What simony is and its kinds

Simony derives its name from Simon Magus, who, as we read in the Acts of the Apostles, desired to buy with money the power of giving the Holy Spirit. It is defined to be a studious wish to buy or to sell for a temporal advantage something which is spiritual, or which is annexed to what is spiritual. The terms of this definition are technical and require some explanation.

Simony, then, is said to be a studious wish to buy or to sell, in order to emphasize the fact that although no explicit contract is entered into by the parties, there may still be simoniacal dealing between them. Thus, if a person makes a money present to a priest with the intention of obliging him to give him absolution for his sins in return, he commits a sin of simony, though there is no express bargaining between them.

In simony a temporal advantage is exchanged for something which is spiritual. The temporal advantage may be money and whatever is exchanged for money, or a service rendered, or favour, patronage, and defence. The spiritual object which is given for the temporal advantage is whatever has relation to the salvation of the soul. It may, then, be grace or the gifts of the Holy Ghost, or the sacraments and sacramentals, or prayer, or the use of spiritual power for absolving, dispensing, blessing, excommunicating, and so forth.

Something may be annexed to what is spiritual either antecedently or concomitantly or subsequently. The material of which a chalice is made is said to be annexed to a consecrated chalice antecedently, inasmuch as it existed and had its value before the chalice was consecrated. Something is annexed concomitantly and extrinsically to what is spiritual when it is associated with what is spiritual but only accidentally, as the extra labour associated with singing a late Mass. It is concomitantly and intrinsically annexed to what is spiritual when the connection is necessary, as the labour which must of necessity accompany any spiritual function. A temporal advantage is annexed to what is spiritual consequently, when it follows from and is derived from what is spiritual, as the right ? Acts viii 18. to the revenues of the parish is derived from the office of parish priest. There is no simony in buying or selling what is antecedently annexed to something which is spiritual, provided that the price be not increased on account of the connection with, what is spiritual, and provided the Church has not forbidden it. It is lawful to sell consecrated chalices or the fabric of a church for what the materials are worth. The Church has forbidden any money to be received for the holy oils, even so much as the cost of the oil. Similarly it is not simony to receive payment for extra labour spent on some religious function. It is simony to receive money for what is concomitantly and intrinsically annexed to that which is spiritual, for they are regarded as identical. It is also simony to buy or sell that which is consequently annexed to what is spiritual, for the accessory follows the principal.

Simony is called mental when no express contract is entered into between the parties. It is purely conventional if the contract has been expressly entered into, but has not yet been executed by either party; it is partly conventional when the contract has been executed by one of the parties. Simony is real when the contract has been executed by both parties to it.

Simony which is committed with reference to the presentation and election to benefices, or the resignation or reservation of them, is called confidential simony, in contradistinction to common simony which is committed in other matters.

Furthermore, simony is of divine law when it is against the law of God; it is of ecclesiastical law when it has been constituted by the prohibition of the Church. For, in order to remove all danger of simony against the law of God, the Church forbids certain contractual dealings where spiritual things are exchanged. Thus it is unlawful without due authorization to exchange benefices, which therefore would be simony by ecclesiastical law. Similarly the Church in certain cases forbids the sale of what is antecedently annexed to some spiritual object. It is thus unlawful to take money for the cost of the material in the holy oils, or to sell blessed rosaries or indulgenced crucifixes and other objects of piety. If this is done, simony is committed, and the objects lose all their indulgences.¹

¹ S.C. Indulg., July 12, 1847.

Simony, like sacrilege, is a grave sin, and if it is against the divine law, it is always mortal. For it is a grave injury to divine things and to God to barter even a small spiritual thing for any temporal advantage whatever. If the simony be merely of ecclesiastical law, it is also of itself a mortal sin, but inasmuch as it is constituted by ecclesiastical. prohibition and a sin of disobedience is only venial when the matter is trivial, there may consequently be venial sins of that simony which is merely of ecclesiastical law.

Simony.—Simony derives its name from Simon Magus, the first person in New Testament times, as far as we know, who committed this crime. For it is written of Simon (Acts, viii. 18 sqq.) that he attempted to buy from St. Peter the power of imposition of hands. But the sin was not unknown in the Old Testament, as we see from the examples of Baalam (Numb., xxii. 7), Giezi (IV Kings, v. 20 sqq.), and Jason (II Mach., iv. 7 sqq.).

Definition of Simony.—Simony is defined as “the studied will to buy or sell for a temporal price or consideration something that is spiritual either intrinsically or extrinsically.”

(a) Simony is in the will, for it is an act of injustice pretending to have or to receive the right of dominion over spiritual things that belong to God alone, and injustice is a vice of the will. Hence, simony is not an internal sin of the intellect; for, though one who practises simony externally makes to some extent a profession of belief in the heresy that man is the owner of spirituals and gives grounds for the suspicion that he holds that the sale of spirituals is lawful, yet he may know well that the things of God are priceless and still wish to give or receive a price for them. Again, simony is not to be identified with the external act of bargaining for spirituals; for, though the law punishes only external or completed simony, the guilt and malice of the sin is present even when one has the desire to traffic in spiritual things, but makes no overtures or compact.

(b) Simony is a studied will; that is, it is an act of free and deliberate choice selecting some form of internal or external simony as a desirable means. Hence, it is not sufficient for the sin of simony that there be an internal wish not fully voluntary on account of inculpable ignorance or imperfect consent; nor, on the other hand, is it necessary for incurring the guilt of simony that there be a mutual pact, but it suffices that one party alone have the will to make the pact or to obligate another party to simony.

(c) It is a wish to buy or sell, that is, to give or receive a temporal thing in exchange for a spiritual thing. There is question here, then, not only of the contract of sale, but of any other form of onerous contract, such as hire, rent, loan, exchange, do ut des, facio ut facias, etc. To be simoniacal, however, a contract need not be fulfilled or explicitly manifested; it suffices that it be unfulfilled or tacitly made, if the sinful intent can be gathered from the circumstances of the case. Hence, from the present part of the definition it follows that there is no simony in a gratuitous contract (e.g., when one gives a gift to another hoping and expecting that the later from gratitude will give in return something spiritual which it is lawful to bestow from gratitude; when a poor person offers to make a novena for benefactors who give him an alms). It is simony, however, to make an onerous contract under the guise of a gratuitous contract, for example: “I give you this money as a pure gift on condition that you will not be ungrateful but will give me this spiritual favor as a pure gift.”

(d) The price or consideration in simony is some thing, action or forbearance which in some way is of advantage to the recipient. Simony in the strictest sense is committed when a temporal thing is offered for a spiritual thing (e.g., money paid for a Sacrament); simony in the wide sense is committed when, contrary to the law on simony, things like in character are exchanged (2323 a). Thus, if the Church forbids Mass to be exchanged for Mass, or benefice for benefice, or the office of sacristan for that of sexton, transgressors are guilty of the second form of simony.

(e) The matter of simony is something intrinsically or extrinsically spiritual. In general, the spiritual is that which proceeds from God or tends to Him as the Author or End of eternal salvation (viz., the destiny, law, means, works, etc., proposed to us in Christian revelation and religion). Among these things those are intrinsically spiritual that pertain to the supernatural order on account of some inherent character of their own (e.g., grace, Sacraments, Mass, miracles) or some intimate union with things spiritual (e.g., benefices attached to spiritual offices, consecration to be given a chalice); those are extrinsically spiritual that are in themselves temporal, but in church law are treated as spiritual for the sake of reverence to the intrinsically spiritual (e.g., chrism in regard to the material itself of the oil and other ingredients). If the matter of a contract is neither intrinsically nor extrinsically spiritual, there is no simony in buying or selling it (e.g., devotional books, household furnishings of a rectory, personal effects of a cleric).

Temporal Price in Simony.—The temporal price in simony is some temporal good or advantage. St. Gregory the Great distinguishes three kinds of simoniacal prices as follows:

(a) the price from the hand (munus a manu) is either money or things that have a money value, such as movable or immovable property, corporeal or incorporeal rights. It would be simony to give a benefice in exchange for a sum of money, for a loan, for real estate;

(b) the price from the tongue (munus a lingua) is any kind of patronage, such as praise, recommendation, protection, defense, opposition to competitors, etc. It would be simony to confer a benefice in exchange for the influence in one’s favor which the recipient of the benefice would exercise with some powerful person, for his vote in an election, etc.;

(c) the price in service (munus ab obsequio) is any kind of temporal labor or assistance given for another’s benefit, such as the management of his business or the instruction of his children. It would be simony to grant a benefice in exchange for work done as secretary, treasurer, or advisor.

