledge. For that must be called a key by which the hard hearts of sinners are unbarred unto faith, the secrets of minds are laid open, and whatever is held closed within is brought into the open by a reasonable manifestation.

A key, I say, which both opens the conscience to the confession of sin and shuts in grace unto the eternity of the saving mystery. Both, therefore, received keys from the Lord: the one a key of knowledge, the other of power; the one dispenses the riches of immortality, the other lavishes the treasures of knowledge; for there are treasures of knowledge, as it is written: 'In whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge' (Col. 2). Therefore the blessed Peter and Paul stand pre-eminent among all the apostles, and excel by a certain particular prerogative. Yet among these two it is uncertain which is to be set before the other. For I judge them to be equal in merits, because they are equal in their passion;

and that they lived with a like devotion of faith, whom we see attaining together to the glory of martyrdom; for let us not think it happened without cause that on one day, in one place, they endured the sentence of one tyrant. On one day they suffered, that they might come together to Christ; in one place, lest Rome should be wanting to either; under one persecutor, that an equal cruelty might bind them both. The day, therefore, I think, was appointed according to their merit, the place according to their glory, the persecutor according to their virtue. And in what place, in the end, did they undergo martyrdom? In the city of Rome, which holds the primacy and headship of the nations; namely, that where the head of superstition was, there might the head of holiness come to rest;

and where the princes of the Gentiles dwelt, there the princes of the Churches should die. But of how great merit the most blessed Peter and Paul are, we can understand from this: that although the Lord illumined the region of the East by His own passion, He deigned nonetheless, that nothing might be lacking, to illumine the coast of the West in His stead by the blood of the apostles; and although His passion suffices us for salvation, yet their martyrdom furnished an example. On this present day, therefore, the blessed apostles poured out their blood. But let us look at the cause why they suffered these things: namely, that among their other wonders, they also, by their prayers, cast down that magician Simon in headlong ruin out of the empty air.

When this same Simon called himself Christ, and, as a son claiming to ascend to the Father, asserted that he was able to mount up by flying, and, lifted up, suddenly began to fly by magic arts, then Peter, with knees fixed to the ground, prayed the Lord, and by holy prayer overcame the magic levitation; for the prayer ascended to the Lord before the flight, and the just petition arrived before the wicked presumption; before Simon, set aloft in the heavens, could reach whither he was straining, Peter, set upon the earth, obtained what he was asking. Then, therefore, Peter, as though he were bound, brought him down from the high air, and, dashing him upon a rock in a kind of headlong fall, broke his legs:

and this to the reproach of his deed, so that he who a little before had attempted to fly could not now suddenly walk; and he who had taken on wings lost the soles of his feet. But lest perhaps it seem strange that this magician flew through the air for so long in the presence of the apostle, this the patience of Peter brought about; for he permitted him to ascend the higher, that he might fall the farther: he willed him to be lifted on high before the sight of all, so that the eyes of all might behold him falling from on high. This, then, is the arrogance of iniquity, that it bears itself aloft, that it raises itself into the heights; but holy prayer humbles all pride and casts down every vanity.