§ 2. On Simony of Divine Law

561. Principle 1. Simony of divine law, by its formal nature, essentially requires that a temporal thing be given or accepted for a spiritual thing as a price, either formally or at least virtually.⁹⁰¹

A temporal price is offered or accepted formally for a spiritual thing when someone directly and immediately intends an exchange and equal valuation between the spiritual and temporal thing. A temporal price is offered or accepted virtually when someone by means of the temporal thing proximately and immediately intends to obtain the spiritual thing, and no other true and honorable motive intervenes. That true simony is present in either case is evident from propositions 45 and 46 condemned by Innocent XI:⁹⁰² "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 also 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 the temporal thing is esteemed more highly than the spiritual thing."

The first of these condemned propositions seems to require explanation from the second. For if a temporal thing is given for a spiritual thing altogether gratuitously, an onerous contract, which pertains to the essence of simony, is no longer present, as was said above from St. Thomas. Hence Billuart rightly says:⁹⁰³ "To give a temporal thing as the proximate and immediate motive for obtaining a spiritual thing, without the intervention of another true and honorable motive on account of which the temporal thing is given or from which the spiritual thing is expected, is true simony." For then the temporal thing is in reality at least virtually the price of the spiritual thing. But if the temporal thing is only a remote motive for obtaining the spiritual thing, and other immediate honorable motives are present, then simony is not committed, because then the temporal thing is neither formally nor virtually the price of the spiritual thing. From this principle rightly understood follow several practical applications to be indicated below.

⁹⁰¹ Cf. Billuart, De relig. diss. 11, a. 3.

⁹⁰² Denzinger, n. 1195ff.

⁹⁰³ De relig. diss. 11, a. 3.

562. Principle 2. a) It is simony of divine law to buy or sell temporal things annexed to a spiritual thing consequently or concomitantly and intrinsically; b) but not antecedently or concomitantly and extrinsically.

Thus teaches the most common opinion.⁹⁰⁴ The reason for the first part is that temporal things annexed to a spiritual thing consequently or concomitantly and intrinsically are regarded as, so to speak, spiritualized, since they are inseparably and essentially joined with the spiritual thing. Therefore it is said in the Decree of Gratian:⁹⁰⁵ "Whoever sells one of these without which the other does not come forth leaves neither unsold." I say, however, that to buy or sell temporal things of this kind is simony; for it is lawful to accept something temporal for those things as an alms or stipend for the support of the laborer; for example, it is lawful to give a Mass stipend for the support of the priest.⁹⁰⁶

The reason for the second part of the principle is that temporal things of this kind are truly capable of appraisal by a temporal price and can be separated from spiritual things. Hence, for example, it is lawful to accept something even as a true price for a Mass to be said with special labor, namely, at a late hour or in a distant place. Nor is it simony to accept a price for a consecrated chalice, a blessed rosary, and other blessed things, provided that the price of the temporal thing is not increased because of the blessing or consecration added; because the temporal thing is joined antecedently to the blessing.⁹⁰⁷ Nevertheless, by positive law the Church has prohibited blessed things from being sold, in order to prevent possible abuses.⁹⁰⁸

⁹⁰⁴ Cf. Billuart, l.c., a. 6, and S. theol. 2, 2, q. 100, a. 4.

⁹⁰⁵ c. 7, C. 1, q. 3.

⁹⁰⁶ Cf. Elbel, Theol. mor. P. 2, n. 598.

⁹⁰⁷ Code of Canon Law, c. 730.

⁹⁰⁸ Cf. Decr. auth. S. C. Indulg. nn. 78 and 82.

563. Very many practical applications are deduced from the two principles stated:

You will gather for practice 1. Duly to discharge ecclesiastical offices from the principal motive of acquiring money is indeed sinful, but not simoniacal.

Considered in passing, this proposition seems to be the same as proposition 46 condemned by Innocent XI, just cited, but in reality it differs greatly from it, and its truth is easily understood. For the whole deformity of simony consists in this: that a sacred thing is appraised by an earthly and vile price; not in this: that a sacred thing is ordained to profit.⁹⁰⁹ Hence it is indeed a sin to ordain a sacred thing to the acquisition of profit as the principal end of the agent, but it is not simony. Thus a canon who goes to choir in order to receive the daily distributions, when otherwise he would not go, indeed acts badly but is not a simoniac;⁹¹⁰ a priest who says Mass for the sake of the stipend, when otherwise he would not say it, does not commit simony. The reason is that ministers of the Church have a right to obtain suitable support by means of sacred offices. Therefore they can discharge their offices in order to have support. The money to be acquired in these cases is therefore a lawful motive. Certainly it is a disorder that money be held as the principal motive, but a simoniacal stain does not yet arise from this. St. Alphonsus⁹¹¹ calls the proposed opinion more probable and rightly argues thus: "Is he who gives a stipend principally on account of the Mass, which is certainly a spiritual thing, called a simoniac? Thus conversely, neither does he commit simony who says Mass principally on account of the stipend. For it is not unlawful to ordain a spiritual thing, even principally, to an honorable temporal end."

2. A priest who exacts a Mass stipend above the diocesan rate indeed sins against justice and ecclesiastical law, but probably does not commit simony of divine law, since he does not sell a spiritual thing, but exacts a means of his support.

