§ 3. On Simony

Simony pertains to real sacrilege, as Suarez proves (de Relig., l. 3, c. 1). This matter is treated extensively in canon law. Here we shall treat briefly: 1. of the nature and gravity of simony; 2. of the causes on account of which it ceases; 3. of the more frequent cases of simony; 4. of the penalties established against simoniacs and of the obligation of restoring what has been received.

584. DEFINITION. Simony is the studied will of buying or selling, for a temporal price, something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual. Thus St. Thomas (2.2, q. 100, a. 1).

It is said: studied, that is, a deliberate will by which at least a pact is begun; of buying or selling, by which the nature of the contract in force is signified, but it is enough if it is virtually such; for a temporal price, that is, for any temporal good; something spiritual - this indicates the matter about which the pact turns.

DIVISION. Simony, by reason of matter, is divided into two parts: 1. One is of divine law, which is prohibited by natural law, on account of its intrinsic malice; and it is the very sale or purchase of a spiritual thing as such. 2. Another is only of ecclesiastical law, which is therefore evil because it is forbidden by canon law; and it is any bargaining, giving, and accepting prohibited by the Church, insofar as it smells of a simoniacal stain or has danger of simony.

Each simony is threefold: a) mental, if it is done merely internally, or if something is offered externally with a simoniacal intention, but without a pact externally manifested; as can happen if a servant serves a Bishop; b) conventional, if an external pact, at least implicit, has intervened, but has been put into execution by neither part; c) real, if the pact has been completed in effect, at least inchoatively, by both parts. But if the pact has been put into execution by one part only, simony is still called conventional, but mixed, insofar as it participates in real simony (III, 49, 67, 106 end).

In the matter of benefices, d) confidential simony is given, namely when someone procures or resigns a benefice to another, under a certain confidence, that is, with a pact at least implicit, that he yield it in the future to himself or to another, or pay from it a pension or part of the fruits without legitimate authority. This simony, as is evident, is a particular case of conventional or real simony (III, 85, 90).

585. PRINCIPLES. I. To constitute simony three things are necessarily required: unsaleable matter, a temporal price, a will of exchanging one for the other.

1. The MATTER about which this sacrilegious contract turns is a spiritual thing or a temporal thing annexed to a spiritual thing.

a) A spiritual thing, by which name is understood a supernatural thing ordered to salvation; whether it is formally such, as grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; or causally, producing grace, as are the sacraments, preaching, prayers, and sacramentals; or effectively spiritual, that is, an effect and use of supernatural power, as consecration, absolution, dispensation, blessing, excommunication, election, presentation, confirmation, collation of a benefice, and other acts of ecclesiastical jurisdiction. b) A temporal thing annexed to a spiritual thing, and ordered to it by its nature or by the institution of the Church: whether antecedently, as churches, sacred vessels, which preexist consecration, or the right of patronage with respect to a benefice; or concomitantly, as time and labor, which are intrinsically and inseparably annexed to sacred functions; or consequently, as the right of perceiving the revenues of a church, which presupposes a spiritual office as its cause and root (III, 49).

Note. Ecclesiastical patrimonies, pious legacies, lay patrimonies, lay chaplaincies, and pensions are not matter of simony. Nevertheless ecclesiastical pensions and ecclesiastical prestimonies, vicariates and coadjutorships, likewise manual benefices, or removable benefices introduced by the Church, even if they do not assume the nature of a benefice, are matter of simony: because they are annexed to a clerical office and demand a spiritual ministry. But he who sells or buys such things does not incur the penalties of simony; because the penalties are enacted for true benefices (III, 112). Cf. n. 1325, 1335 ff.

2. The PRICE, or that which has the character of a price, in buying something spiritual, is named in canon law a gift from the hand, a gift from service, a gift from the tongue:

a) A gift from the hand, by which is understood money and whatever temporal thing is estimable by price, for example remission of a debt, concession of a right, a loan, or its promise, even a pension to be paid to some third person. b) A gift from service, that is, everything which pertains to servitude, such as serving as a servant, teaching, etc., for the end of obtaining something spiritual. c) A gift from the tongue, or patronage, under which name come praises, favors, intercession even mediate, prayers, and similar things estimable by price (III, 56-66).

3. The WILL of exchanging one for the other truly constitutes simony, whether this will is externally manifested or not; whether it is manifested by one's own and the other part, or by one's own only (III, 51, 53).