The Spiritual Thing in Simony.—The thing inherently spiritual in simony is also of three kinds. (a) That which is spiritual from its nature is a thing that is supernatural in itself, such as sanctifying grace, the Gifts of the Holy Ghost, and the power of orders or of jurisdiction. (b) That which is supernatural from its cause is a thing produced by a supernatural agency or power, such as health obtained through miracle. (c) That which is supernatural from its effect is a thing having the virtue of producing supernatural results, ex opere operato, or ex opere operantis, or as an occasion (e.g., Sacraments, prayers, sermons).

Temporal Thing United with Spiritual.—In the two following ways things are made spiritual in reference to simony through intimate union with spirituals: (a) by necessary connection, when a temporal thing is so annexed with a spiritual thing that it cannot exist without it. This includes the things annexed consequently, and perhaps also those annexed concomitantly and intrinsically (see 2322); (b) by contractual connection, when a spiritual and a temporal are the partial objects of a contract, as when in the sale of a consecrated chalice the price is raised on account of the consecration.

Temporal Thing Annexed to Spiritual.—In three ways a temporal thing is annexed to a spiritual thing.

(a) The temporal thing is annexed antecedently if it precedes the spiritual thing as its prepared or appointed or presupposed matter or subject. Thus, all things that receive a consecration or blessing (e.g., chalices, rosaries) or a property to which a right of patronage is attached are of this kind. Relics are properly of this category, but, since they have usually no material value, it is customary to include them amongst spirituals.

(b) The temporal thing is annexed concomitantly if it is simultaneous with the spiritual thing as being the action or labor that produces it. If the union is essential and inseparable, the temporal thing is said to be annexed intrinsically (e.g., the work performed in saying Mass, preaching, making a sick call); if the union is not essential, the temporal thing is said to be annexed extrinsically (e.g., the special work performed in saying Mass, if it has to be sung, or said in a distant church, or at a determined hour).

(c) The temporal thing is annexed consequently when it presupposes the spiritual thing as the cause on which it depends. Thus, the revenues of a parish are a temporal thing, but they follow on the pastoral office which is a spiritual thing.

The Various Kinds of Simony.—(a) In reference to its matter or the law violated, simony is either against natural and divine law or against positive ecclesiastical law. Simony against divine law consists in the exchange for temporalities of things that are spiritual or intimately annexed to the spiritual (see 2321), such as Sacraments, indulgences, or jurisdiction. Simony against church law consists in an exchange that has the appearance of simony against divine law, or that easily leads to simony against the divine law, and is consequently forbidden by the Church in order to safeguard religious respect for sacred things, as when one violates the law by taking money for holy oils. In the former kind of simony, things of different orders (spirituals and temporals) are exchanged one for the other; in the latter kind of simony, things of the same sort (spirituals for spirituals, temporals for temporals, etc.) are exchanged where the law forbids (Canon 727).

(b) In reference to its manner, or the way in which it is committed, simony is internal or external. Internal simony is the will, without the external agreement, to exchange spirituals for temporals; it is purely mental if nothing external is done by reason of the internal will; it is not purely mental if something external is done by reason of the internal will (e.g., if the person who desires to commit simony makes a money present to another in the hope that the latter will feel morally bound to give something spiritual in return, or if one gives something spiritual looking for a substantial gift of money as compensation). External simony is an outward pact freely entered into between two parties to exchange spirituals for temporals. It is called purely conventional, if neither party has as yet performed his part of the agreement; it is semi-real or mixed, if one of the parties has executed his part; it is real if both parties have performed, at least in part, what they agreed to. A simoniacal compact is explicit, if expressed by clear words or signs (e.g., “I will pay $100 for your vote”); it is tacit, if circumstances indicate the evil intention (e.g., very unusual presents given before an election).

Confidential Simony.—Simony committed in reference to benefices is called confidential because the contract is illegal, giving no judicial protection, and there is only the confidence or reliance on another’s word to give assurance that the agreement will be kept. Canonists discuss at length the following contracts in which it is committed:

(a) the contract per accessum grants a benefice with the agreement that the grantee will later resign, so that access to it may be had by the grantor or a third party at present incapable;

(b) the contract per ingressum resigns a benefice not yet taken possession of with the understanding that the person who now enters into possession will leave the place open for his predecessor if he himself resigns or is promoted;

(e) the contract per regressum resigns a benefice already possessed with the understanding that it may be recovered by the person now resigning or by a third party;

(d) the contract per reservationem partis obtains a benefice for another with the stipulation that he will pay a certain percentage of its revenues to the person who obtains it for him or to a third party (see Canon 1441).

Simony Against Divine Law.—Simony against divine law is committed in reference to spiritual things when a temporal price is formally or virtually given or received for them.

(a) Thus, the temporal thing is formally set up as the price, when it is regarded or treated as the end of the spiritual thing or action itself (finis operis), one of the things exchanged being used as the measure of value of the other. This happens when a person wills to buy or sell a spiritual thing, either because he thinks that its value may be expressed in terms of money or other temporal thing, or because he judges that he should treat it as though money were its equivalent, as when one fulfills a spiritual office and excludes every other motive than that of lucre (Denzinger, n. 1196).

(b) The temporal thing is virtually set up as the price, when it is intended as the sole proximate end of the agent himself (finis operantis), though there is no explicit thought about values or prices or comparisons. This happens when one gives a temporal thing and has no other immediate personal purpose in this act than the acquisition of a spiritual thing, or performs a pretendedly gratuitous service, intending thereby to obligate the beneficiary to the grant of some spiritual benefit, or bestows a “gratuitous” temporal favor as compensation for a spiritual benefit or vice versa (Denzinger, n. 1195). This is simony, for he who explicitly intends only an exchange, implicitly intends a price; and if it were not simony, then simony would be almost entirely an entity of the mind, since it is a very simple matter to will that the temporal thing exchanged shall be not the price, but only the motive of the contract or gratuitous compensation.

The temporal thing is not made the virtual price of the spiritual thing, if there is a lawful proximate motive (i.e., one recognized by the Canons or legitimate custom) for giving the temporal thing and the desire of receiving the spiritual thing is only the remote reason or occasion of the act. For in such a case the temporal thing is given for a lawful purpose and is not the price of a spiritual thing.

Examples: (a) If the recipient of the temporal thing has a right to it, there is no simony. Thus, the ministers of the altar have a right to their support (see 2186), and it is not simoniacal, when asking spiritual things from them (e.g., the application of Mass to one’s intention, the performance of Sacraments and sacred functions), to offer a stipend or fee; (b) if the bestower of the temporal thing gives it freely out of pure friendship, liberality, charity, gratitude or good will, so that it is an absolute gift, there is no simony, even though he hopes or expects that he will receive something spiritual as a mark of appreciation. But “a charitable or friendly gift” may easily be palliated simony; that is, there may be a pretense of liberality to conceal the real purpose of purchasing spirituals with temporals.

Rules of Alexander III for Determining Simony.—Alexander III gave several rules for determining whether a gift is made from liberality or with simoniacal intent.

(a) The following are marks of simoniacal intent: the quality of the giver (e.g., that he is poor, or in great need, or not customarily generous), the quantity of the gift (e.g., that it corresponds with the value of a vacant benefice, that it is surprisingly large), the time of the gift (e.g., that it is made when the donee is not in any special need, or when he is about to confer an office, or after hints have been made). If a gift is bestowed in connection with a spiritual thing received, the presumption is for simoniacal intent, unless there was a sincere and reasonable motive for the gift.

(b) The following, on the contrary, are marks of a liberal intent: the quality of the giver (e.g., that he is wealthy, noted for kindness and compassion, or liberal to all, or is a relative of the donee); the quantity of the gift (e.g., that it is small or normal in size), the time of the gift (e.g., if it is made when necessity, festal occasion, or the like calls for it).

Simony against Divine Law in Reference to Things Annexed to Spirituals.—(a) It is simony against divine law to buy or sell things annexed to spirituals consequently (e.g., the revenues of a benefice) or concomitantly and intrinsically (e.g., the ordinary labor and fatigue connected with preaching, saying Mass); for in the former case the temporal grows out of a spiritual and is morally one with it, while in the latter case the temporal has no value except in so far as it is joined with the spiritual.

(b) It is not simony against divine law to buy or sell things annexed to spirituals antecedently (e.g., blessed candles, sacred vestments), if the price is not raised on account of the spiritual thing, or things annexed concomitantly and extrinsically (e.g., the extraordinary labor and fatigue caused by saying Mass in a distant place or at a late hour); for in both cases the temporal has its own proper value and is not considered as inseparable from the spiritual. There is simony against divine law, however, if the price is raised on account of the spiritual part (e.g., if something is added for the blessing given a candle), and simony against church law if the transaction is forbidden as simoniacal (e.g., deductions and payments made in the act of preferment to a benefice are contrary to Canon 1441).

