Question Four: On Simony

S. Th. II-II, q. 100.

808. Simony, so called from Simon Magus, who (Acts VIII, 18) wished to buy from the Apostles the power of giving the Holy Spirit, so that he might sell it to others, is defined: the studious will of buying or selling for a temporal price something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual (can. 727). In this definition there is indicated:

1. The genus: studious will, that is, deliberate intention, not only because this is necessary as for any sin whatever, but also because for the essential malice of simony a mutual pact is not required; rather, a pact begun interiorly by one party suffices, namely, an interior affection or will of bargaining or obliging (a. 1, ad 1).

2. The proper act of simony: buying or selling, which is to be taken broadly of any onerous contract, whether of hiring, or of renunciation, or of exchange, by which a spiritual thing is appraised and compensated by a temporal thing, and the temporal is had as an equivalent compensation for the spiritual thing; whence is added, for a temporal price, that is, for money or some other thing estimable by price: for all such contracts are easily reduced to buying and selling, by force of which one intends to oblige another to give something spiritual for something temporal, or conversely (a. 1, ad 5). Hence from can. 728, there is every agreement, even tacit, although not brought into effect, in which the simoniacal mind is not expressly manifested but is gathered from the circumstances.

That temporal good is called in law a gift, and is threefold:

a) a gift from the hand, that is, money and anything else estimable by price, such as remission of debt, hiring, cession of right (a. 1441); b) a gift from the tongue, that is, patronage, such as commendation with another, praise, favor, prayers, intercessions, vituperation, defense; c) a gift from service, that is, service or attendance in temporal matters, for example, to give a loan, to serve another, to assist, to teach, to instruct, in one word a work for the utility and advantage of another (a. 5).

3. The object by which it is distinguished, or the matter about which simony is concerned: something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual. That is, namely:

a) Something spiritual, insofar as it is spiritual; namely, something truly and intrinsically supernatural as such, that is, a spiritual thing ordered to eternal salvation (or proceeding from God as supernatural author and ordering to God as supernatural end), whether it is such formally, as grace, the gift of the Holy Spirit, or causally, as sacraments, sacramentals, prayers, a sermon, the power of order and jurisdiction, or effectively insofar as it is an effect or use of spiritual power, namely, an act of the power of order or jurisdiction, such as consecration, absolution, blessing, dispensation, election, presentation, collation of a benefice, confirmation, indulgence (a. ? [printed thus] and 3).

b) Or something annexed to the spiritual, insofar as it is annexed to the spiritual, namely, that which is not spiritual, but is ordered to it and is joined to it; namely in such a way that without the spiritual it cannot be (a. 1, ad 6; a. 4), for example, an ecclesiastical benefice, or the spiritual thing is at least a partial object of the contract, for example, consecration in the sale of a consecrated chalice (can. 727, § 1).

809. Simony is divided. - A. On the part of the matter:

1. One kind, properly so called, or of natural and divine law, is an intrinsically evil contract by which a thing truly spiritual, or annexed to the spiritual, is exchanged with a temporal thing, as was declared in the definition.

2. Another kind, improperly so called, or of ecclesiastical law, is a contract licit in itself, but prohibited by the Church from a motive of religion on account of the danger and appearance of simony properly so called: namely, "to give temporal things annexed to spiritual things for temporal things annexed to spiritual things, or spiritual things for spiritual things, or even temporal things for temporal things, if this is prohibited by the Church on account of the danger of irreverence toward spiritual things" (can. 727, § 2): thus the exchange of ecclesiastical benefices among themselves.

B. On the part of the act or pact:

1. It is mental, when it stays within the mind, manifested by no external sign, and is completed by the will alone without an agreement signified externally, for example, if someone furnishes his service to a bishop from the intention of obtaining a canonry for the service.

2. It is conventional, when there is an agreement or pact, express or tacit, but not yet completed or put into execution, either from neither party or at least from one party, for example, if one has sold or conferred a benefice, and the other has not paid, or if someone says: I give a benefice that you may give money, or: you give a benefice, I will be grateful to you with a temporal price.