3. It is not simony if someone gives money to the poor with this principal intention: that they pray for him. The reason is the same, for he does not intend to buy prayer, but to allure the minds of the poor to pray for him; or, in other words: the end of the work is honorable and is not thus deformed by the end of the agent.⁹¹²

4. It is not simony to give something temporal under a condition (but not under a pact strictly so called) that the other furnish a spiritual thing, yet for the benefit of that very person; for example, to give gifts to a young man that he frequent the sacraments, or to give a dowry to a girl that she enter a monastery. The reason is the same; for the spiritual thing is not bought, but another motive is present, and that an honorable one. Hence the Angelic Doctor says: "It is lawful to move someone ... to devotion toward a monastery by temporal benefits, so that by this he may be inclined to enter the monastery; although it is not lawful by a pact to give something ... for entrance into a monastery."⁹¹³

5. It is not simony to give a temporal thing for a spiritual thing, and conversely a spiritual thing for a temporal thing, from mere gratitude, friendship, or benevolence, so that no pact intervenes and only a gratuitous donation is present. Thus holds the more common and more probable opinion,⁹¹⁴ which is confirmed from many texts of canon law.⁹¹⁵ Thus, for example, Innocent III says of one who gave something as a gift in order to obtain a canonry:⁹¹⁶ "If he should offer it purely and without any pact or condition, humbly asking that he be admitted as a canon, ... a reception of this kind can take place without scruple of simoniacal depravity." The reason is that gifts of this kind are not the formal or virtual price of the spiritual thing. In practice, however, gifts of this kind are often disguised simony. For under the cloak of feigned gratitude or benevolence, true simony (at least mental) is not rarely concealed, since the spiritual thing is furnished from a moral, although not strict, obligation arising from the previous acceptance of the temporal thing.

In order to discern better whether some gift truly retains the character of a gift or rather assumes the nature of a price, Alexander III established this rule:⁹¹⁷ "In receiving or giving gifts, three things are especially to be attended to: namely, the quality of the person giving and receiving, the quantity of the gift, and the time of the donation. The quality of the persons: from whom and to whom, namely, whether it was given by a poor man to a rich man, or conversely, or by a rich man to a wealthy man. Then the valuation of the gift and the time of the donation: whether a thing of great or lesser price was given, and whether it was conferred in pressing necessity or at another time." Therefore, in general, if the gifts offered are of great importance relative to the giver and no other evident honorable motive for the donation appears, the presumption stands for simony; otherwise, if the gifts are of lesser value. For then simony is not present unless even this is expressly prohibited, as in the competition prescribed by the Council of Trent for obtaining a parochial benefice.⁹¹⁸

6. It is not simony if someone having a certain right (whether in re or ad rem) to something spiritual, for example, an office or benefice, frees himself by a temporal price from a strictly unjust vexation. The reason is that then the spiritual thing is not bought, but liberation from unjust vexation. It is required, however, that on the part of the buyer there be a strict right to the spiritual thing, and on the part of the other manifest injustice. If either is lacking, such a pact is simoniacal. Concerning this St. Thomas says:⁹¹⁹ "Before a right in a bishopric, or any dignity or prebend, is acquired by someone through election, provision, or conferral, it would be simoniacal to redeem with money the obstacles of opponents; for thus by money he would prepare for himself a way to obtain the spiritual thing. But after the right has already been acquired by someone, it is lawful by money to remove unjust impediments." Hence it is simony if someone gives his competitor some temporal thing under the pact that he desist from competition, and thus he himself obtains an ecclesiastical office or benefice. For by buying the cessation of competition, he indirectly buys the spiritual thing; which is simoniacal. Moreover, such a buyer does not suffer unjust vexation through the competition of the other.

7. It is simony to buy or sell the right to receive the revenues of a benefice. The reason is that such a right is a temporal good consequently annexed to a spiritual thing, namely, to an ecclesiastical office.⁹²⁰

⁹⁰⁹ Cf. Billuart, l.c., who excellently and victoriously defends this opinion against Concina and others.

⁹¹⁰ Against this opinion the Angelic Doctor cannot be alleged when he says: "If [a canon] receives distributions of this kind as the end of his work principally intended, he commits simony and thus sins mortally" (Quodl. 8, a. 11). For, as St. Alphonsus, Billuart, the Salmanticenses, and others rightly say, such a canon certainly commits simony if he intends the distributions as the end of the work, but not if only as the end of the agent. For if the distributions are considered as the end of the work, then they are intended as a virtual price, which is simony; but if as the end of the agent alone, they are sought as support, which is not simony.

⁹¹¹ Theol. mor. l. 3, n. 55.

⁹¹² Cf. 4, dist. 25, q. 3, a. 2, solut. 2 ad 2.

⁹¹³ S. theol. 2, 2, q. 100, a. 3 ad 4; cf. also St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 3, n. 59.

⁹¹⁴ Thus Billuart, De relig. diss. 11, a. 3.

⁹¹⁵ c. 4, C. 1, q. 2; ib. c. 103; c. 18, X 5, 3.

⁹¹⁶ c. 34, X 5, 3.

⁹¹⁷ c. 18, X 5, 3.

⁹¹⁸ Cf. below, n. 564, 1.

⁹¹⁹ S. theol., l.c., a. 2 ad 5.

⁹²⁰ S. theol., l.c., a. 4.