Conditions Necessary for Simony against Ecclesiastical Law.—(a) There must be an exchange through some kind of onerous contract, but it suffices that the understanding be tacit and non-executed, as was explained above (see 2323).

(b) There must be a law of the Church which, from a motive of respect for sacred things, forbids the exchange.

(c) The simoniacal exchange is made, whether a temporal annexed to a spiritual is given for another temporal annexed to a spiritual (e.g., benefice for benefice), or a spiritual for a spiritual, or a temporal for a temporal. Canonists enumerate the following as examples of simony of ecclesiastical law: gifts made in connection with a competitive examination for a parochial benefice, with ordination or grant of certain testimonial letters (Canon 545), with erection of confraternities; sale of blessed oil or chrism, or of the right of patronage (Canon 1470); remuneration for collection of stipends or for expenses of Mass (Canons 840, 1303).

Certain and Uncertain Simony.—(a) Cases in which simony is certain are the administration of Sacraments or sacramentals to the unworthy for the sake of the fee or favors, the sale of indulgences, taxes or charges made contrary to law (e.g., for a Mass of bination). Other examples are given in 2323 sqq. The Church demands that certain ministrations (e.g., Confirmation, Eucharist, Penance, Extreme Unction, Orders) be gratis, but there may be local customs or conditions that justify exceptions. Some moralists teach that there is no simony when a stipend is exacted for an obligatory ministry, if the simoniacal motive is absent.

(b) Cases in which simony is controverted are those in which a tax or stipend in excess of what is just or lawful is exacted (e.g., a Mass stipend higher than custom permits). Some claim there is simony, because the excess must be for the spiritual thing; others hold that there is no simony, but only an unjust increase in the stipend allowed for support; others say that there is no simony in the internal forum if the intent is not simoniacal, but that there is simony in the external forum on account of the presumption of simoniacal intent.

Doubtful Cases of Simony.—In some gifts and payments the presence or absence of simony depends on the object for which they are given.

(a) Thus, when they are given for omission of a spiritual act, there is simony if the omission includes the exercise of spiritual power (e.g., to omit absolution is to retain sins or censures); there is no simony if the omission is the mere exercise of free will (e.g., to omit Mass, confession).

(b) When they are given for omission of opposition or annoyance, so that one may be able to obtain some office or benefice, there is simony if the temporal thing is thereby given for the benefice itself or for the way to it (i.e., if one has no strict right to the spiritual thing, or if the opposition is just), as when the candidate for a benefice pays a competitor to withdraw, or pays an accuser to keep silence; there is no simony if the temporal thing is given for freedom from unjust vexation (i.e., if one has a strict right to the spiritual thing and the opposition is clearly unjust, as when one who has acquired a right to an office pays an enemy to desist from placing impediments). The payment made by Jacob to Esau for the birthright, to which Jacob was entitled by divine disposition, may be regarded as having had for its end, not the paternal blessing and other spiritual rights of the first-born, but immunity from persecution by Esau.

(e) When they are given for instruction, there is simony if the instruction has for its direct purpose the spiritual benefit of the disciple (e.g., catechetical instructions, sermons, spiritual direction); there is no simony if the instruction has for its direct purpose the improvement of the mind or the utility or advantage which the disciple will derive from it (e.g., instruction in theology, preparation for examinations).

(d) When they are given for admission to religious life, there is simony if the money is paid for the religious state itself, the vows, or other spirituals; there is no simony if the money is paid for the temporal support of the religious institute, that it may be able to meet its expenses.

Cases in Which a Transaction Is Not Simoniacal, but Lawful.—(a) There is no simony when a temporal is given on the occasion of but not for a spiritual. This happens when there is a just title for bestowal of the temporal, such as right of support (e.g., pastors’ salaries, Mass stipends, fees), extrinsic values in a work or object (e.g., the special labor in saying Mass under certain conditions, and, according to some, the special affection one has for a relic, the lucrum cessans on account of some function performed).

(b) There is no simony when something of value is given in exchange, but not for a spiritual, nor in contravention of an anti-simony law. This happens whether like be exchanged for like (e.g., Mass for Mass), or a temporal for a thing associated with a spiritual as the latter’s subject (e.g., money for a rosary or cemetery plot which has been blessed). In the former case there is no prohibition; in the latter, the temporalities have their own distinct values which may be paid for, if the price is not raised on account of the spiritual (see Canons 730, 1539).

Cases in Which a Transaction Is Not Simoniacal, but Is Sinful.—(a) Sins against God.—One who performs functions of religion primarily and principally, as far as his personal motive (finis operantis) is concerned, for the salary, stipend or fee, is not guilty of simony, since he does not regard the temporal even virtually as the price of the spiritual. But he does sin by indevotion, and the sin may even be mortal (e.g., a canon goes to choir chiefly because this yields him a living). Offenses committed in the matter of Mass stipends are not called simony in the Code, but the penal law classes them with offenses against religion, as may be seen from Canon 2324. Nepotism, favoritism in giving offices, and political and dishonest maneuvers to obtain church dignities are not in themselves simoniacal; but they are an unworthy and scandalous treatment of sacred things.

(b) Sins against Others.—It is not simony but injustice to deny the Sacraments to parishioners who do not contribute, to overcharge in lawful fees, and also, according to some, to take money for the omission of a spiritual act owed in justice (e.g., for refusal to hear the confession of a parishioner), or to demand money as the stipend for the performance of such a spiritual act (e.g., for hearing a confession). It is disobedience to take money in ways forbidden (e.g., to take Mass stipends in the confessional, to earn money by gambling or trading forbidden in the Canons). Again, it is not strictly simony to put up as the stakes in a game a spiritual thing (e.g., the recitation of the Rosary) against a temporal thing (e.g., ten dollars), for there is no intention to value the spiritual thing by the temporal; but such a practice is scandalous. Greed about getting or keeping money pertains to avarice, not necessarily to simony.

Cases in Which a Transaction Is Not Simoniacal, but Virtuous.—(a) Some acts done in God’s honor (e.g., to purchase a spiritual object, such as a sacred vessel or relic, from a person who would misuse it), when the purchaser intends the prevention of profanation. It is certainly not irreverence to a sacred thing to use means necessary to rescue it from such irreverence.

(b) Some acts done for the good of others (e.g., to give prizes to children who frequent the Sacraments or Sunday school, dowries to young girls that they may be able to enter religion, free education to worthy young men as an inducement to embrace the ecclesiastical state). In all these cases there is no purchase of a spiritual thing, because the temporal is a pure gift, and the spiritual is received, not by the giver of the temporal, but by another. There is no simony in the fees imposed for dispensations or in the alms sometimes prescribed for indulgences; for the temporal is not a price paid for the spiritual, but in the one case either a penance or a charge for expenses, and in the other a spiritual good work and duty prescribed as a condition for a spiritual benefit.

(e) Some acts done for the spiritual good of self (e.g., if one were in danger of death and could be baptized only by a person Who demanded money for the service, it would not be simony to pay the money, since the price would be offered, not for the Sacrament, but for the removal of an unjust annoyance).

1. Simony may therefore be defined as the serious endeavor to buy or sell for a temporal advantage something which is spiritual, or which is annexed to what is spiritual.²

² St. Thomas, Comment. in Sent., IV, dist. 25, art. 1: “A deliberate will to buy or sell something spiritual or annexed to something spiritual.” Cfr. Prop. damn. sub Innocent. XI, n. 45–46 (Denzinger-Bannwart, n. 1195 sq.).

The expression “serious endeavor” (studiosa voluntas) in St. Thomas’ definition, which has been embodied in the new Code of Canon Law, emphasizes the fact that, even though no explicit contract exists between the parties concerned, there may still be simony involved.³

³ Slater, A Manual of Mor. Theol., I, 231.

Simony exists only where a material gain is sought or obtained from a spiritual object or function, contrary to natural or positive law.

To collect the revenues of a spiritual office and to accept juridically determined emoluments or fees for spiritual functions, such as the so-called iura stolae, is in no sense simoniacal, for “the laborer is worthy of his hire,”⁴ and “they that serve the altar partake with the altar.”⁵

⁴ Matt. X, 10; Luke X, 7. Cfr. 1 Tim. V, 18.—O. Link, Messstipendien, Ratisbon 1901; Bishop Alex. McDonald in the Ave Maria, Notre Dame, Ind., New Series, Vol. X (1919), No. 25.

⁵ 1 Cor. IX, 4 sqq.

But the collection of the revenues of a spiritual charge and the acceptance of legitimate fees may become simoniacal if the office was sought mainly because of its emoluments or if the spiritual rights are exercised principally for the sake of the pecuniary revenues attached thereto.

2. Simony is called purely mental when no express contract exists between the parties concerned.

It is purely conventional if a contract has been expressly entered into between the parties, but not yet executed by either.

It is partly conventional when the contract has been executed by one of the parties.