From these things conclude: 1. It is simony to give or accept a temporal thing, whether formally or virtually, whether by explicit or implicit pact, for the spiritual thing itself, and in exchange for it, namely from the primary motive of having one for the other, or for a price or just compensation. "In this matter, ANY PACT WHATEVER, anything onerous whatever, is simoniacal, even if it does not bind rigorously from justice."

2. He cannot be excused from mental simony who serves a Bishop gratis, with the intention of obliging him, even if only from gratitude and not from justice, to repay him with a benefice (III, 51, 53).

3. A fortiori, he would be simoniacal who should draw into a pact an antidoral obligation, or an obligation of donation from gratitude; for such a pact introduces at least an obligation of fidelity, which, since it is estimable by some price, certainly renders the pact simoniacal (III, 53 and 764; l. El. qq. ref., n. 18).

But it is not simony: 1. If something spiritual is given for something spiritual, for example a relic for a relic, a Mass for a rosary, or if someone serves a Bishop in spiritual things, as in hearing confessions, for obtaining a benefice. 2. If some honorable motive intervenes, for example alms, stipend, by force of which the temporal and, in turn, the spiritual are bestowed; since the one would no longer be the motive of the other, but only its impelling cause (III, 55). Thus, for example, "those who give money to the poor, so that they may pray for them, do not buy prayer, but entice the souls of the poor to praying" (4. D. 25, q. 3, a. 2, ad 2). 3. If someone sells sacred vessels for the value of the material.

586. II. Simony is a most grave sin among the sins opposed to religion. It is evident: 1. From the words of St. Peter to Simon Magus (Acts Ap., 8, 20): Thy money be with thee unto perdition: because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be possessed with money. 2. From the sacred canons, where simony is called an execrable vice, a piacular crime, a pest, etc. 3. From reason: the malice of this sin chiefly consists in the irreverence which is committed when a sacred or spiritual thing is despised as profane. Often also injustice is added, on account of defect of title in receiving the temporal thing; and innumerable other evils are added from the election of unworthy ministers, etc. (III, 49).

587. III. Simony of divine law does not admit smallness of matter; but simony of ecclesiastical law admits it. The reason for the first is that however small the spiritual thing may be which is sold or bought, a grave injury is brought upon God from the exchange. But as regards the second, there is nothing except the prohibition of the Church, in which indeed smallness of matter can exist (III, 50).

Note. Simony of divine law and of ecclesiastical law are sins of the same species. For the Church commands and prohibits these pacts concerning spiritual things from the motive of the virtue of religion.

588. Although it is never licit to give or accept something temporal as a price for something spiritual, nevertheless it can happen that, on the occasion of a spiritual thing which is furnished, something temporal is licitly received from an extrinsic title, namely one which removes every simony. TITLES or CAUSES of this sort can be numbered as six, namely:

1. PURE LIBERALITY, or GRATITUDE. For if someone, after something spiritual has been conceded, from a grateful soul furnishes something temporal, without any preceding pact, expecting nothing in the future, he does not give the temporal thing for acquiring the spiritual.

Hence gifts furnished by the faithful on the occasion of baptism, first communion, and marriage are without simoniacal stain; likewise, a gift for a benefice already obtained, etc. Nor is it simony to confer a benefice on someone on account of carnal affection, provided no temporal gain is intended (III, 52).

2. HONORABLE SUSTENANCE OF THE WORKER, or stipend. For ministers of the Church are not held to serve as soldiers at their own expense; and therefore they have a right of receiving from the faithful that from which they may live suitably, even if they are rich.

From this title, a beneficiary receives the revenues of his benefice; a parish priest receives stole fees on the occasion of marriage and funerals; a priest receives stipends for celebrating Masses and for the sacred sermons which he has to the people. Indeed, from simony he is more probably to be excused who fulfills a spiritual office principally on account of temporal emoluments: provided he has these not as a price and the sole end of the sacred action, but as a stipend for his own sustenance; although he is not easily to be excused from venial fault, since it is a certain disorder to direct spiritual things to temporal things (III, 55, q. 6; H. Ap., IV, 45).

