verses; and afterwards when he repented and wrote the recantation in which he sung her praises he recovered his sight.

And subsequently, when her body was changed by the Angels and lower Powers—­which also, he says, made the world—­she lived in a brothel in Tyre, a city of Phoenicia, where he found her on his arrival.  For he professes that he had come there for the purpose of finding her for the first time, that he might deliver her from bondage.  And after he had purchased her freedom he took her about with him, pretending that she was the “lost sheep,” and that he himself was the Power which is over all.  Whereas the impostor having fallen in love with this strumpet, called Helen, purchased and kept her, and being ashamed to have it known by his disciples, invented this story.

And those who copy the vagabond magician Simon do like acts, and pretend that intercourse should be promiscuous, saying:  “All soil is soil, and it matters not where a man sows, so long as he does sow.”  Nay, they pride themselves on promiscuous intercourse, saying that this is the “perfect love,” citing the text, “the holy shall be sanctified by the ... of the holy."[38] And they profess that they are not in the power of that which is usually considered evil, for they are redeemed.  For by purchasing the freedom of Helen, he (Simon) thus offered salvation to men by knowledge peculiar to himself.[39]

For he said that, as the Angels were misgoverning the world owing to their love of power, he had come to set things right, being metamorphosed and made like unto the Dominions, Principalities and Angels, so that he was manifested as a man although he was not really a man, and that he seemed to suffer[40] in Judaea, although he did not really undergo it, but that he was manifested to the Jews as the Son, in Samaria as the Father, and among the other nations as the Holy Ghost, and that he permitted himself to be called by whatever name men pleased to call him.  And that it was by the Angels, who made the world, that the Prophets were inspired to utter their prophecies.  Wherefore they who believe on Simon and Helen pay no attention to the latter even to this day, but do everything they like, as being free, for they contend that they are saved through his (Simon’s) grace.

For (they assert that) there is no cause for punishment if a man does ill, for evil is not in nature but in institution.  For, he says, the Angels who made the world, instituted what they wished, thinking by such words to enslave all who listened to them.  Whereas the dissolution of the world, they (the Simonians) say, is for the ransoming of their own people.

20.  And (Simon’s) disciples perform magical ceremonies and (use) incantations, and philtres and spells, and they also send what are called “dream-sending” daemons for disturbing whom they will.  They also train what are called “familiars,"[41] and have a statue