Simon was said to have taught that he was the highest God, the most elevated virtue {rr,v irlp fravTat HvotLut,). He carried about with him Helena, who he said was the first conception of his mind, the mother of all, by whom he con- ceived in his mind to create the angels and archan|,'els. She was also called Wisdom (a-o^ix), according to pseudo-Tertullian, and Holy Spirit and Prunicus (<rfoi«.««), according to Epi- phanius. She, knowing her father's wish, leapt forth from hira and created the angels and powers by whom tliis world and man were created. She was unable to return to her father because of the envy and desire of those whom she had created, and suffered contumely, and waa compelled to assume human form. She passed through the centuries, as it were, from one vessel to another, transmigrating from one female form to another. She was the Helen about whom the Trojan war WM foui^ht; the wooden horse representing the ignorance of the nations. After that she passed from form to form, and lajitly became a prostitute in a brothel at Tyre : she was the lost sheep. But since the rulers of the world ruled it ill, and in order to redeem her, the Supreme Power descended to the lower world. He passed through the regions ruled by the principalities and powers, in each region making himself like to those in it, and so among men he appeared as a man. He appeared among the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, in other nations as the Holy Spirit. In Judiea he had seemed to suffer, but ha<I not. lie allawed himself to be railed by whatsoever names men liked. He thus succeeded in saving Helena, as she expected. He brought man to a knowledge of himself, and liberated the world and those who were his from the rule of those who had made the world. The Jewish pro- phecies, he said, were mspired by the anijels who made the world. Therefore those who had hope in him and Helena need no longer care for them, but might freely do as they would, for men were saved according to his pnw^e and not according to good works. There was no real dilference between good and bad, they were merely accidental distinctions made by the creators of the worid. The morality of the sect was, we or« told, in accordance with these principles. Their priests (mjjKlyd mcerdotet) lived lascivious lives, used magic and incantations, made philtres, had tamili.ir spirits, and had images of Simon and Helena made in the form of Zeus and Athena.
Hef/csippus (c. 180), in a corrupt passage quoted by Eus. IV. 22, speaks of Simon, from whom (*ma
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the Simoniaiis ; Cleobius, whence the Cleobians ; aii'i llositheus, wlience the Dositheans ; and Gor- thii'us, whence the Gortlieni ; and Masbotheus, whence the Masbotlieans — from these, he says, came tlie followers of Menander; and lie then enu- merates the later heretics. It would be interesting; to know if this heretical genealogy is independent of Justin.
TcrtiU/ian (c. 200) does not seem to have any original information. He knows the story al)out the statue (Apol. 13). He gives a long account of Simon's system.derived apparently from Irena'us((i'e Aninia, 34). He siij's that even in his own day the presumption of the sect of Simon is so great that they even presume to raise the souls of the prophets from the lower regions (Ecce kodie eUisdem Simunii hiercticos tanta preiuinjitio artis extollit, ut eCiam pruphctarum animas ab in/erii- movere se spon- deant).
Clement of Alexandria (c. 200) gives us little information about Simon. There is a chronological remark in Strom, vii. 17 which is quite inexplicable, and in .Strom, ii. 11 he tells us that the followers of Simon \vi.sh to be made like the ' Standing One ' whom they worship.
In Ilippolytus (Rcfutatio, vi. 7-18) (r. 230 A.D.) extracts are given from a work which evidently described a somewhat dill'erent system, and was called ' the Great Revelation.'
The first principle, according to this, is called kvipat^^ot dC«cu4E, it is lire or silence ; tiie fire is of two sorts. ^»i^o» anrl Kfii/trit, that which is hidden Iteing tlie secret principle which causes that which is open. The world Is derived from the unborn tire (>'i»>rTo; if kyi^^ritrnj) ; first came six roots in pairs, male and female, viz. ^aZi and i-r.>«ix, ^»»i and i^ofjM,^ XoytruM and ivt/iiirff-'f. Corresponding to these are six visible or realized counterparts cvpaoo; and >r, ^Xiof and ff-iAr,,*:, «<'.*> and Ccvp. A larpe part of the work is devoted to provinfj the system by an allegorical use of the OT, but it is interesting to notice tliat there are elements derived from Aristotle, especi- ally the distinction which nms through the whole of SC^afxtt and itipynx. Simon calls himself i i<nui, i rrecg^ i ^Tr^auiyflf, impljing his pre-existence and his immortality. A abort ex- tract wiil be sullicient to show the character of the book : * To vou then 1 say what I say, and I write what I write. The writ- ing is this. There arc two ofTshoote of the complete .^^.ons, having neither begiiming nor end, from one root, which is the Invisible, incumprt-hensible power silence, of which the one is manifested from above, which is the great power, the intellect of the universe, that administers all things, the male principle ; but tlie other is from below, vast thought, tlie female principle, generative of all things. Whence corresponding to one another tliey funn a pair (rv^vy tec), and they reveal the iiiiddle space as an atmosphere wliich cannot be comprehended, having neither beginning nor end. But in this is the father who hears and nniirinhes all things that have beginning and end. This is he who sto(Mi, who standeth, who will stiind, being a bisexual |x»wer, the reflex of the pre-existent, unlimited power which nath neither beginning nor end, being in solitude ; for trom this the thought wliich pre-existed in solitude came forth and became twain.*