It is real when the contract has been executed by both parties.⁶

⁶ Thos. Slater, S.J., A Manual of Mor. Theol., I, 233.

Simony is called “of divine law” (iuris divini) when the transaction is against the law of God; “of ecclesiastical law” (iuris ecclesiastici) when it runs counter to the prohibition of the Church, who in her Code forbids certain contractual dealings in spiritual things.⁷

⁷ Ibid.; C. I. C., can. 727, 728 sq., 730, 1446, 1465, 2371, 2392.

I. Notions. Simony is a real sacrilege of agreements which, in view of religion, are prohibited concerning a spiritual thing or a temporal thing connected with it.

II. Simony is distinguished as more strictly so called, or of divine law, and more broadly so called, or of ecclesiastical law. Cf. Laymann, Theol. mor. L. 4, Tr. 10, c. ult. n. 3.

Purely mental simony is done without an exterior pact; conventional simony is done through a pact; real simony is completed by at least partial execution of the pact. Before the Code, that was called mixed which was completed by execution on the part of one side only. Simony in the matter of benefices has customarily been called confidential, because it is committed through secret conditions contained in an agreement of an honorable appearance.

Simony of divine law is thus defined by canon 727, §1: "A studied will of buying or selling for a temporal price an intrinsically spiritual thing, e.g., Sacraments, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, consecration, indulgences, etc.; or a temporal thing annexed to a spiritual thing in such a way that the temporal thing can in no way exist without the spiritual thing, e.g., an ecclesiastical benefice, etc.; or that the spiritual thing is the object, even partial, of the contract, e.g., consecration in the sale of a consecrated chalice."

a) A studied will: i.e., not only deliberate, but choosing means: i.e., whether of an action in which the simoniacal intention is disguised (mental simony, or mixedly mental), or of an open agreement (conventional simony), or even of the handing over of a thing promised by agreement (real simony).

There are indeed some who understand studied will as put for deliberate. But then that definition, which the Code, because it was classical, used, would define the purpose of simony rather than simony itself: as if you should describe theft as a deliberate will of taking another's thing. Nor does a reason appear why a condition common to every grave sin should be commemorated here. Nor would the delict of simony be touched, since it cannot be consummated by an internal sin. Cf. Ball.-Palm., Op. theol. II, 445.

The word studied itself, which of itself signifies application of the mind, seems to have been taken from cap. 11, C. I, q. 1, which thus begins: "He who studies to buy the house of God for a price." Suarez, Rel., tr. III, L. 4, c. 1, n. 9, reports the various explanations proposed for this word.

b) Will is said rather than agreement. For although simony is formally consummated in an agreement, an express or formal agreement is not required even for the delict itself. But for the sin, the interior will already suffices. Therefore the words studied will seem to supply the word agreement, so that no necessity of an express convention can be alleged.

Of buying or selling; by these words is understood any onerous agreement, whether of exchange or of renunciation, even if not led through to effect, even tacit, "in which namely the simoniacal mind is not expressly manifested but is gathered from the circumstances" (c. 728). Therefore, as often as there is an intention of obligating from a pact that is not gratuitous, there is present the studied will which suffices for simony. Hence, before the Code, they distinguished simony as purely mental, without exterior pact; conventional, through a pact; real, which is completed by execution of the pact, at least partial. That was called mixed which was completed by execution on one part only.

Therefore, without a reciprocal agreement simony is not had. Wherefore he is not simoniacal who, merely under hope of gratitude, confers a temporal gift on him who, from gratitude, can confer a spiritual thing.

c) For a temporal price. The proper place of price is exchange, in which two things or performances are compared with one another, and the one is paid or performed as equivalent to the other. And most strictly there is a price if money is to be given, since price is said to be the value of a thing expressed in money.

In broader use, any gain perceived because of any performance of a thing or action can be called a price, even if, comparison being removed, it is not given as an equivalent.

A temporal price is that which comes into estimation in the order of human things: it can be money or a similar thing; praise, blame, recommendation, patronage; service or attendance. Hence it is called by the generic name of gift, and is distinguished as gift from the hand (money), gift from the tongue (recommendation, etc.), gift from service (attendance).

In order that one sin by simony, is it necessary that a price properly so called be exacted, or does even a price understood in broader use suffice? This will be gathered below from the weighed malice of simony.

d) A spiritual thing. Now the other element of simony, i.e., the thing which is forbidden to be sold, must be declared. Such in the first place is a spiritual thing.

A spiritual thing is understood as a supernatural thing ordered to salvation: whether it is formally such, as grace and the gifts of the Holy Spirit; or causally, as are the sacraments, preaching, sacramentals, prayers; or is the effect and use of supernatural power, as consecration, absolution, dispensation, blessing, excommunication, election, presentation, confirmation (of nomination or election to an ecclesiastical office), conferral of a benefice, some act of ecclesiastical jurisdiction.

What about the communication of sacred knowledge? This is not reckoned spiritual. Wherefore a true price can be accepted for teaching theology, for handing on Christian doctrine to boys in school, just as profane discipline is handed on there. Yet one must speak otherwise concerning instruction which is directed to the sole spiritual utility of others, as catechetical instruction for preparing first communion. In the same manner a distinction must be made between counsels which are directed merely to the spiritual good of another, and counsels which give temporal instruction (cf. Ball.-Palm. II, n. 466).

N. B. The object of simony is had more strictly where a spiritual thing is conferred ex opere operato, as would have been the sacred power which Simon Magus desired to buy, than when a spiritual effect is conferred only ex opere operantis, or through the occasion of this, for instance through prayers, through preaching.

e) Or a temporal thing annexed to a spiritual thing. Therefore there are also things temporal in themselves which, because of connection with a spiritual thing, it is not lawful to sell. Yet not every connection brings this prohibition.

Before the Code, they distinguished temporal things annexed to spiritual things antecedently or by way of antecedent, i.e., which by nature were prior to spiritual things: vessels, sacred vestments with respect to the sacraments, the right of patronage with respect to a benefice; temporal things annexed concomitantly, or those which existed at the same time with spiritual things: labor in the administration of sacraments; temporal things annexed consequently, or those which follow a spiritual thing: revenues of a benefice, which are given because of the spiritual office.

Temporal things annexed consequently were said to be excluded from every sale; while, for the value of the matter, buying and selling of a temporal thing antecedently annexed was declared lawful (cf. c. 730), if nevertheless you except the right of patronage, whose sale is positively prohibited (c. 1470, §1, 6°).

Concerning a temporal thing concomitant with a spiritual thing, for example concerning labor joined with a spiritual administration, a distinction must be made between labor extrinsic, which is added to the performance and is not always necessary, for instance Mass to be said late or to be sung, or in a distant place, or at the nod of some person: labor of this kind certainly can strictly be sold or hired by him who already does not owe it from justice, by reason of his office; and labor intrinsic, which cannot be separated from the performance: for example the work, the time to be spent in celebrating Mass, etc. There was no small controversy concerning this labor, which seems to be resolved by this distinction: taken terminatively, that labor can be sold for no price, since it is terminated at the spiritual thing; considered in itself, why the very work expended cannot be hired and let just as the gold of a consecrated chalice can be sold does not at once appear.

Yet they rightly reply that in the case there is no question of hiring and letting work, since no labor but a spiritual fruit is sought, so that the labor is not estimable by price except from the work for whose sake it is undertaken. Wherefore if the work is forbidden to be venal, neither is the labor intrinsically necessary to the work permitted to be venal. Yet nothing would prohibit the sacred minister, if because of that labor he could not do another fruitful thing, from demanding compensation for cessant gain. Cf. Laymann, L. 1, tr. 10, c. 8, n. 11, 12; Arendt, S.J., De laesione iustitiae commutativae, in missae manuali stipendio alteri celebranti diminuto, Parergon, p. 44, 45.

Positively, however, it is forbidden that you exact a greater stipend for saying Mass at a privileged altar (can. 918). Yet a priest does not exact more who, when he has received various stipends, reserves applications at a privileged altar for the richer ones and admonishes those seeking concerning the matter, provided he acts sincerely. But that manner of acting will easily be tainted by a certain appearance of cupidity.

In place of previously received modes of speaking, which were not so clear, the Code substituted clearer and fuller ones, distinguishing a twofold connection: one of individual or necessary nexus, for example such as an ecclesiastical benefice has, or the right of receiving ecclesiastical revenues, which necessarily calls for an ecclesiastical office: "a benefice because of an office"; the other, of participation in the contract, as if, in selling a consecrated chalice, you increase the price because of the consecration: this then becomes a partial object of the contract.

