Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 3. On Simony of Ecclesiastical Law
564. We touch upon very few things concerning this matter, which pertains more to canon law than to moral theology. Simony of ecclesiastical law is committed chiefly in the following ways:
1. To give or accept something, even the least thing voluntarily offered, on the occasion of an examination for obtaining a parochial benefice in the so-called parochial competition.
For the Council of Trent establishes:921 "Let [the examiners] take care that they accept absolutely nothing on the occasion of this examination, either before or after; otherwise both they and the others giving incur the vice of simony, from which they cannot be absolved unless they relinquish the benefices which they previously possessed in any manner whatever."922 This simony of ecclesiastical law is perhaps the most severe among all, both by reason of the penalty inflicted and by reason of the prohibition of even the least gift. In other cases, slightness of the gift offered (for example, a moderate quantity of food or drink offered, a few fruits, etc.) is also accustomed to excuse from simony of divine law, since small gifts of this kind are not considered a price for a spiritual thing;923 but in this case even the least gift is held as a simoniacal price.
2. To exact something for testimonial letters of those aspiring to the religious state.
Thus from the Code of Canon Law, c. 545. As regards sacred ordination, the Council of Trent924 eradicated the most ancient abuse of the so-called pastellum, or the furnishing of a small meal at the reception of orders.925 Nevertheless, it is permitted that bishops receive a candle from those ordained. Likewise the so-called Innocentian Tax926 permitted notaries in the episcopal Curia to receive the tenth part of one gold scudo (53 centimes) for dimissorial letters or for letters attesting an order received. For the labor necessary to examine whether one to be ordained to the subdiaconate has a sufficient title and the other requisites, one gold scudo (5.35 francs) is granted.927
3. To sell or buy temporal offices canonically instituted for the administration of ecclesiastical goods, for example, the office of steward or procurator. Moreover, deductions from the revenues of benefices, compensations, and payments to be made by a cleric in the act of provision of a benefice which accrue to the collator, patron, or others are condemned as simoniacal.928 For otherwise great abuses could easily arise to the detriment of the Church.929 As regards administrators of ecclesiastical goods, under the present practice the statutes of the diverse concordats are especially to be attended to.
4. To sell an ecclesiastical burial place.
If there is question of a simple grave in the common part of a cemetery, nothing can be accepted as a price. Hence Innocent III establishes: "A depravity of custom to be abolished has grown inveterate at Montpellier, as is said, whereby those who die are not permitted to have a burial place dug before a certain price is paid to the church for the ground in which they are to be buried. We command that, since you are the diocesan bishop of the place, you forbid the clerics to presume to exact anything whatever for this cause."930 I said: as a price, because in many places there exists a legitimate custom of exacting something under another title, for example, for the maintenance of the cemetery, the support of the ministers, etc.
But if there is question of a determined place in which someone wishes to construct a tomb for himself and his own, the common opinion, confirmed by almost universal practice, teaches that it is not simony if such a place is bought or sold at a determined price. For then neither the burial place nor sacred ground is bought, but only the right that another may not be buried in the same place; which certainly can be appraised by a price. Concerning this matter, the Code of Canon Law, c. 1209, § 1, establishes: "Both in parochial cemeteries, with the written permission of the Ordinary of the place or of his delegate, and in the cemetery proper to some moral person, with the written permission of the superior, the faithful can construct particular tombs for themselves and their own; which, with the consent of the same Ordinary or superior, they can also alienate." So-called civil cemeteries are profane places, and consequently it is lawful to buy a burial place there.
5. For the administration of the sacraments, the minister is to exact or request nothing for any cause or occasion whatsoever, either directly or indirectly, apart from offerings according to legitimately established diocesan rates.931
6. It is forbidden to sell sacred relics.932
7. Every species of business or trade concerning Mass alms is prohibited.933
8. To sell rosaries, medals, or other things that have been blessed and enriched with indulgences, which by the very fact of sale lose all their indulgences.934 Therefore things of this kind are first to be bought or sold, and afterward blessed.
9. To accept or give something for admission itself to the novitiate or to religious profession.935
For the religious state is something spiritual; hence it is in no way lawful to buy or sell it.936 Nevertheless, the following are now lawful: a) During the time of novitiate it is lawful to accept or even exact something for the support of novices, at least if it was thus stipulated or if constitutions duly approved so establish.937 The reason is that novices do not yet properly belong to the order, which they can leave on any day and from which they can also be dismissed on any day. But an undue burden would be imposed upon religious institutes if they could exact no compensation for expenses of support incurred during the time of probation. b) All monasteries of women can and must exact a determined dowry from those entering.938
10. To sell the right of patronage itself.939
It is lawful, however, to sell a thing, for example, a castle, with which the right of patronage is joined, provided that the price of the thing is not increased because of the right of patronage attached. Concerning the exchange of the right of patronage, see the canonists.940
921 Session 24, c. 18, De reform.
922 Since this penalty was not renewed in the Code of Canon Law, it is considered abolished.
923 Cf. Pirhing, Ius can. l. 5, tit. 3, n. 133.
924 Session 21, c. 1, De reform.
925 Cf. Benedict XIV, De syn. dioec. l. 5, c. 6, n. 1.
926 Thus is named the decree of the Sacred Congregation of the Council dated 8 October 1678, issued by order of Innocent XI.
927 Cf. Gasparri, De s. ordinatione II, n. 1121.
928 Code of Canon Law, c. 1411.
929 c. 38, X 5, 3.
930 c. 13, X 3, 28.
931 Code of Canon Law, c. 736.
932 Ib. c. 1289.
933 Ib. c. 827; cf. c. 2324.
934 Sacred Congregation of Indulgences, 10 July 1896; Code of Canon Law, c. 924, § 2. Cf. concerning this whole matter Beringer, Die Ablässe (1915), p. 430ff.
935 Council of Trent, session 25, c. 16, De regularibus.
936 S. theol. 2, 2, q. 100, a. 3 ad 4.
937 Code of Canon Law, c. 570.
938 Cf. Normae n. 91ff. and Sacred Congregation of Religious, 30 July 1909; Code of Canon Law, c. 547.
939 Code of Canon Law, c. 1470, § 1, n. 6.
940 Cf. our Man. iur. can. q. 433.