Antiquitates apoitolicæ, or, The history of the lives, acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour and the two evangelists SS. Mark and Lvke to which is added an introductory discourse concerning the three great dispensations of the church, patriarchal, Mosiacal and evangelical : being a continuation of Antiquitates christianæ or the life and death of the holy Jesus / by William Cave ...

THE LIFE OF S. SIMON the Zealot.

[illustration]

S. SIMON

S. Simon Zelotes: preached in Aegypt Africa and Britaine and at length was crucified Niceph. l. 2. c. 40. Baron. Oct. 28.

[illustration]

S^t. Simon's Martyrdom.

Matth. 10.16.

Behold I send you forth as sheep in y^e midst of wolves

1. Cor. 4.9.

God hath set forth US y^e Apostles last, as it were men appointed to death, For we are made a spectacle to the world, and to Angels, and to men.

His Kindred. Whence stiled the Cananite, and the Zealot. An enquiry into the nature and temper, and original of the Sect of the Zealots among the Jews. An account of their wild and licentious practices. This no reflection upon our A∣postle. In what parts of the World he Preached the Gospel. His planting Chri∣stianity in Africk. His removal into the West, and Preaching in Britain. His Martyrdom there. By whom said to have preached and suffered in Persia. The difference between him and Symeon Bishop of Jerusalem.

1. SAINT Simon the Apostle was, as some think, one of the four Brothers of our Saviour,* 1.1 Sons of Joseph by his former marriage, though no other evidence appear for it,* 1.2 but that there was a Simon one of the number; too infirm a foundation to build any thing more upon than a mere conjecture. In the Catalogue of the Apostles he is stiled Simon the Cananite; whence some, led by no other reason that I know of, than the bare sound of the name, have concluded him born at Cana in Galilee; as for the same reason * 1.3 others have made him the Bridegroom, at whose marriage our Lord was there present, when he honoured the solemnity with his first Miracle, turning Water into Wine. But this word has no relation to his Country, or the place from whence he borrowed his Original, as plainly descending from 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 which signifie Zeal, and denote a hot and sprightly temper. Therefore what some of the Evangelists call Ca∣nanite, others rendring the Hebrew by the Greek word stile,* 1.4 Simon Zelotes, or the Zealot:* 1.5 So called, not (as * 1.6 Nicephorus thinks) from his burning zeal, and ardent affection to his Master, and his eager desire to advance his Religion in the World, but from his warm active temper, and zealous for∣wardness in some particular way and profession of Religion before his com∣ing to our Saviour.

2. FOR the better understanding of this we are to know, that as there were several Sects and Parties among the Jews, so was there one, either a distinct Sect,* 1.7 or at least a branch of the Pharisees, called the Sect of the Zea∣lots: They were mighty assertors of the honour of the Law, and the strict∣ness and purity of Religion, assuming a liberty to themselves to question no∣torious offenders, without staying for the ordinary formalities of Law, nay, when they thought good, and as the case required, executing capital ven∣geance upon them. Thus when a blasphemer cursed God by the name of any Idol (says * 1.8 Maimonides) the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 or Zealots that next met him might immediately kill him, without ever bringing him 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 before the Sanhedrim. They looked upon themselves as the successors of Phineas, who in a mighty passion for the honour of God, did immediate execution upon Zimri and Cosbi.* 1.9 An act which was counted unto him for righteousness unto all posterities for evermore, and God so well pleased with it, that he made with him and his seed after him the covenant of an everlasting Priesthood, be∣cause he was zealous for his God, and made an atonement for Israel. In imita∣tion whereof these Men took upon them to execute judgment in extraordi∣nary cases, and that not only by the connivance, but with the leave both of the Rulers and the People, till in after-times under a pretence of this, their zeal degenerated into all manner of licentiousness and wild extravagance, and they not only became the Pests of the Commonwealth at home, but opened the door for the Romans to break in upon them, to their final and ir∣recoverable ruine; they were continually prompting the People to throw off the Roman yoke, and vindicate themselves into their native liberty, and when they had turned all things into hurry and confusion, themselves in the mean while fished in these troubled Waters. Josephus gives a large account of them, and every where bewails them as the great plague of the Nation. He tells us of * 1.10 them, that they scrupled not to rob any, to kill many of the prime Nobility, under pretence of holding correspondence with the Romans, and betraying the liberty of their Countrey, openly

