[94]

Grabe is also interesting for a somewhat wild speculation which he quotes from a British Divine (apud Usserium in Antiquitatibus Eccles. Britannicae), that the tonsure of the monks was taken from the Simonians. (Grabe, op. cit., p, 697.)

[95]

In the epistle of St. Ignatius Ad Trallianos (§ 11), Simon is called "the first-born Son of the Devil" (πρωτοτοκον διαβολου υιον); and St. Polycarp seems to refer to Simon in the following passage in his Epistle Ad Philipp. (§ 7):

"Everyone who shall not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, is antichrist, and who shall not confess the martyrdom of the cross, is of the Devil; and he who translates the words of the Lord according to his own desires, and says there is neither resurrection nor judgment, he is the first-born of Satan."


PART III.