that he did in effect rise up into the air, carried by the
demons, saying he was ascending to heaven, at which all the people
applauded; but at that moment St. Peter's prayers were successful, and
Simon was hurled down, after he had spoken beforehand to him, as if
they had been close to each other. You can read the whole story, which
is evidently false and ill-imagined. It is true that these old
writings, and a few others of the same kind, have served to deceive
some of the fathers and ecclesiastical authors, who, without examining
into the truth, have permitted themselves to go with the stream, and
have followed the public opinion, upon which many things might be said
did time allow. How, for instance, can any one unhesitatingly believe
that St. Jerome could ever have written that St. Peter went to Rome,
not to plant the faith in that capital, and establish therein the
first seat of Christianity, but to expel from thence Simon the
magician? Is there not, on the contrary, reason to suspect that these
few words have passed in ancient times, from a note inadvertently
placed in the margin, into the text itself? But to confine myself
within the limits of my subject, I say that it suffices to pay
attention to the impure source of so many doubtful books, published
under feigned names, by the diversity and contradiction which
predominate amongst them relatively to the circumstance in question,
by the silence, in short, of the sovereign pontiffs and other writers
upon the same, even of the profane authors who ought principally to
speak of it, to remain convinced that all that is said of it, as well
as all the other prodigies ascribed to the magic power of Simon, is
but a fable founded solely on public report. Is there not even an
ancient inscription, which is thought to be still in existence, and
which, according to the copy that I formerly took of it at Rome,
bears: "Sanco Sancto Semoni Deo Filio," which upon the equivoque of
the name, has been applied to Simon the magician by St. Justin, and
upon his authority by some other writers, which occasioned P. Pagi to
say on the year 42, "That St. Justin was deceived either by a
resemblance of name, or by some unfaithful relation;" but that which
must above all decide this matter is the testimony of Origen, who says
that indeed Simon could deceive some persons in his time by magic, but
that soon after he lost his credit so much, that there were not in all
the world thirty persons of h