3. REMUNERATION OF UNDUE LABOR. This corresponds to the sayings of the virtue of justice.

Indeed, nothing can be accepted for labor intrinsic to a sacred function, even if it is great: for example, for the burden of carrying the last sacraments to the sick who are far distant; for this inheres in the pastoral office. See below n. 589, 4. But for extrinsic labor which is not owed, it is licit to accept or stipulate a price: for example, for a Mass to be celebrated at such an hour, for a longer Office, for a sung Mass of bination, where an excess of the diocesan stipend is given and labor of this sort is added (S. C. C., June 17, 1905, and Mar. 24, 1906). Likewise he who has suffered harm in obtaining a benefice for someone, by making journeys, neglecting his own affairs, can demand compensation (H. Ap., IV, 45).

4. REDEMPTION OF UNJUST VEXATION. This also is consonant with the principles of justice. Yet one must proceed circumspectly.

St. Alphonsus, with the Angelic Doctor, puts two rules here: a) If you have a right in the thing, or an acquired and certain right, you can well redeem vexation by giving something temporal, but not something spiritual. Thus a parish priest canonically instituted and vexed by the civil magistrate can free himself with money. Thus also a member of the faithful can, for a grave cause, give money to a priest unwilling without it to administer the sacraments (Exam. ord., n. 21). b) If you have a right to the thing, for example to acquiring a benefice, you can always redeem vexation from those able to harm, but not to benefit, namely that they abstain from harming you, whether by threats or calumnies against justice, or even by gifts and prayers against charity. But, regularly speaking, you cannot redeem vexation, even unjust, which proceeds from those able at once to harm and to benefit, for example from an elector who can deny or give a vote; the reason is that money in fact would always incline the mind of the elector toward you. Except, if the elector by frauds and violence were laboring to corrupt the other electors so that they also deny their vote to you; for then, as is sufficiently probable, you could give money with an express protestation that nothing is asked from him except that he desist from vexation. Likewise, with money you can impede the election of an unworthy person: for the Church has a right that an inept minister not be given to her; but you cannot buy votes, nor impede another from competing who can compete by right (III, 98-104; H. Ap., IV, 49).

5. DISPOSITION OF THE SOVEREIGN PONTIFF. For the Pontiff can directly remove simony of ecclesiastical law, by mitigating or even abrogating the law.

But he can remove simony of divine law indirectly, by assigning an extrinsic title: for example, the title of sustenance for the burdens of the Supreme Pontificate, as in dispensations from matrimonial impediments; or the title of compensation, as in vows which are commuted into alms; or the title of penalty, as is done in dispensations both from irregularities and from impediments of matrimony contracted because of crime (III, 95, 96; H. Ap., IV, 46).

6. CUSTOM NOT REPROBATED; for this also abrogates or mitigates the law of the Church.

Thus, for example, in certain cathedral churches, a use has prevailed against the common law, that something is received in the distribution of sacred chrism, for compensating expenses made for procuring the matter. Likewise, for completed acts of ordinations, something is granted to notaries from use (III, 110, end; A. S. S., 13, p. 180).

589. I. Against DIVINE LAW: 1. It is simony to give or accept something temporal as price or compensation, for any sacred offices, for example for sacraments or sacramentals, for sacred relics, for preaching or catechism, for applying an indulgence, for dispensation of a vow, oath, matrimonial impediment; likewise for collation, election, presentation, confirmation to an ecclesiastical benefice, for collation of orders, ecclesiastical burial, dispensation ... For thus a temporal thing is exchanged with a spiritual thing (III, 55, 93-96). For teaching Theology or Sacred Scripture it is licit to receive money, because doctrine is ordered primarily to the temporal good of the students (III, 94).

2. It is simony to give or accept the temporal thing principally, even if not solely, for obtaining or procuring something spiritual. For the motive which is added, however honorable it may be, does not destroy the malice and impiety of the prior motive on account of which the temporal thing is chiefly given (III, 51). - It is licit, speaking of itself, to give something temporal primarily for capturing benevolence, secondarily for obtaining something spiritual from benevolence. But in practice, whenever the temporal thing is given with the sole view of the spiritual thing, an intention at least virtually simoniacal is easily to be presumed. Except, unless the contrary is established, or something else is gathered from cir-

cumstances, for example from the smallness of the gift, or from the piety or wealth of the giver (III, 51, 62; H. Ap., IV, 44). Likewise, to give something to a mediator, not as a price that he intercede, but on account of labor or harm to be undergone, is not illicit of itself; nevertheless it is dangerous (III, 64, 65).

