Lives of the apostles of Jesus Christ

by David Francis Bacon

Respecting these minute accounts of Peter’s stopping-places on this apocryphal journey, Baronius says, “Nobilia in iis remanserunt antiquitatis vestigia, sed traditiones potius quam scriptura firmata.” “There are in those places some noble remains of this ancient history, but rather traditions than well assured written accounts.” The part of the route from Antioch to Sicily he takes on the authority of the imaginative Metaphrastes; but the rest is made up from different local superstitions of a very modern date, not one of which can be traced farther back than the time when every fable of this sort had a high pecuniary value to the inventors, in bringing crowds of money-giving pilgrims to the spot which had been hallowed by the footsteps of the chief apostle. Even the devout Baronius, however, is obliged to confess at the end of this story, “Sed de rebus tam antiquis et incertis, quid potissimum affirmare debeamus, non satis constat.”——“But as to matters so ancient and uncertain, it is not sufficiently well established what opinion we may most safely pronounce.”

As to the early part of the route, speaking of the account given by Metaphrastes of Peter’s having on his way through Troy ordained Cornelius, the centurion, bishop of that place, Baronius objects to the truth of this statement, the assertion that Cornelius had been previously ordained bishop of Caesarea, where he was converted. A very valuable refutation of one fable by another as utterly unfounded.

Respecting the causes of this great journey of the apostle to the capital of the world, the opinions even of papist writers are as various as they are about the route honored by his passage. Some suppose his motive to have been merely a desire for a refuge from the persecution of Agrippa;——a most unlikely resort, however, for nothing could be more easy than his detection in passing over such a route, especially by sea, where every vessel could be so easily searched at the command of Agrippa, whose influence extended far beyond his own territory, supported as he was, by the unbounded possession of the imperial Caesar’s favor, which would also make the seizure of the fugitive within the great city itself, a very easy thing. Others, however, do not consider this journey as connected in any way with his flight from Agrippa, (for many suppose it to have been made after the death of that king,) and find the motive for such an effort in the vast importance of the field opened for his labors in the great capital of the world, where were so many strong holds of error to be assaulted, and from which an influence so wide and effectual might be exerted through numerous channels of communication to all parts of the world. Others have sought a reason of more definite and limited character, and with vast pains have invented and compiled a fable of most absurdly amusing character, to make an object for Peter’s labors in the distant capital. The story which has the greatest number of supporters, is one connected with Simon Magus, mentioned in the sacred record, in the account of the labors of Philip in Samaria, and the visit of Peter and John to that place. The fable begins with the assertion that this magician had returned to his former tricks after his insincere conformity to the Christian faith, and had devoted himself with new energy to the easy work of popular deception, adding to his former evil motives, that of deadly spite against the faith to which he appeared so friendly, at the time when the sacred narrative speaks of him last. In order to find a field sufficiently ample for his enlarged plans, he went to Rome, and there, in the reign of Claudius Caesar, attained a vast renown by his magical tricks, so that he was even esteemed a god, and was even so pronounced by a solemn decree of the Roman senate, confirmed by Claudius himself, who was perfectly carried away with the delusion, which seems thus to have involved the highest and the lowest alike. The fable proceeds to introduce Peter on the scene, by the circumstance of his being called by a divine vision to go to Rome and war against this great impostor, thus advancing in his impious supremacy, who had already in Samaria been made to acknowledge the miraculous efficacy of the apostolic word. Peter thus brought to Rome by the hand of God, publicly preached abroad the doctrine of salvation, and meeting the arch-magician himself, with the same divine weapons whose efficacy he had before experienced, overcame him utterly, and drove him in confusion and disgrace from the city. Nor were the blessings that resulted to Rome from this visit of Peter, of a merely spiritual kind. So specially favored with the divine presence and blessing were all places where this great apostle happened to be, that even their temporal interests shared in the advantages of the divine influence that every where followed him. To this cause, therefore, are gravely referred by papistical commentators, the remarkable success which, according to heathen historians, attended the Roman arms in different parts of the world during the second year of Claudius, to which date this fabulous visit is unanimously referred by all who pretend to believe in its occurrence.