By the words of the canon, "a temporal thing annexed to a spiritual thing in such a way that the temporal thing can in no way exist without the spiritual thing," labor which cannot be separated from a spiritual action or administration seems to be included as an object of simony, which, moreover, already before the Code, the more common opinion held. Yet because of the general mind of the legislator, who is not presumed, unless he clearly states it, to define questions of this sort authentically, we think controversy can still be raised concerning this matter.

Simony of ecclesiastical law is "to give... temporal things annexed to a spiritual thing for temporal things annexed to a spiritual thing, or spiritual things for spiritual things, or even temporal things for temporal things, if this is prohibited by the Church because of danger of irreverence toward spiritual things" (c. 727, §2). Yet simony of divine law alone is strictly called simony. Cf. Laymann, Th. mor. L. IV, tr. 10, c. 8, n. 3.

Simony at least of ecclesiastical law is committed: 1. by exchange of benefices done by one's own authority or against other prescriptions (cc. 1487, 1488, §1); by private resignation of a benefice in favor of a third party or under a condition which touches the distribution of revenues (c. 1486).

2. By various payments or compensations which are imposed upon a cleric in the act of making provision of a benefice (c. 1441).

3. By sale of an office which is ordered to sacred things only extrinsically, as the office of Sacristan, of Oeconomus. For although, from c. 145, ecclesiastical office is to be taken strictly unless something else appears from the context of the discourse, nevertheless we think that the disposition of the prior law remains, which commanded the gratuitous conferral of such an office.

4. By demanding remuneration for labor expended in collecting and distributing Masses, unless the Apostolic See has conceded it. For manual stipends must be transmitted whole, from c. 840. (Cf. Ferreres, I, 375; but, contrary to what he judges, we do not think that he is simoniacal who for received stipends gives wages to celebrants, against the prescription of c. 827.)

5. By demanding, without the Bishop's permission, remuneration for the expenses of the celebration of Mass (c. 1303). (But he who demands a greater stipend than the conceded one seems to be unjust rather than simoniacal. Against Ferreres, I, 376.) Today, however, no simony seems to be committed by those who, for the value of the matter, sell sacred things, blessed things, things enriched with indulgences (cf. c. 1539, §1), although the indulgences in reality perish (cf. c. 924, §2).

1. St. Thomas, 2, 2, q. 100, art. 1, recognizes a threefold ratio of malice in simony: "because a spiritual thing cannot be compensated by any earthly price," since it far transcends earthly things; because the sale of a thing whose dominion is not had is not lawful, and the Pope himself is not lord but principal dispenser of spiritual things (l. c. ad 7); because it is repugnant to the origin of spiritual things, since they have come to us from the gratuitous Will of God. Therefore contempt of the transcendence of spiritual things and of their gratuitous origin, besides usurpation of perfect dominion, composes this malice. Yet especially injurious to a sacred thing is the equation of a spiritual thing and a temporal price. Commonly, moreover, they judge that in simony there is had a special ratio of real sacrilege, which, outside this case, they refuse to subdivide into other species. And because no gift of grace can become venal without grave irreverence both toward the gift itself and also toward God, and the quantity of the price does not change this irreverence, in simony of divine law it is denied that slightness of matter can be had. Yet often the smallness of the reward can prove that a simoniacal mind was absent.

2. In simony of ecclesiastical law no comparison is made of a spiritual thing with a temporal thing. It is therefore a certain extension of simony to cases not comprehended by natural law; but, since it is forbidden by the same motive, each simony is of the same moral species, namely real sacrilege. Although this simony admits slightness of matter. Yet in the forbidden exchange of two spiritual things there can be present an intention of temporal gain and an abusive usurpation of dominion over a sacred thing. Wherefore simony itself of ecclesiastical law can sometimes be vitiated by some simony of divine law. For this reason we preferred above to recount the examples of simony of ecclesiastical law as at least infected with this genus of simony.

555. Etymological notion. Simony is named from the crime of Simon Magus.⁸⁸¹ Although already in the Old Testament some were defiled by this vice, such as Gehazi, who sought a reward from Naaman after he had been cleansed by the prayers of the prophet Eliseus, and Balaam, who endeavored to sell sacred things to King Balak, nevertheless in the New Testament Simon Magus was the first of all to commit simony and to receive the due punishment.

Definition. Simony is defined by St. Thomas:⁸⁸² "the deliberate will to buy or sell something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual."⁸⁸³

The definition is explained. It is said, first: deliberate will, because for the essential malice of simony it is not required that a pact made by mutual consent also be completed in fact, but the interior, deliberate, and determined will of either party to buy or sell spiritual things suffices. Therefore a simoniacal stain can be present if someone merely intends interiorly to enter into a true bargain.

It is said, second: to buy or sell. By these words is indicated not only a contract of purchase and sale, but any onerous contract whatever, for example, of letting, hiring, alienation, etc.⁸⁸⁴ Therefore a gratuitous contract does not induce simony unless this has been established in some case by ecclesiastical law.

For a fuller explanation of the nature of simony, there is sometimes added: for a temporal price. For in this consists the essence and malice of simony (at least of divine law): that a temporal price is held as an equivalent compensation for a spiritual thing. The temporal price which is offered in a simoniacal pact was already distinguished by St. Gregory the Great⁸⁸⁵ as threefold: a gift from the hand, from the tongue, and from service. A gift from the hand is money and every other thing which can be appraised in money, such as the remission of a debt, a lease, etc. A gift from the tongue is favor, praise, recommendations, intercessions, defenses, and generally any patronage whatever which is exercised with another by agreement for obtaining some spiritual thing as remuneration. A gift from service is temporal service rendered for acquiring a spiritual thing; this can be done in many ways, for example, by serving, assisting, instructing, teaching, etc. A cleric would furnish such a gift from service if he were to give instruction to the son of a patron under the pact that he himself be presented to a vacant parish. The Angelic Doctor notes⁸⁸⁶ that it is no less simoniacal to give or receive a gift from the tongue or from service as the price for a spiritual thing than a gift from the hand. And Urban II⁸⁸⁷ says: "Whoever grants or acquires ecclesiastical things, not for that for which they were instituted but for his own gains, by a gift of the tongue, or of undue service, or of money, is a simoniac."

⁸⁸¹ Cf. Acts 8:18ff.

⁸⁸² S. theol. 2, 2, q. 100, a. 1. A. Leins, Die Simonie, Freiburg im Breisgau, 1902, p. 40, undeservedly attacks this definition as insufficient. On the contrary, this definition is also employed by the Code of Canon Law, c. 727, for simony of divine law.

⁸⁸³ Simony is reduced to real sacrilege because it is an unworthy treatment of a sacred thing. It is customarily treated separately, however, both because of its breadth and because of its gravity.

⁸⁸⁴ S. theol. 3, q. 83, a. 3 ad 5; Code of Canon Law, c. 728.

⁸⁸⁵ c. 114, C. 1, q. 1.

⁸⁸⁶ S. theol., l.c., a. 5.

⁸⁸⁷ c. 1, C. 1, q. 3.

556. It is said, third: something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual, in order to designate the matter of simony. In this matter, a spiritual thing is understood to be everything which either of itself or by the institution of the Church or of God is ordained to the supernatural salvation of the soul, for example, sanctifying grace, gratuitously given grace, the sacraments, sacramentals, the power of orders and jurisdiction, dispensation, absolution, etc. Something is said to be annexed to a spiritual thing in three ways: antecedently, concomitantly, and consequently.

A temporal thing is annexed antecedently to a spiritual thing when the temporal thing preexists and the spiritual thing afterward accrues to it, for example, a chalice, sacred vessels, a rosary, an estate to which the right of patronage adheres, etc. All these things preexist as temporal things, and afterward something spiritual accrues to them, namely, consecration, blessing, or the right of patronage.

A temporal thing is annexed concomitantly to a spiritual thing if both are joined at the same time and in an almost parallel manner. But if this conjunction is essential and indissoluble, the temporal thing is called joined to the spiritual thing concomitantly intrinsically; otherwise, concomitantly extrinsically. For example, the labor in saying Mass is a temporal thing concomitantly and intrinsically annexed to the Mass. But if the Mass is to be sung or said in a distant place, then such labor is a temporal thing annexed to the Mass concomitantly indeed, but extrinsically.

A temporal thing is called annexed consequently if it presupposes a spiritual thing as the cause upon which it depends; for example, parochial revenues are something temporal, but they presuppose something spiritual as their cause, namely, the parochial office itself; for according to the common adage, "A benefice is given on account of the office."

557. Corollary. From what has thus far been said concerning the nature of simony, it follows that the essence of simony consists in an onerous contract which causes an exchange of a spiritual (supernatural) thing for a temporal thing. Therefore it is not simony to give a spiritual thing for a spiritual thing, or a thing annexed to the spiritual for a thing annexed to the spiritual; for example, it is not simony if a priest says Mass for another who has said a rosary, or if someone applies an indulgence in order to obtain a sacred relic, or if someone gives a consecrated chalice for a blessed ciborium. Nevertheless, exchanges of this kind are also sometimes gravely prohibited by a special statute of positive law, as will be said below.