3. It is simony to sell more dearly a temporal thing antecedently annexed to a spiritual thing: for example, a consecrated chalice, a blessed rosary, a farm to which the right of patronage inheres, etc. It is said more dearly, because these can licitly be bought or sold by reason of intrinsic value, unless this is prohibited by the Church (III, 71; H. Ap., IV, 47; Ami du Cl., 1910, p. 207).

4. It is simony to sell a thing concomitantly and intrinsically annexed to a spiritual thing: for example, the labor intrinsically necessary for celebrating Mass.¹

5. It is simony, according to the more common and more probable opinion, to sell a thing consequently annexed to a spiritual thing, for example the right of perceiving ecclesiastical revenues. The reason is that this thing cannot be acquired except by reason of a spiritual office; therefore neither can it be sold unless the spiritual thing necessarily presupposed to it is sold (III, 70).

Hence it is unlawful at entrance into Religion to buy or sell the right of living from the goods of a sufficiently wealthy monastery; for this right is necessarily joined with religious profession, which is spiritual (l. El. qq. Ref., 58). Cf. n. 591, 2.

Yet it is licit, on the occasion of entrance into Religion, to give or accept on account of other titles, for example of gratuitous gift or alms. Likewise for food during the time of novitiate, even if the monastery is rich; for the sustenance of a religious, if the monastery is poor, or if one to be received is sick, old, dull of mind (III, 91, 92). But it has been granted to monasteries of nuns that they can always accept a dowry, by reason of the dangers to which they are generally liable. Indeed, if it is a question of choir nuns in a regular Order, there exist several decisions of the S. C. of Bishops and Regulars, by force of which it is not licit to admit them without pontifical dispensation, unless they bring a sufficient and legitimate dowry (Anal. jur. pont., ser. 4, col. 1525).

6. It is simony to give something so that another omits a spiritual thing, "if the omission is of a thing directed by spiritual power, and there is an obligation of placing it, as would be the omission of absolving, dispensing, electing, etc. Thus from c. Nemo presbyterorum, on simony"; but not "if the omission were of some spiritual act depending on liberty, as would be the omission of praying, celebrating, giving alms, provided the one omitting is not bound from justice to furnish it" (H. Ap., IV, 48).

590. II. Against ECCLESIASTICAL LAW simony is committed:

1. By exchanging ecclesiastical benefices, resigning them in favor of another, transacting concerning them, reserving a pension, or bargaining in any way, even for imposing a spiritual burden, without legitimate permission (III, 60, 69-90, where there are many things).

2. By selling or buying temporal offices canonically instituted for sacred things, as the offices of procurator, steward, sacristan, treasurer, etc. (H. Ap., IV, 42).

3. By selling part of a sacred cemetery; and this is simony of divine law, if it is sold as a sacred place. Yet the right of a grave can be bought by reason of the burden of not burying others there (III, 71).

4. By selling blessed oil or sacred chrism, even according to its physical species; but cf. n. 588, 6. Likewise, by selling or exposing as venal blessed rosaries, medals, and other things of this sort blessed with application of indulgences; in which case even the indulgences themselves, from the decree of the Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, are lost (S. C. Ind. et Reliq., July 12, 1847).² Yet the seller can take the care upon himself that the thing be blessed, and afterward accept the price (S. C. Ind., 1896).

5. By accepting something, even spontaneously offered, indeed by title of gratitude, on the occasion of collation of an order, or even of first tonsure, from the Tridentine Council, Sess. 21, c. 1, on Reform. But the S. C. of the Council, Oct. 9, 1678, permitted that Bishops receive a candle from those to be ordained, and also a cloth from those to be ordained priests. Indeed, the same Congregation deputed by Innocent XI fixed the emoluments which can be exacted for dimissorial and testimonial letters, etc.

6. By giving or accepting something, even trifling, for example some flowers, a few fruits, modest foods, on the occasion of an examination for a parish priest to be elected by competition, whether before or after the examination; for this is wholly forbidden by the Tridentine Council, Sess. 24, c. 18, on Reform, under penalties to be incurred after sentence, to remove every danger of human affection in the examiners. Indeed, if someone should give for the examination itself, namely that it proceed prosperously, he would commit simony of divine law, as is evident.

7. By accepting something for the erection, institution, communication, or aggregation of confraternities, against the Bull Quaecumque of Clement VIII, in which there are decreed both invalidity of the act and privation of offices and inability to obtain those and others in the future. This penalty can be remitted by the Roman Pontiff alone, but it seems not to be incurred except by means of a declaratory sentence of the crime.

