§ 1.
For Simon the Samaritan, that sorcerer, of whom Luke the disciple and attendant of the Apostles saith, Now a certain man named Simon,1 who before was in the city, practising art magic, and seducing the people of the Samaritans, saying that He Himself was some great one:—unto whom they all gave heed, from the least unto the greatest, saying, This is the Power of God, which is called great. And they were looking upon him, because that for a long time he had bewitched them with his sorceries:—This Simon, I say, who pretended faith, thinking that by magic, and not by the power of God, the very Apostles wrought cures, and filled with the Holy Ghost by imposition of hands those who believed God by Him Who was preached by them as Christ Jesus:—suspecting this also to be done by some greater reach of magical knowledge, and offering money to the Apostles, that he also might receive this power, of giving the Holy Spirit to whomsoever he will:—Simon, I say, was told by Peter,2 Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God is purchased by money: thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right before God.3 For I see that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. And upon his failing still more to believe in God, in his greediness he even pressed on to contend with the Apostles, that he too might appear glorious, and as having a yet deeper insight into all witchcraft. And so he brought many men to be astonished at him; living as he did under Claudius Cæsar, by whom also he is said to have been honoured with a statue for his magical skill. He then by many was glorified as God, and taught that it was he and no other, who appeared among the Jews as the Son, but in Samaria descended as the Father, and among the other nations used to come as the Holy Ghost. And that he is himself the most high Power, i.e., the Father who is over all; and permits himself to be called whatever men call him.
§ 2.
But Simon the Samaritan, from whom all heresies had their being, hath this kind of matter to make up his sect. One Helena, whom he had himself purchased, of Tyre a city of Phœnicia, a common woman, he took about with him, saying that she was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all, by whom at first he conceived in his mind the creation of the Angels and Archangels. For that she being an Understanding leaping forth4 from him, knowing her father’s will, goes down to the lower parts, and produces Angels and Powers, by whom also he said this world was made. But after she had produced them, she was kept in bondage by them through envy, they not liking to be thought the progeny of any other. For that he was himself entirely unknown to them, but that his Understanding was kept in hold by those who were Powers sent out from her, and Angels: and that she endured all insult from them, to prevent her hastening on high again to her father, even to her being shut up in a human body, and age after age transmigrating as it were from vessel to vessel into other bodies of women. And that she was also in that Helen, for whom the war of Troy was waged; wherefore also Stesichorus, defaming her in his verses, was deprived of sight: then afterwards on his repenting, and writing those Recantations (as they are called) in which he sang her praises, he regained his sight. Moreover, that she passing from one body to another, and continually suffering insult thereby, at last became even a harlot in a brothel: and that she is meant by the lost sheep.
§ 3.
Wherefore that he too came, to take her first to himself, and deliver her from her chains, and then give salvation to men by the knowledge of himself. That is, the Angels governing the world badly, because each of them desired the chief place, that he came to reform things, and descended, being transfigured, and likened to the Virtues, and Powers, and Angels; so as to appear a man among men, though he were not a man: and that he was thought to have suffered in Judea though he did not suffer. But the Prophets he says were inspired with their prophecies by the Angels who made the world. Wherefore they were no longer to be cared for by those who had their hope in him and in his Helen. And that they as free persons, should do as they please, for that men are saved by5 his grace, and not by good works. For that good works are not so naturally, but accidentally, as fixed by those Angels who created the world, by commandments of that sort bringing men into slavery. Wherefore he promised both release to the world, and deliverance to those who are his, from the empire of those who made the world.
§ 4.
Accordingly the mystic Priests of these men, while living licentiously, perform works of magic, according to the power of each of them. They use exorcisms and incantations. Philtres too and alluring charms, and those who are called familiars and spirits of dreams, and all other curious arts, are diligently made use of among them. They have also an image of Simon made in the figure of Jupiter, and of Helena in that of Minerva; and adore them. They have also the name Simonians so called from Simon the leader of their most impious theory,6 from whom their science falsely so called had its beginnings: as one may learn from their own statements.
§ 5.
This man’s successor was Menander, a Samaritan by birth: who also himself came to perfection in magic. He affirms that the first Virtue is unknown to all, but that he is the person sent from the unseen regions as a Saviour, to save men. But that the world was made by Angels: whom he too, as Simon, states to be sent out from The Understanding. Moreover that by the magic which he taught he gives knowledge for the overcoming the very Angels who made the world. For that his disciples receive resurrection by the baptism which is in him, and can no more die, but continue undecaying and immortal.