Importance of the field of labor.——This is the view taken by Leo, (in sermon 1, in nat. apost. quoted by Baronius, Annales 44, § 26.) “When the twelve apostles, after receiving from the Holy Spirit the power of speaking all languages,” (an assertion, by the way, no where found in the sacred record,) “had undertaken the labor of imbuing the world with the gospel, dividing its several portions among themselves; the most blessed Peter, the chief of the apostolic order was appointed to the capital of the Roman empire, so that the light of truth which was revealed for the salvation of all nations, might from the very head, diffuse itself with the more power through the whole body of the world. For, what country had not some citizens in this city? Or what nation anywhere, could be ignorant of anything which Rome had been taught? Here were philosophical dogmas to be put down——vanities of worldly wisdom to be weakened——idol-worship to be overthrown,”——&c. “To this city therefore, thou, most blessed apostle Peter! didst not fear to come, and (sharing thy glory with the apostle Paul, there occupied with the arrangement of other churches,) didst enter that forest of raging beasts, and didst pass upon that ocean of boisterous depths, with more firmness than when thou walkedst on the sea. Nor didst thou fear Rome, the mistress of the world, though thou didst once, in the house of Caiaphas, dread the servant maid of the priest. Not because the power of Claudius, or the cruelty of Nero, were less dreadful than the judgment of Pilate, or the rage of the Jews; but because the power of love now overcame the occasion of fear, since thy regard for the salvation of souls would not suffer thee to yield to terror. * * * The miraculous signs, gifts of grace, and trials of virtue, which had already been so multiplied to thee, now increased thy boldness. Already hadst thou taught those nations of the circumcision who believed. Already hadst thou filled Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia with the gospel; and now, without a doubt of the advance of the work, or of the certainty of thy own fate, thou didst plant the trophy of the cross of Christ upon the towers of Rome.” Arnobius is also quoted by Baronius to similar effect.

Simon Magus.——This fable has received a wonderfully wide circulation, and long maintained a place among the credible accounts of early Christian history, probably from the circumstance of its taking its origin from so early a source. Justin Martyr, who flourished from the year 140 and afterwards, in his apology for the Christian religion, addressed to the emperor Antoninus Pius, says, “Simon, a Samaritan, born in a village named Gitthon, in the time of Claudius Caesar, was received as a god in your imperial city of Rome, and honored with a statue, like other gods, on account of his magical powers there exhibited by the aid of demons; and this statue was set up in the river Tiber, between two bridges, and had this Latin inscription, Simoni deo sancto. Him too, all the Samaritans worship, and a few of other nations, acknowledging him as the highest god, (πρωτον θεον.) They also worship a certain Helena, who at that time followed him about,” &c. &c. &c. with more dirty trash besides, than I can find room for. And in another passage of the same work, he alludes to the same circumstances. “In your city, the mistress of the world, in the time of Claudius Caesar, Simon Magus struck the Roman senate and people with such admiration of himself, that he was ranked among the gods, and was honored with a statue.” Irenaeus, who flourished about the year 180, also gives this story with hardly any variation from Justin. Tertullian, about A. D. 200, repeats the same, with the addition of the circumstance, that not satisfied with the honors paid to himself, he caused the people to debase themselves still further, by paying divine honors to a woman called (by Tertullian) Larentina, who was exalted by them to a rank with the goddesses of the ancient mythology, though the good father gives her but a bad name. Eusebius, also, about A. D. 320, refers to the testimonies of Justin and Irenaeus, and adds some strange particulars about a sect, existing in his time, the members of which were said to acknowledge this Simon as the author of their faith, whom they worshiped along with this woman Helena, falling prostrate before the pictures of both of them, with incense and sacrifices and libations to them, with other rites, unutterably and unwritably bad. (See Eusebius, Church History, II. 13.)

In the three former writers, Justin, Irenaeus and Tertullian, this absurd story stands by itself, and has no connection with the life of Peter; but Eusebius goes on to commemorate the circumstance, previously unrecorded, that Peter went to Rome for the express purpose of putting down this blasphemous wretch, as specified above, in the text of my narrative, from this author. (Eusebius, Church History, II. 14.)

Now all this fine series of accounts, though seeming to bear such an overwhelming weight of testimony in favor of the truth and reality of Simon Magus’s visit to Rome, is proved to be originally based on an absolute falsehood; and the nature of this falsehood is thus exposed. In the year 1574, during the pontificate of Pope Gregory XIII., there was an excavation made for some indifferent purpose in Rome, on the very island in the Tiber, so particularly described by Justin, as lying in the center of the river between two bridges, each of which rested an abutment on it, and ran from it to the opposite shores. In the progress of this excavation, the workmen, as is very common in that vast city of buried ruins, turned up, among other remains of antiquity, the remnant of a statue with its pedestal, which had evidently once stood erect upon the spot. Upon the pedestal was an inscription most distinctly legible, in these words: Semoni sango deo fidio sacrum——Sex Pompeius s. p. f. col. mussianus——quinquennalis decur. bidentalis——donum dedit. (This was in four lines, each line ending where the blank spaces are marked in the copy.) In order to understand this sentence, it must be known, that the Romans, among the innumerable objects of worship in their complicated religion, had a peculiar set of deities which they called Semones. A Semo was a kind of inferior god, of an earthly character and office, so low as to unfit him for a place among the great gods of heaven, Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, &c., and was accordingly confined in his residence entirely to the earth; where the Semones received high honors and devout worship, and were commemorated in many places, both in city and country, by statues, before which the passer might pay his worship, if devoutly disposed. These statues were often of a votive character, erected by wealthy or distinguished persons for fancied aid, received from some one of these Semones, in some particular season of distress, or for general prosperity. This was evidently the object of the statue in question. Priapus, Hipporea, Vertumnus, and such minor gods were included under the general title of Semones; and among them was also ranked a Sabine divinity, named Sangus or Sancus, who is, by some writers, considered as corresponding in character to the Hercules of the Greeks. Sangus or Sancus is often alluded to in the Roman classics. Propertius (book 4) has a verse referring to him as a Sabine deity. “Sic Sancum Tatiae composuere Cures.” Ovid also, “Quaerebam Nonas Sanco fidio ne referrem.” As to this providentially recovered remnant of antiquity, therefore, there can be no doubt that it was a votive monument, erected by Sextus Pompey to Sangus the Semo, for some reason not very clearly expressed.