8. By committing to others the celebration of a Mass owed from a stipend, part being retained from mutual pact (Noldin, II, n. 185, 7).

591. PRINCIPLES. I. Penalties are not incurred, by the fact itself, except through either real or confidential simony. But this happens only in cases which regard the matter of benefices, entrance into Religion, Mass stipends and indulgences, and the simoniacal election of a Pope.

These must be explained in order: 1. IN THE MATTER OF BENEFICES. Real simony is punished: a) by excommunication simply reserved to the Pope, which extends also to accomplices, that is, those by whose cooperation the contract is perfected (cf. n. 1335); b) by nullity of election, presentation, and canonical institution; so that one thus promoted and instituted cannot make the fruits of the benefice his own; c) by perpetual inability for the same benefice; and after at least declaratory sentence, by inability also for obtaining other benefices. Confidential simony, even incomplete, besides the same penalties, which prelates of whatever dignity incur, even Cardinals and Bishops, but not accomplices, n. 1336, is punished for this by privation of pensions and benefices previously obtained; but not except after a declaratory sentence of the crime (III, 111, 112; H. Ap., IV, 53).

Moreover, although the Pontiff confirms, for example, the election of a Bishop, not knowing the vice of simony, and although in the Bull he says that he supplies all defects, nevertheless the confirmation is not valid; because that is understood concerning other defects, but not concerning simony (III, l. c. and 120).

2. IN ENTRANCE INTO RELIGION strictly so called, through profession. Real simony is punished with excommunication simply reserved to the Supreme Pontiff, in those presuming to give or accept. - Those accepting were formerly suspended from capitular offices and every act of jurisdiction. But this penalty seems abrogated from the Constitution Apostolicae Sedis (cf. n. 1337). But the professed one, whose profession indeed is valid, must after sentence be transferred into a stricter monastery (III, 108; H. Ap., IV, 50).

3. IN MASS STIPENDS AND INDULGENCES. They are struck with the same reserved excommunication: a) Those collecting alms of greater price for Masses and capturing profit from them, by causing them to be celebrated by reason of a lesser stipend. b) All who, whether by conceding, publishing, or ordering publication, make profit from indulgences and other spiritual graces (cf. n. 1338, 1339). To these add the things which we said n. 590, 7, concerning the erection of confraternities.

4. IN THE SIMONIACAL ELECTION OF A POPE; see n. 1312, 3.

Note. Today there is no censure in the simoniacal collation and reception of orders. Except the suspension which a Bishop incurs for three years when he ordains someone without title of benefice or patrimony, with a pact that the one ordained not ask support from him (see n. 1362). Except also privation of hope of ascending to other orders. This penalty is a species of irregularity reserved to the Pope in a special manner, from the Constitution Sanctam of Pius V.

For the rest, against any notorious simony whatsoever, whether from the declaration of a judge or from the spreading abroad of the fact, infamy of law is established, and therefore irregularity (cf. n. 1938).

592. II. The spiritual thing accepted simoniacally, if it is an ecclesiastical benefice, must always be restored; but the temporal price simoniacally accepted must be restored when justice was wounded in the convention. The reason for the first is that the collation of a benefice of this sort is declared void by the law itself and before the sentence of a judge. The reason for the second: because if wounding of justice is absent, restitution is provided for by no other law. Otherwise after the sentence of a judge (III, 114).

Hence: 1. A benefice is to be dismissed by the fact itself, with the fruits unjustly perceived, only those things being retained which correspond to labor. Let restitution be made to the Church; but it is probable that the fruits can also be restored to the poor, or to the successor in the benefice. A composition can also be obtained from the Pope, if a cause underlies it (III, 113, 114).

But if the spiritual thing simoniacally accepted is some other thing than a benefice, nothing is to be restored. The reason is that the other things either cannot be restored, as are the sacraments, or are not to be restored before the sentence of a judge, as sacred relics, since the canons have not established it.

2. If, a temporal price having been accepted, the spiritual thing has not been handed over or furnished, the price must be restored to the one who gave, since he gave from a false title.

3. If delivery has followed on both sides, in this case, according to some, the price must still be returned to the giver, on account of the nullity of the contract; according to others, to the church where the benefice is, as a penalty of both exchanging parties; finally, according to others, it can also be given to the poor. These three opinions are probable, but the second and third are more probable (H. Ap., IV, 53; Conf. dir., IV, 28).