3. It is real, when there is a pact fulfilled by each party at least inchoatively, or it has begun to be fulfilled so that it has been put into execution by each party totally or partially, for example, if one has conferred a benefice and the other has paid the price at least in part.

To the second and third pertains confidential simony, which obtains only in benefices, when someone procures a benefice for another with a confidential reservation, that is, under a confidential obligation that the other at some time, for example, after six months, resign that same benefice to him or to a third party, or furnish to him a part of the fruits from it.

810. Simony is a sin against religion, because, by buying or selling a spiritual thing, it exhibits irreverence to divine things and to God (Prov. III, 15; Acts VIII, 20): 1) because a spiritual thing exceeds every temporal price; 2) because we are not masters of spiritual things (I Cor. IV, 1); 3) because sale is repugnant to the origin of spiritual things, since they proceed from the gratuitous will of God, and therefore are to be granted gratis according as Christ commanded (Mt. X, 8): Freely you have received, freely give (a. 1).

Simony, which makes a sacred thing equal to profane things, differs from real sacrilege, by which a sacred thing is treated irreverently: for just as against justice someone can sin in diverse ways in voluntary commutation or contract, and by involuntary commutation, so also against religion, in voluntary commutation of a sacred thing through simony, and in involuntary commutation through sacrilege.¹

¹ Thus Cajetan, on this place; Suarez, on the contrary, o. c., l. 3, c. 1, n. 4.

811. Simony properly so called, of natural law, is a mortal sin from its whole genus, both on the part of the spiritual thing, because it is always a grave irreverence to equate a temporal thing to a spiritual thing, even the least, which is above every price; and on the part of the price: for the less is given for a spiritual thing, the more the spiritual thing is cheapened, whence the vileness of the price offered for it more increases the malice. Hence Acts VIII, 20: Thy money be with thee unto perdition, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be possessed by money.

Simony improperly so called, of ecclesiastical law, is a mortal sin from its genus, because the Church prohibits it under grave obligation, while nevertheless admitting lightness of matter: for by this there is not per se irreverence toward a sacred thing, because a temporal thing is not received as the price of a spiritual thing, but only a precept of the Church is violated, which prohibits the appearance and danger of simony, in which smallness of matter can be given.

812. Simony of natural law is also concerned with things annexed to spiritual things. - Something can be annexed to the spiritual in three ways:

a) Antecedently, when the temporal thing preexists, to which afterward the spiritual accedes, as are all consecrated or blessed things: sacred vessels, chalices, temples, sacred buildings, oil, sacred vestments, a rosary, altars, etc.; capsules or cases of relics; land or a building to which the right of patronage or of a benefice adheres; and to appraise these by price or to sell them is not simony, unless by appraising them more on account of the consecration or the connected spiritual thing, or unless the Church specially prohibits this: for the matter or temporal thing is estimable by price and has intrinsic value in itself, independent of the spiritual thing.

b) Concomitantly, if it exists together and in a quasi-parallel mode with the spiritual thing, so that each is joined together, as bodily labor in undertaking sacred functions. This can happen either intrinsically, if in the thing it is not separable from it, but per se and necessarily and inseparably is joined with it, as labor necessary in the celebration of Mass, administration of a sacrament, preaching; or extrinsically, if it is separable and is joined to it only per accidens, as inconvenience in celebration with chant, in a distant place, at a later hour, at the will of a person. To sell the first is simony, because it is inseparable from the spiritual thing, as an intrinsic part of the spiritual function: for it enters into it and constitutes a part of it and is one work with it; whence if it were sold, the spiritual thing itself would be considered sold; to sell the other is not simony, because it can be separated from the spiritual thing, whence independently of it it can be appraised by price and sold.

c) Consequently, if the temporal thing supposes the spiritual thing as cause and depends upon it, as an ecclesiastical benefice is annexed to an office, the right to the sustenance of life to the religious state. And to sell and appraise this by price, while such connection remains, is simony, because it depends upon the spiritual thing, since it supposes the spiritual thing and is related to it as an accessory; therefore if it is sold, necessarily that spiritual thing which is presupposed is sold (a. 4).

