Section — Prümmer, Manuale Theologiae Moralis
§ 4. On the Penalties of Simoniacs
565. Omitting antiquated and abolished statutes, according to the present discipline the following matters seem to be noted:
1. No ecclesiastical penalty is incurred from mental simony, since, as an internal act, it is not judged by the Church.
2. The first penalty of real and conventional simony is the nullity of the simoniacal pact.941
For simony is either of divine law, and then the simoniacal pact is null and void because a spiritual thing has been sold which is unsalable by the will of God; or it is simony of ecclesiastical law, and then the thing sold is unsalable by the will of the Church. Therefore, in every case of simony, both the spiritual thing and the temporal price must be restored, unless impossibility, remission, or the express or presumed permission of the Church excuses. Concerning this the Angelic Doctor teaches:942 "No one can lawfully retain that which he has acquired against the will of the owner. ... But the Lord, whose dispensers and ministers the prelates of churches are, ordained that spiritual things be given freely, according to that saying: Freely have you received, freely give.943 And therefore he who obtains any spiritual things whatever through the intervention of a gift cannot lawfully retain them."
"Before any sentence of a judge, a 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."944 Therefore the opinion of many authors teaching that restitution of the spiritual thing is not to be made except after the sentence of a judge must now be abandoned. Spiritual things not capable of restitution are, for example, sacred orders simoniacally received, the consecration of a church or of altars, etc.
A spiritual thing could not be returned because of the reverence due to it if, for example, someone had bought relics of saints from a Jewish dealer in old goods.
Not only the spiritual thing, but also the price accepted for it must be restored, and that before the sentence of a judge. For the law does not distinguish between a thing simoniacally given and accepted.
Since a simoniacal contract lacks all force, a spiritual thing simoniacally accepted must be returned to the legitimate owner, if that is possible according to what has been said above; likewise the simoniacal price must be returned to the legitimate owner. The revenues received from an ecclesiastical benefice or office obtained simoniacally must likewise be restored; nevertheless, an ecclesiastical judge or Ordinary can remit in whole or in part such revenues received in good faith.945
3. Before any sentence of a judge, a benefice, office, or dignity must be relinquished if it was obtained simoniacally and therefore invalidly.946 Hence, for example, if someone were to agree with an elector: You elect me as superior of this house, and then afterward I shall give you such and such temporal favors; and by this agreement he were actually elected as superior, the election would be simoniacal and null, and the one elected would have to relinquish the office. Similarly, if someone by furnishing a gift (from the hand, tongue, or service) were to obtain presentation from a patron, this presentation would be void, as also perhaps a subsequent institution.947
941 Code of Canon Law, c. 729.
942 S. theol. 2, 2, q. 100, a. 6.
943 Matt. 10:8.
944 Thus the Code of Canon Law, c. 729.
945 Code of Canon Law, c. 729.
946 Ib.
947 Ib. c. 1465, § 2.
566. 4. Those who perpetrate the delict of simony in any offices, benefices, or dignities whatsoever: a) incur an excommunication latae sententiae simply reserved to the Apostolic See; b) by the fact itself remain perpetually deprived of the right of electing, presenting, or nominating, if they possess any such right; c) if they are clerics, they are moreover to be suspended.948
5. All, even those raised to episcopal dignity, who knowingly promoted others or were promoted through simony to orders, or who administered or received other sacraments, are suspected of heresy; clerics, moreover, incur a suspension reserved to the Apostolic See.949
6. Those making gain from indulgences are punished by the fact itself with an excommunication simply reserved to the Holy See.950
Those who offend against the statutes concerning Mass stipends or ecclesiastical rates incur penalties ferendae sententiae.951
948 Ib. c. 2392.
949 Ib. c. 2371.
950 Ib. c. 2327.
567. Practical admonition. Almost nothing is accustomed to cause so much scandal to the faithful as the clergy's accursed hunger for gold. Therefore let all clerics, since even at the very threshold of the clerical state they professed, "The Lord is the portion of my inheritance and of my cup," avoid even the appearance of avarice and cupidity. Especially let any receipt of money be far removed from the sacrament of penance. Excellent in this matter is the statute of the Third Council of Baltimore, art. 289: "Let confessors not apply pecuniary penances to themselves, nor ask or accept anything from penitents as a reward for their ministry. Let them refuse even things spontaneously offered under any name whatever; nor let them permit even a Mass alms itself to be offered in this tribunal."
But if in some place there prevails a custom of offering and exacting something for the administration of the sacraments of baptism and matrimony, nevertheless let the priest not refuse the administration of these sacraments if perhaps someone refuses to make offerings of this kind. Moreover, let pastors admonish the faithful that offerings made at burials and rates imposed in certain matrimonial dispensations serve for the suitable and by no means superfluous support of the ministers of the Church; furthermore, that the rates for matrimonial dispensations were introduced as, so to speak, salutary penances to deter the faithful from seeking dispensations of this kind, which are regarded as wounds of ecclesiastical law.