Baronius tells also that he had seen a stone similarly inscribed. “SANGO SANCTO SEMON.——DEO FIDIO SACRUM——DECURIO SACERDOTUM BIDENTALIUM——RECIPERATIS VECTIGALIBUS.” That is, “Sacred to Sangus, the holy Semo, the god Fidius,——a decury (company of ten) of the priests of the Bidental sacrifices have raised this in gratitude for their recovered incomes.” Dionysius Halicarnassaeus is also quoted by Baronius as referring to the worship of the Semo, Sangus; and from him and various other ancient writers, it appears that vows and sacrifices were offered to this Sangus, for a safe journey and happy return from a distance.

From a consideration of all the circumstances of this remarkable discovery, and from the palpable evidence afforded by the inherent absurdity of the story told by Justin Martyr and his copyists, the conclusion is justifiable and irresistible, that Justin himself, being a native of Syria, and having read the story of Simon Magus in the Acts, where it is recorded that he was profoundly reverenced by the Samaritans, and was silenced and rebuked by Peter when he visited that place,——with all this story fresh in his mind, (for he was but a new convert to Christianity,) came to Rome, and going through that city, an ignorant foreigner, without any knowledge of the religion, or superstitions, or deities, and with but an indifferent acquaintance with their language, came along this bridge over the Tiber to the island, where had been erected this votive statue to Semo Sangus; and looking at the inscription in the way that might be expected of one to whom the language and religion were strange, he was struck at once with the name Semon, as so much resembling the well-known eastern name Simon, and began speculating at once, about what person of that name could ever have come from the east to Rome, and there received the honors of a god. Justin’s want of familiarity with the language of the Romans, would prevent his obtaining any satisfactory information on the subject from the passers-by; and if he attempted to question them about it, he would be very apt to interpret their imperfect communications in such a way as suited the notion he had taken up. If he asked his Christian brethren about the matter, their very low character for general intelligence, the circumstance that those with whom he was most familiar, must have been of eastern origin, and as ignorant as he of the minute peculiarities of the Roman religion, and their common disposition to wilfully pervert the truth, and invent fables for the sake of a good story connected with their own faith, (of which we have evidences vastly numerous, and sadly powerful in the multitude of such legends that have come down from the Christians of those times,) would all conspire to help the invention and completion of the foolish and unfounded notion, that this statue here erected Semoni Sanco Deo, was the same as Simoni Deo Sancto, that is, “to the holy god Simon;” and as it was always necessary to the introduction of a new god among those at Rome, that the Senate should pass a solemn act and decree to that effect, which should be confirmed by the approbation of the emperor, it would at once occur to his own imaginative mind, or to the inventions of his fabricating informers, that Simon must of course have received such a decree from the senate and Caesar. This necessarily also implied vast renown, and extensive favor with all the Romans, which he must have acquired, to be sure, by his magical tricks, aided by the demoniac powers; and so all the foolish particulars of the story would be made out as fast as wanted. The paltry fable also appended to this by all the Fathers who give the former story, to the effect, that some woman closely connected with him, was worshiped along with him, variously named Helena, Selena and Larentina, has no doubt a similarly baseless origin; but is harder to trace to its beginnings, because it was not connected with an assertion, capable of direct ocular, as well as historical, refutation, as that about Simon’s statue most fortunately was. The second name, Selena, given by Irenaeus, is exactly the Greek word for the moon, which was often worshiped under its appropriate name; and this tale may have been caught up from some connection between such a ceremony and the worship of some of the Semones,——all the elegant details of her life and character being invented to suit the fancies of the reverend fathers. The story, that she had followed Simon to Rome from the Phoenician cities, Tyre and Sidon, suggests to my mind at this moment, that there may have been a connection between this and some old story of the importation of a piece of idolatry from that region, so famed for the worship of the

“mooned Ashtaroth,