For thus it is connected with the spiritual thing so that with it in moral estimation it constitutes one thing, and therefore one without the other by private authority can in no way be bought or sold, for example, the right to the revenues of a benefice, which is founded in the spiritual right to pastoral offices as in its root and cannot be separated from it.

813. Simony of ecclesiastical law is committed in various ways:

1. By exchanging ecclesiastical benefices by one's own authority, or by resigning them in favor of another, by bargaining about them, compromising, reserving a pension, or deducting from the fruits of a benefice a compensation to be furnished in the act of provision (can. 1486-88, also 1441 and 1927).

2. By selling or buying offices for the administration of the temporal things of the Church, as of a steward, sacristan, procurator, defender, etc.

3. By giving or receiving gifts on the occasion of some sacred function, for example, of an examination for a parish (Council of Trent, sess. 24, c. 18 de ref.), of the conferral of orders or tonsure (sess. 21, c. 1), of admission to a religious order (sess. 25, c. 16), of dimissorial letters (can. 545).

4. By selling ecclesiastical burial itself or a part of a cemetery; but not only the right of burial in a determined more honored place, because thus human honor is sold, a utility estimable by price.

5. In the administration of sacraments or of other sacred things, by exacting or asking something beyond offerings according to lawfully admitted taxes (can. 1507, § 1 and 736).

6. By exercising a species of trading or commerce concerning Mass stipends (can. 827, 840 and 2324).

Let it be noted that to sell blessed things, if nothing is asked for the blessing, is not simony, although by this they lose indulgences.

814. Corollaries. - For simony of natural law it is required that the temporal thing be given precisely as the price of the spiritual thing in exchange for it, in whatever way this happens; hence:

A. There is simony 1) whether it is done explicitly by an express pact, or also by a tacit pact, which is implicitly contained in some fact, when namely one understands of the other that the temporal thing is given under the obligation of receiving the spiritual thing as due compensation (can. 728);

2. whether it is done formally in the act of express intention, or also virtually and in the exercised act, when namely the temporal thing is given directly and immediately without the intervention of another true and honest motive on account of which it is given: for in this act there is virtually included the intention of exchanging one with the other, and according to common estimation the temporal thing is then given as the price or just compensation of the spiritual thing; not so if the temporal thing were only a remote motive for obtaining the spiritual thing. The matter is established from the condemnation of propositions 45 and 46 by Innocent XI,² and from reason: for the will of a work to which deformity is annexed suffices for sin, even if this is not formally intended;

² "To give a temporal thing for a spiritual thing is not simony, when the temporal thing is not given as a price, but only as a motive for conferring or effecting the spiritual thing, or even when the temporal thing is only a gratuitous compensation for the spiritual thing, or conversely." "And this also has place, even if the temporal thing is the principal motive for giving the spiritual thing; indeed even if it is the end of the spiritual thing itself, so that it is esteemed more than the spiritual thing."

3. whether the temporal thing is given uniquely, or only principally, as the price or debt on account of the spiritual thing: for an added motive does not destroy the malice of the prior motive on account of which something is principally given;

4. whether the pact is made with an obligation of justice, or with an obligation of rendering from fidelity, gratitude, benevolence: for the contract obliges to this; but when a pact generates obligation, by that very fact the temporal thing is now given as a debt.