558. Divisions. 1. Simony of divine law and of ecclesiastical law.

The former is present when the thing given for a price is by its very nature spiritual or annexed to a spiritual thing. Hence it is also called simony of natural law. Such simony is, for example, the payment of money for obtaining sacred orders. Simony of ecclesiastical law is present, not indeed when a spiritual thing is sold for a temporal thing, but when exchanges of ecclesiastical things are made which the Church has gravely prohibited because of the danger of irreverence toward spiritual things,⁸⁸⁸ for example, when one benefice is given for another. These prohibitions are most just, since they exclude grave abuses which otherwise would easily occur and guard against the grave danger of simony of divine law. Some authors think that simony of ecclesiastical law is not simony except in a broader sense, and therefore give a special definition of it, namely: simony of ecclesiastical law is a contract concerning something spiritual or annexed to the spiritual which is gravely prohibited by the Church in view of religion.⁸⁸⁹

⁸⁸⁸ Code of Canon Law, c. 727, § 2.

⁸⁸⁹ Reiffenstuel (Ius can. l. 5, tit. 3, n. 26ff.) maintains that the same definition belongs to simony of ecclesiastical law as to simony of divine law. Billuart (De relig. diss. 11, a. 21) also treats this question excellently.

559. 2. Mental, conventional, real, and confidential simony.

Mental simony is present when a simoniacal pact is purely mental, that is, when something temporal is offered with the intention that the other be morally obliged to give something spiritual; or, conversely, something spiritual is given with the intention of obliging the other to give something temporal. The intention of exchanging, however, is not manifested outwardly. For example, a cleric commits mental simony who serves a bishop or patron for no salary or a small salary with the intention, not indeed manifested but conjecturable from the circumstances, that in recompense for the service rendered a parish be conferred upon him by that person. A bishop commits the same simony who confers a parish upon some cleric with the intention that the cleric bestow money upon him or his blood relatives. Canonists subtly distinguish this mental simony, which actually gives either a temporal or a spiritual thing with a simoniacal intention, from purely internal or intentional simony, which has not yet actually given, but has merely proposed to give, a temporal or a spiritual thing. This distinction is of no importance for moral theology, because before the strict divine Judge, who is the searcher of hearts, both kinds of simony are equally culpable.⁸⁹⁰ Neither kind of mental simony, however, since it is an internal act, is reached by ecclesiastical penalties.

Conventional simony is an agreement or pact truly entered into on both sides, but not yet put into execution, to exchange a temporal thing for a spiritual thing or for a thing essentially annexed to the spiritual. But if that pact has been fulfilled by neither contracting party through the handing over of the thing, it is called purely conventional simony; if, however, it has already been put into execution by either party, it is called semi-real or mixed simony, because it has something of conventional and something of real simony.

Real simony is a simoniacal pact already put into execution by both contracting parties, either totally or at least in part; for example, someone pays money in order to obtain a canonry, and the other confers this benefice, or at least sends the document of institution.⁸⁹¹

Confidential simony has place only in ecclesiastical benefices,⁸⁹² and is the procurement, conferral, or acceptance of an ecclesiastical benefice with a certain confidential reservation. This reservation can be fourfold:

a) by access, namely, if someone in any manner hands over an ecclesiastical benefice (properly so called; therefore not regular prelacies, unless, because of temporal goods annexed to them, they are true benefices) under the condition that the benefice be resigned or access to it be opened, either to himself or to another person who is still incapable, for example, because of defect of age, after capacity has been acquired. For example, a bishop hands over a canonry to Peter under the condition that after some time free access to that benefice be opened to Caius, the bishop's nephew, namely, when Caius has acquired sufficient learning. As regards this simony, it makes no difference whether the benefice was handed over by means of presentation, conferral, election, collative institution, etc.

b) by entrance, namely, if someone cedes to another a benefice conferred upon himself before taking possession of it, under the pact that, after the benefice has been relinquished in any manner whatever, he who ceded it may himself enter into possession of it. For example, a parochial benefice has been conferred upon Peter, but before taking possession of it he renounces it to Paul, adding, however, this condition: that if Paul is promoted to another parish, Peter may immediately enter into the parochial benefice renounced.

c) by regress, namely, if someone resigns to another a benefice already possessed, under the condition that afterward regress to it be open to himself or to a third person.

d) by reservation of a portion or pension, if someone in any manner procures a benefice for another, but under the condition that a portion of the revenues of the benefice be ceded to himself or to a third person. For example, the patron of a parish church presents Peter as pastor under the condition that Peter, after obtaining the benefice, pay one hundred francs annually from the revenues of the benefice. Concerning when it is lawful to reserve a pension for oneself from benefices, see the canonists.⁸⁹³

⁸⁹⁰ Cf. Innocent III, c. 34, X 5, 3.

⁸⁹¹ Some authors, such as Cajetan (Opusc. de simonia q. 2), Dominic Soto (De iure et iust. l. 9, q. 8, a. 1), the Salmanticenses (Curs. theol. mor. tr. 19, c. 1, n. 18), and Concina (De extr. unct. et ord. l. 1, diss. 3, c. 3), think that real simony is already committed by the handing over of the spiritual thing, although the stipulated price has not yet been paid. But one must not depart from the most common opinion explained above (cf. Reiffenstuel, Ius can. l. 5, tit. 3, n. 20).

⁸⁹² Confidential simony differs from the other species thus far enumerated only by reason of its matter. For it concerns solely the matter of benefices. In reality, however, it can be either conventional or real; often it is not of divine but of ecclesiastical law (cf. Suárez, De relig. l. 4, c. 45, n. 20). It is called confidential because no judicial action was given (because of the unlawful pact), but it obtained its whole force from the good faith of him who received the benefice.

⁸⁹³ Cf. our Man. iur. can. q. 429. Concerning confidential simony, see the Constitution of Pius IV Romanum Pontificem and the Constitution of Pius V Intolerabilis. Cf. also D'Annibale, Summula theol. mor. III, n. 112ff.

560. Moral and specific malice. a) Simony of divine law is a mortal sin against religion in its whole genus; b) simony of ecclesiastical law alone is a mortal sin from its genus.

a) The first part of this proposition is admitted by almost all authors⁸⁹⁴ and is also easily proved. For that simony is against the virtue of religion is evident of itself, since it is an unworthy treatment of sacred things⁸⁹⁵ and is reduced to real sacrilege. That simony of divine law is a mortal sin in its whole genus, so that it does not admit slightness of matter, is deduced from the fact that it imports the greatest injury inflicted upon sacred things, and consequently upon God Himself. Is it not an enormous contempt of sacred things conducive to eternal salvation if someone equates them with a temporal price? But this contempt is present whether there is question of a great or a small spiritual thing, for the reason and disorder are always the same. Hence St. Peter also reproached Simon Magus most vehemently for this, saying: "Keep thy money to thyself, to perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money."⁸⁹⁶ The most grave malice of simony can also be surmised from the grave penalties which the Church imposes upon simoniacs.⁸⁹⁷ Furthermore, its malice appears from the calamitous effects which it has always produced; for which reason it is called "a pest surpassing all other diseases,"⁸⁹⁸ "a cancerous wound,"⁸⁹⁹ and "leprosy."⁹⁰⁰

b) The second part of the proposition is commonly admitted by authors, provided there is question of simony of ecclesiastical law alone. For not rarely simony of ecclesiastical law is joined with simony of divine law, and then it certainly is a mortal sin in its whole genus, as has been proved; but by itself it is nothing other than the transgression of an ecclesiastical precept. Now the transgression of an ecclesiastical precept gravely binding in itself admits slightness of matter. Therefore simony of ecclesiastical law alone is indeed a mortal sin if there is question of grave matter; otherwise it is a venial sin. Ecclesiastical law, however, has gravely prohibited simony of this kind because of the urgent danger of simony of divine law joined with it.

Authors commonly teach that simony of divine law and of ecclesiastical law are sins of the same species, since simony of ecclesiastical law is also true simony injuring the virtue of religion. For although in ecclesiastical simony the purchase of a spiritual thing for a temporal price is not always present, nevertheless the proximate danger of simony of divine law is always present. But he who culpably commits himself to the proximate danger of sinning and he who actually commits the same sin perpetrate a sin of the same species.

⁸⁹⁴ Cf. St. Alphonsus, Theol. mor. l. 3, n. 50.

⁸⁹⁵ Cf. St. Thomas, S. theol. 2, 2, q. 100, a. 1.

⁸⁹⁶ Acts 8:20.

⁸⁹⁷ Cf. below, n. 565.

⁸⁹⁸ c. 6, X 3, 5.

