History of Europe

Do you know the origin of the term simony?

According to the RAE, simony it is "the deliberate purchase or sale of spiritual things, such as sacraments and sacramentals, or temporal things inseparably attached to spiritual things, such as ecclesiastical prebends and benefits." This term has its origin in Simón Mago , the protagonist of this story who tried to buy the apostles Peter and Paul the gift of performing miracles. Pedro threw him out and answered:

May your money disappear with you, since you have believed that the gift of God is purchased at the price of gold!

Who was Simon Magus? He seems to be a kind of prophet, contemporary and direct competition of Jesus of Nazareth, founder of Gnosticism and who used magic tricks, as miracles, to attract followers.

And a certain man named Simon had long been exercising magic in the city and astonishing the people of Samaria, pretending to be a great character; and all, from the least to the greatest, paid attention to him, saying:This is the one called the Great Power of God. They paid attention to him because for a long time he had amazed them with his magical arts (Acts of the Apostles)

If we leave aside the mythological flyers, Daedalus and Icarus, he would be the first human being who managed to fly and also die in the demonstration. To prove that he was the Messiah, he wanted to prove to Peter that he, too, could go up to heaven… alive and flying. He did so, and when he was flying, Pedro begged the Almighty to be punished for his audacity and mysteriously crashed to the ground.

There is another version of his death that is more curious:Simón assured that, just like his rival, he could be buried and rise again after three days... they must still be waiting.