glorifying that herein they were the benefactors and Saviours of the people. They abrogated the succession of ancient Families, thrusting obscure and ignoble persons into the High-Priests office, that so they might oblige the most infamous villains to their party; and as if not content to injure men, they affronted Heaven, and proclaimed defiance to the Divinity it self, breaking into and prophaning the most holy place. Stiling themselves Zea∣lots (says he) as if their undertakings were good and honourable, while they were greedy and emulous of the greatest wickednesses, and out-did the worst of men. Many attempts were made, especially by Annas the High-Priest, to reduce them to order and sobriety. But neither force of arms, nor fair and gentle methods could do any good upon them; they held out, and went on in their violent proceedings, and joyning with the Idumeans, committed all manner of out-rage, slaying the High-Priests themselves. Nay, when Je∣rusalem was straitly besieged by the Roman Army, they ceased not to create tumults and factions within, and were indeed the main cause of the Jew's ill success in that fatal war. 'Tis probable, that all that went under the notion of this Sect were not of this wretched and ungovernable temper, but that some of them were of a better make, of a more sober and peaceable dispositi∣on: And as it is not to be doubted, but that our Simon was of this Sect in general, so there's reason to believe he was of the better sort. However this makes no more reflexion upon his being called to the Apostleship, than it did for S. Matthew, who was before a Publican, or S. Paul's being a Pharisee, and so zealously persecuting the Church of God.

3. BEING invested in the Apostolical office, no further mention ap∣pears of him in the History of the Gospel. Continuing with the Apostles till their dispersion up and down the World, he then applied himself to the exe∣cution of his charge. He is * 1.11 said to have directed his journey towards Egypt, thence to Cyrene, and Africk (this indeed ‖ 1.12 Baronius is not willing to believe, being desirous that S. Peter should have the honour to be the first that planted Christianity in Africk) and throughout Mauritania and all Li∣bya, preaching the Gospel to those remote and barbarous Countries. Nor could the coldness of the Climate benumb his zeal, or hinder him from ship∣ping himself and the Christian doctrine over to the Western Islands, yea, even to Britain it self. Here he preached, and wrought many miracles, and after infinite troubles and difficulties which he underwent (if we may be∣lieve our Authors, whom,* 1.13 though Baronius in this case makes no great ac∣count of, yet never scruples freely to use their verdict and suffrage when they give in evidence to his purpose) suffered Martyrdom for the Faith of Christ, as is not only affirmed by * 1.14 Nicephorus and ‖ 1.15 Dorotheus, but expresly owned in the Greek * 1.16 Menologies, where we are told, that he went at last into Bri∣tain, and having enlightned the minds of many with the doctrine of the Gospel, was crucified by the Infidels, and buried there.

4. I KNOW indeed that there want not those who tell * 1.17 us, that af∣ter his preaching the Gospel in Egypt, he went into Mesopotamia, where he met with S. Jude the Apostle, and together with him took his journey into Persia, where having gained a considerable harvest to the Christian Faith, they were both crowned with Martyrdom; which Baronius himself con∣fesses to be founded upon no better authority, than the Passions of the Apostles, a Book which at every turn he rejects as trifling and imperti∣nent, as false and fabulous. But however, wide is the mistake of

‖ 1.18 those who confound our Apostle with Symeon the son of Cleophas, successor to S. James the Just in the See of Jerusalem, who was crucified in the hun∣dred and twentieth year of his Age, in the persecution under Trajan: The different character of their persons, and the account both of their Acts and Martyrdoms being sufficiently distinguished in the writings of the Church.

The End of S. Simon's Life.

Notes

• * 1.1

  Matth. 10.4.
• * 1.2

  Mark 3.18.
• * 1.3

  Niceph. H. Eccl. lib. 8. c. 30 p. 596.
• * 1.4

  Luke 6.15.
• * 1.5

  Acts 1.13.
• * 1.6

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. H. Eccl. lib. 2. c. 40. p. 202.
• * 1.7

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Suid▪ in voc. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉.
• * 1.8

  De Idolol. cap. 2. Sect. 12. pag. 19.
• * 1.9

  Psal. 106.30. Numb. 25.11-13.
• * 1.10

  De Bell. Jud. lib. 4. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. p. 871. & seqq.
• * 1.11

  Eiceph. loc. supra laudat.
• ‖ 1.12

  Ad Ann. 44. n. 38.
• * 1.13

  Vbi supra.
• * 1.14

  Niceph. ib.
• ‖ 1.15

  Doroth. in Synops de vit. App p. 148.
• * 1.16

  〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉. Menolog. Graec. ad diem X. Maii.
• * 1.17

  Vid. Breviar. Roman. ad di∣em 28. Octobr. & Martyrol. Rom. ad cund. diem & Baron. Not. ibid. vid. illum ad Ann. 68. n. 7.
• ‖ 1.18

  Sophron. apud Hieron. de Script. Eccl. in Simone. Isidor. de vit. & obit. SS. utriusque T. cap. 83.