⁸⁹⁹ c. 7, C. 1, q. 1.

⁹⁰⁰ Ib. c. 14.

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.

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.

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.

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.

I. QUESTION I. What is simony? ANSWER. Simony, named from Simon Magus, is a studious will of buying or selling something spiritual or annexed to a spiritual thing, as St. Thomas says, II-II, q. 100, art. 1. The first particle studious will betrays a deliberate action of the will. The other, of buying or selling, sets forth every onerous and not gratuitous contract, by which a spiritual thing is bought, sold, let out, exchanged, or transacted for some temporal price, or for some thing appraisable at a price. The last particles signify something proceeding from God as supernatural author, or directed to God as author of salvation.

II. This spiritual thing is threefold. 1. One is spiritual in itself, as grace, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, infused virtues, the gifts of the Holy Ghost given gratis, the working of miracles, the interpretation of tongues, and so forth. 2. Another is spiritual as effecting, as the sacraments. 3. There is the spiritual produced by a spiritual cause, as dispensations in vows and oaths, absolution from censures, to bury the dead, to sing in choir, and so forth. Annexed to a spiritual thing happens in two ways: either because it is antecedently conjoined with a spiritual thing, as are ecclesiastical benefices, which suppose the clerical Order; or because it accompanies, or follows, a spiritual thing, or is ordained to a spiritual thing, as are sacred vestments, sacred vessels, temples, the relics of Saints, and the right of patronage of presenting to benefices.

III. QUESTION II. Of how many kinds is simony? ANSWER. Twofold. One of natural and divine right, which is by its own nature evil, and which is committed while those things which are spiritual, or annexed to spiritual things — as graces, sacraments, ecclesiastical jurisdiction, gifts, virtues, and so forth — are sold or bought. The other is of ecclesiastical right, which is evil because forbidden: this is set in the exchange and resignation of benefices, and so forth.

IV. Simony is further divided into mental, conventional, real, and confidential. That is called mental which stops within the mind, which can happen in two ways: 1. When someone by an internal purpose deliberates to commit simony; 2. When he indicates it outwardly. Conventional arises from the mental; and it is an express or tacit convention of giving a temporal for a spiritual thing, or the contrary: but on neither side is it committed to execution, or only on one. Real follows upon both, and is committed to execution, either in part or in whole, of that which had been conceived in mind and outwardly agreed upon. Confidential is when someone procures a benefice by electing, presenting, resigning, or by another way, with a confidence or agreement, express or tacit, that he for whom it is procured shall resign it either to the procurer or to another, or shall render a pension or the fruits from it.

V. QUESTION III. Whether a feigned simoniac commits true simony? ANSWER. A feigned simoniac is he who promises a price for a benefice, with the mind of not obliging himself nor of delivering it. That this man sins most gravely all affirm. But several deny that he is a simoniac. The opposite opinion is to me true. The exterior promise of giving a price collides with the interior intention. The former opinion opens a most broad way of obtaining and retaining benefices by these feigned simonies. For the rest the case is rare, because sellers of spiritual things are not wont to be less crafty and cunning than buyers; and unless they be secure and rely upon the price, they do not sell.

VI. QUESTION IV. What things have the character of a price in simony? ANSWER. A gift from service, from the hand, from the tongue. A gift from service is a subjection offered, as to serve the collator of a spiritual thing, to sit by him, to attend him, to teach and instruct, and so forth. A gift from the hand is money, and whatever comes under the name of money, whether delivered or promised. A gift from the tongue is favour, praise, encomiums, prayers, supplications, adulations, and other things of this kind. A general and precise rule cannot be designated as to when simony is perpetrated in a gift from service and from the tongue. The delivery or promise of money is almost never a gratuitous gift. If a bishop should confer a benefice upon a minister on account of services rendered or to be rendered without salary, he commonly commits simony, even if no agreement intervene: since the deed speaks, and obtains the place of an agreement.

VII. Commonly gifts from the tongue and from service, if they be gratuitous, do not bring it about that the collation of a benefice is simoniacal. But rarely are they gratuitous and sincere testimonies of an ingenuous mind. Some distinguish between offering principally and less principally. The distinction is absolutely true. But in practice it is most difficult to distinguish the confines of the primary and secondary of this distinction, and a crafty mind transforms itself and puts on a mask. Wherefore both candidates and collators ought to abstain from gifts of this kind. Those who are worthy do not need these prestiges.

VIII. A gift imposed under an obligation contains simony, since such an obligation is appraisable at a price. If a loan be delivered from an agreement or convention of attaining a spiritual thing, similarly it is simony.

IX. Those who under the title of consanguinity or affinity confer benefices, and prefer a blood-relation or kinsman to the worthier, sin most gravely against justice, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, q. 100, art. 5, reply 1, and all theologians subscribe to him. A bishop perpetrates simony if he agrees concerning a pension to be paid to himself or to another, or confers a benefice on condition that otherwise he would not have imposed the pension. Guilty of simony also are candidates who in the Roman Curia promise a pension to be paid, or something else appraisable at a price, to courtiers or to any others whatsoever, that they may afford help or favour for attaining a benefice. Those who impose upon a benefice a burden in no way annexed to it commit simony. Wherefore it is simony to renounce or to exchange benefices with any agreements, conditions, or modes added in favour of another. Guilty of simony also are those who exchange or renounce benefices with a pension by the Pope's leave, but with the condition added that the resignee pay the bulls of the pension. Similarly they perpetrate simony who confer a benefice with the care of souls upon the burden that he freely resign the benefice which he has, because they would append a condition in the collation of the benefice which is not of right.

I. A new manner of opining having been brought in, very many sins have put off their malice; since, says Caramuel, one Diana has taken a thousand of them out of the world. Formerly holy men inveighed sharply against simony with its mask laid aside. At present it is so trapped out and adorned with paints and allurements that it is scarcely found in the world. Very many casuists distinguish in money, or in a temporal thing, the characters of a native price, a principal, a secondary, a proximate, a remote, a directly intended, of compensation, of gratuitous remuneration. Hidden under this wrapping of little distinctions, simony, fortified as with leaves and a rampart, blunts the strokes of all the sacred canons, and runs about triumphant.

II. The Council of Toledo, canon 3, established these things: If any of the bishops, money having been received IN WHATSOEVER MANNER, shall have ordained a bishop, an abbot, and so forth, let him lie under the peril of his own grade.

III. The Council of Trent, innumerable other canons being passed over, session 24, chapter 18 On Reformation, among several things decrees these: And let them beware lest they receive anything at all on occasion of this examination, either before or after, otherwise let both they themselves and those giving incur the vice of simony, from which they cannot be absolved save with the benefices dismissed which they in whatsoever manner even before obtained, and let them be rendered unfit for others in the future.

IV. Nothing, whether before or after, can be delivered to examiners and collators of benefices. Therefore vain are the comments which teach that something can lawfully be bestowed either before or after, covered with whatsoever paint. Neither the Scriptures, nor the Fathers, nor the Councils distinguish in a temporal thing to be delivered the characters of price, of motive, of proximate, of remote, of principal, of accessory; but absolutely, all technicalities being rejected, they cry out: Freely have you received, freely give.

V. Fr. Gregory of Valentia is wont to be cited among the first who relaxed the mandates against simony. And in fact, Vol. III, disputation 6, question 16, point 3, he teaches these things: “A man can confer a spiritual thing on account of a temporal thing principally, as on account of an end, in such wise that the temporal be not with him the end of the spiritual thing itself, as though the temporal were esteemed by him at more than the spiritual, but only the end of the will, or of the application of the mind to the act of conferring the spiritual: this is not simony.” Which in the same place he more fully confirms.

VI. Could a prettier and more acute little distinction be devised? A collator of a benefice can principally accept a temporal thing; but this temporal thing is not the end of the spiritual thing, but only of the will, or of the application of the mind to the act of conferring the spiritual thing. A temporal thing therefore is given not on account of the spiritual thing, but that the collator may apply his will to the conferring of the spiritual thing. Whether heretics and the impious reading these festive interpretations are about to receive scandal, let others judge. The doctrine of Valentia was followed by Tanner and very many others, among whom Fr. Viva himself.

VII. The Roman See, hearing that the wickedness of simony was fostered by the opinings of certain men and daily stalked abroad, condemned the three following theses. Alexander VII proscribed this, no. 22: It is not against justice not to confer ecclesiastical benefices gratis: because a collator conferring those ecclesiastical benefices, money intervening, does not exact it for the collation of the benefice, but as it were for a temporal emolument which he was not bound to confer. And the Venerable Innocent XI devoted the two following, 45 and 46, to execration: To give a temporal thing for a spiritual is not simony, when the temporal is not given as a price, but only as a motive for conferring or effecting the spiritual; or even when the temporal is only a gratuitous compensation for the spiritual, or contrariwise. No. 46: And this also has place, even if the temporal be the principal motive of giving the spiritual; nay, even if it be the end of the spiritual thing itself, so that it be esteemed of more worth than the spiritual thing.