B. On the contrary, simony properly so called is not:

a) sincerely and not fictitiously, from mere gratitude, friendship, or benevolence, to give something spiritual, so that it is a wholly liberal and gratuitous gift;

b) to give something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual for something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual, for example, a Mass for a rosary, a chalice for a ciborium, to apply an indulgence or dispensation for a sacred relic, to serve a bishop in a spiritual matter for obtaining an ecclesiastical benefice;

c) to give a temporal thing on occasion of a spiritual thing: not indeed proximately and immediately on account of it, but on account of a temporal thing or from another honest motive, or on account of a title extrinsic to simony (cf. can. 730).

C. The titles extrinsic to simony on account of which a temporal thing can be given and accepted are customarily numbered:

1. Pure liberality of the giver or mere gratitude, for judging which attention must be paid to the quality of the persons, the quantity of the gift, and the time of donation: if gifts are made directly by a liberal man, if they are of modest price, in wine and similar things, if they are made when some necessity or opportunity demands in which it is fitting to show favor, they are presumed to be given liberally, not simoniacally; on the contrary, if the gifts are great comparatively to the donor, the presumption stands for simony.

2. Extrinsic labor, which is joined per accidens to a sacred action, as to celebrate Mass in a distant place, with chant, or at a later hour; which can be appraised by price.

3. Redemption of unjust vexation, or removal, by the offering of a temporal thing, of an unjust impediment concerning the spiritual thing, when other means are lacking; which is not given for the spiritual thing itself but for removing the impediment, not from a pact but on account of fear of damage or harm or disfavor.

4. Legitimate custom or disposition of a superior, by way of a tax for the expenses of worship or administration.

5. Sustenance of ministers (Mt. X, 10; I Cor. IX, 7 and 13; cf. Lk. X, 7; I Tim. V, 18), not as a price of wages but as a stipend of necessity: thus, for example, a beneficed cleric receives fruits, a pastor stole-fees, a priest Mass honoraria, the faithful alms that they may pray.

815. Penalties of simoniacs. - A. By ecclesiastical law every simoniacal contract is null. Hence can. 729: "With the penalties established in law against simoniacs remaining firm, the simoniacal contract itself and, if simony is committed concerning benefices, offices, dignities, the subsequent provision lack all force, although the simony was committed by a third person, even without the knowledge of the one provided, provided this is not done in fraud of the same one provided (for example, to impede his provision otherwise certain) or with him opposing. Therefore:

1. Before any sentence of a judge, the thing simoniacally given and accepted, if it is capable of restitution and the reverence due to the spiritual thing does not stand in the way, must be restored, and the benefice, office, dignity dismissed;

2. The one simoniacally provided does not make the fruits his own; but if he has received them in good faith, it is permitted to the prudence of the judge or Ordinary to remit the fruits received, in whole or in part, to the same person" (cf. can. 185, 1465 § 2 and 1470, 6°).

"No one," says St. Thomas, a. 6, "can licitly retain that which he has acquired against the will of the owner; for example, if some steward from the goods of his lord were to give something to someone against the will of his lord, he who received it could not licitly retain it. But the Lord, whose stewards and ministers the prelates of churches are, ordained that spiritual things be given gratis according to Mt. X, 8... And therefore he who obtains any spiritual things by the intervention of a gift cannot licitly retain them."

B. Besides, penalties are established in can. 2392: "With the prescription of can. 729 remaining firm, those perpetrating the delict of simony in any offices, benefices, or ecclesiastical dignities:

1. Incur excommunication latae sententiae simply reserved to the Apostolic See;

2. By the fact itself remain deprived in perpetuity of the right of electing, presenting, nominating, if they have any;

3. If they are clerics, besides, let them be suspended."

This is applied in can. 2371: "All, even those increased by episcopal dignity, who knowingly have promoted or have been promoted through simony to orders, or have administered or received other sacraments, are suspected of heresy; clerics besides incur suspension reserved to the Apostolic See." And can. 2327: "Those making profit from indulgences are punished by the fact itself with excommunication simply reserved to the Apostolic See."

But for those who make profit from Mass stipends, or who increase the customary taxes in ministering sacred things, ferendae sententiae penalties are foreseen, can. 2324 and 2408.