ANF08. The Twelve Patriarchs, Excerpts and Epistles, The Clementia, Apocrypha, Decretals, Memoirs of Edessa and Syriac Documents, Remains of the First Age

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Simon's Speech Against Peter.
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Chapter II.—Simon’s Speech Against Peter.

Now he said: “He accuses you, Peter, of being the servant of wickedness, of having great power in magic, and as charming the souls of men in a way worse than idolatry.¹³¹⁵

¹³¹⁵ [Comp. Recognitions, iii. 12, for a similar accusation made by Simon, at the beginning of the second day’s discussion.—R.]
To prove that you are a magician, he seemed to me to adduce the following evidence, saying: ‘I am conscious of this, that when I come to hold a discussion with him, I do not remember a single word of what I have been meditating on by myself. For while he is discoursing, and my mind is engaged in recollecting what it is that I thought of saying on coming to a conference with him, I do not hear anything whatsoever of what he is saying. Now, since I do not experience this in the presence of any other than in his alone, is it not plain that I am under the influence of his magic? And as to his doctrines being worse than those of idolatry, I can make that quite clear to any one who has understanding. For there is no other benefit than this, that the soul should be freed from images¹³¹⁶

¹³¹⁶ εἰδώλων, idols.
of every kind. For when the soul brings an image before its eye, it is bound by fear, and it pines away through anxiety lest it should suffer some calamity; and being altered, it falls under the influence of a demon; and being under his influence, it seems to the mass to be wise.

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