'Simon was also regarded as the founder of at least a Gnostic cult, if not the whole of Gnosticism.'

Matthew Graham continues his look at heretics throughout history with those connected to the letter S  

Duels between airborne combatants trying to outperform each other in displays of supernatural prowess belong more to the world of Harry Potter than to that of the heretic and the saint - or so you would think.

Simon Magus (fl. 30 – 60) was the first true heretic, the “father of all heretics” Iranaeus called him, and is certainly the only heretic specifically mentioned in the Bible (Acts 8:9 – 24).

Simon was an early Christian, baptised by Philip, but his background was in magic. Seeing the miracles that the Apostles performed by the laying on of hands, he approached Peter and John and tried to buy this ability thus giving us the sin of simony.

Founder

This in itself is not enough to brand him a heretic but Simon was also regarded as the founder of at least a Gnostic cult, if not the whole of Gnosticism.

The Simonianists believed that Simon was God and attributed him with powers of levitation and invisibility.

Operating in the same milieu as Christians, these two groups were bound to clash and it came to a head in Rome with a showdown between Simon and Peter and Paul before the Emperor Nero.

Simon was demonstrating his aerial skills when the two apostles, convinced that demons were assisting him, prayed and Simon suddenly plummeted to the ground “divided into four parts”.

Nero ordered his remains carefully looked after for three days but Simon failed to show the same recuperative abilities as his rival.

Simony has been a constant problem for the Church for the past two millennia, sparking the papal reforms of the 11th century.

In fact, it still remains an offence under English law, and until very recently, clergy were required to make a declaration against it on ordination.

Swedenborg

Simon was not the last heretic to have dealings with supernatural beings. Emmanuel Swedenborg (1688 – 1772) was an eminent Swedish scientist and philosopher who at the age of fifty-six gained the ability to commune with all manner of spiritual beings and to travel at will between heaven and hell.

He learnt that the concept of the Trinity was wrong and that there is in fact only one God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

He also rejected the idea that salvation depended solely on one’s faith and not on one’s deeds in life. Swedenborg taught, instead, that it was only by doing good works out of a belief that it was right that one could attain salvation.

Needless to say, Swedenborg’s ideas were not well met by the establishment and in 1769 he returned to Sweden to face charges of heresy.

In 1770, the Royal Council found against him, totally condemning, rejecting, and forbidding the theological doctrines contained in Swedenborg's writings.

Swedenborg returned to the freer society of London where he died peacefully on the day he had predicted – 29 March 1772.

Legacy

Today the Swedenborgian Church claims about 65,000 members worldwide but Swedenborg’s greater legacy is the individuals whom he influenced, including William Blake, Honore de Balzac, Ralph Waldo Emerson, and Carl Jung.

Finally we’ll end with a priest whose congregation included one of the great mediaeval female mystics, Margery Kempe.

Although she had frequent associations with supernatural beings, William Sawtry (d. 1401) was much more concerned with the earthly abuses of the Church, saying: “instead of adoring the cross on which Christ suffered, I adore Christ who suffered on it”.

He was tried for heresy in 1399, recanted, and then relapsed. In March 1401, he became the first Lollard to be burnt at the stake.

It seems probable that the seeds of the anti-institutional defiance that Margery exhibited throughout much of her life were sewn by Sawtry in her youth.

Whether he appeared in her ecstatic visions later in life, though, history does not relate.

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