VIII. QUESTION I. Does he commit simony who gives money as a motive not of immediately obtaining a spiritual thing, but as an honourable intermediate motive from which a spiritual thing may be expected? ANSWER. Some deny it. But this opinion is to me false, and utterly contrary to the doctrine of the Scriptures, of the Councils, and of St. Thomas. A candidate for Orders, or for a parochial benefice to be received, offers money to the examiners, to the bishop, to the collator, and so forth. What is that true, honourable, intermediate motive from which the benefice or the sacrament of Order is expected? They are silent. In brief, the candidate would not deliver or promise a temporal thing, unless he hoped for the attaining of the benefice or of the sacred Orders. Therefore he commits simony.

IX. The same opinion the Salmanticenses defend, tract 19, chapter 1, point 4, no. 55, where they teach that for the character of simony there is required a will of giving money “as a price, or of commensurating it with the spiritual thing, and of esteeming it at so much, so that it be through an onerous contract. This depraved will nevertheless being excluded, even if a temporal thing be given with the mind of obtaining a spiritual thing, not as an onerous price but gratis, or out of gratitude or benevolence, even with the imposition of some antidoral obligation, no simony is committed — whether the gift be conferred before the collation of the spiritual thing, or after it, or at the same time with it.”

X. What could be brought forth more expressly against Trent and against all the sacred canons assuredly escapes me. For the character of simony there is required a will of commensurating money with the spiritual thing, and of esteeming it at so much? He who should have this will would be a most impudent heretic, not to say a simoniac. Which of the Catholics ever asserted that money can equal a spiritual thing of an altogether superior order? This opinion, in my judgment, is in fact contained in the rescribed condemned theses. For this doctrine being admitted, there is no simony in the world. If you desire more, consult Vol. X, Book 2, dissertation 2, chapter 8. Nor does it please me to delay longer in overthrowing a doctrine evidently false.

XI. QUESTION II. Whether it be lawful to give a temporal thing under the hope of obtaining a spiritual thing from the donee, or contrariwise, under the title of friendship or of gratitude? ANSWER. Fr. Billuart affirms it, provided it be sincerely and not feignedly expected as a spontaneous gift out of mere gratitude, friendship, and liberality, and not owed under the title of a temporal gift. Since, he says, this is to give a temporal thing as a motive indeed of obtaining a spiritual thing, but by the mediation of another honourable motive, namely gratitude and friendship.

XII. These are pure and mere comments devised for encrusting the wickedness of simony. All the Councils, chiefly Trent, forbid to give money — not the mind, not the mode of giving. The Councils forbid to give a temporal thing for the obtaining of a spiritual thing. Most ineptly is the mode of giving devised, when in fact money is given. Nor do collators of benefices, of Orders, and so forth care whether the money be given under the title of a price, or of an incitement, remote or proximate, or under the motive of antidoral gratitude, provided it be in fact given and they in fact receive it. This alone they care for; the rest they deride. This farrago of precisions and distinctions being admitted, there would be no simony in the world.

XIII. QUESTION III. Whether the sale of the sacraments be simoniacal? ANSWER. All affirm it, when anything is exacted for the administration of the sacraments. Similarly he would be a simoniac who should sell the Eucharist. Those things which are given to sacred ministers are destined for their sustentation, by no means as a price of administering the sacraments: for the labourer is worthy of his meat, says the Evangelist Matthew; just as also to a priest celebrating there is given something for his sustentation. It is agreed among all, by natural, divine, and ecclesiastical right, that it is forbidden to receive or to deliver anything as a price, whether for the receiving of the sacred habit, or for monastic profession.

XIV. Those who preach either for the sake of applause or for the sake of gain are simoniacs, as the Angelic teaches, 2-2, question 100, article 3, reply 2. If a priest in the article of death should be unwilling to baptize without money, if the one to be baptized were a boy, anyone else, even a layman, could baptize him. If the one to be baptized were an adult, and no priest were at hand, the priest would be simoniacal, and then the baptism of desire would supply, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, q. 100, art. 2, reply 1. Whence is rejected the opinion of those who teach that money can be given for the bending of the will of an avaricious priest. But that comment is utterly empty. Simony similarly is to receive anything for the administration of the sacramentals. Those things which are wont to be bestowed for the chanting of Mass, for a funeral office, for a procession, and so forth, are immune from the stain of simony, because they are given according to a laudable custom for the sustentation of the ministers.

XV. Fr. Nicholas Mazzotta, tract 3, disputation 5, question the only one, on simony, recounts many who teach that something can be received without simony for the obligation of exercising spiritual things, provided this obligation be severed from the ecclesiastical function. He reports also the opposite opinion. Fr. Mazzotta imitates the method of Fr. La Croix of proposing a collection of probable contrary opinions, that readers may be able to choose what more pleases and flatters them. The former opinion has already been proscribed.

XVI. QUESTION IV. Whether it be simony to sell or to buy the power of ecclesiastical jurisdiction? ANSWER. Authors commonly distinguish. There is a power of jurisdiction which regards the forum of conscience, as to absolve from sins; and there is a power which pertains to the exterior forum, as to dispense in vows and in laws, to visit, to condemn, and so forth. For all these things to receive anything is simony, because they are spiritual. Similarly it is simony to exact anything for a licence of hearing confessions, of absolving from censures, for the concession of indulgences, for the faculty of dispensing in vows and oaths, for the assistance of a parish priest at a marriage, for the election, collation, and confirmation of benefices, and so forth.

XVII. QUESTION V. Is it simony to receive anything for entrance into a monastery? ANSWER. The Council of Trent, session 25, chapter 16, establishes these things: But neither before profession, except for the food and clothing of the novice or novice-woman of that time in which she is in probation, let anything from her goods be bestowed upon the monastery UNDER WHATSOEVER PRETEXT, whether by parents, or by kinsfolk, or by guardians, or by alms. These two things are certain among all. But very many casuists, who consider money as a price and as a primary and secondary, proximate and remote motive, and as an antidoral title, of obligation, of gratuitous compensation, take away all simony out of the midst. But the sacred canons which forbid to receive or to deliver anything for entrance into Religion are so clear that they rout all the aforesaid little distinctions and devised comments. Consult Vol. X, Book 2, dissertation 3, chapter 5.

XVIII. QUESTION VI. Is it simony forbidden by divine right alone to confer any benefices whatsoever with a view to a temporal emolument? ANSWER. Two rights are included in benefices. One spiritual, or the right of administering spiritual things, which is called the office; the other the right of perceiving temporal things, which is called the benefice. According to all, simony is forbidden by every right, from which not even the Pope can dispense, namely the sale of a benefice inasmuch as it means the right of administering spiritual things. Authors dispute whether it be simony forbidden by divine right to catch at or to confer benefices with a view to the temporal emolument alone. Some deny it. But this opinion is to me false, because the right to the temporal revenues is so annexed to the right to the spiritual offices that it can in no way be separated. There are to be distinguished the fruits of a benefice, which a beneficiary can sell, let out, or exchange, from the right of perceiving these fruits. This beneficial right is inseparable from the prior right of administering spiritual things. Therefore he who sells the one must needs sell the other.

XIX. To offer something to Sempronius that he may intercede with the collator is simony. Fr. La Croix continuously adds a distinction: if you give for the labour, it is not simony. And this opinion Fr. Mazzotta transcribes, tract 3, chapter 5, saying: “But if you give something to an intercessor, whether mediate or immediate, not indeed for the intercession, but for the labour, for ceasing gain, for emerging loss, for the expenditure of time, and so forth, in going and returning, it is not simony, because these are something temporal altogether extrinsic.” La Croix, no. 91, and others commonly.

XX. In truth La Croix teaches this opinion in just so many words with Diana, Castropalao, Raynaud, and others. The falsity and laxity of that opinion is evident to my weakness. That to deliver money for an intercession with the collator of a benefice is simony, those authors themselves confess; but to deliver money for the time to be expended, for ceasing gain, for emerging loss in going and returning, is not simony. And why? Because these are something temporal altogether extrinsic. Excellently! I yield. Can an intercession be made without some expenditure of time, without approach and return to the collator? If a man must intercede, it behoves that he speak. And that he may be able to speak, time is required, and approach and return. Therefore if it is simony to deliver money for an intercession, it is simony also to deliver money for the things necessarily annexed to the same. Even to the collator himself money could be given, not for the collation but for the expenditure of time consumed in the collation. Diana devised these little distinctions; from Diana Castropalao, from Castropalao La Croix, from La Croix Mazzotta: and afterwards they conclude, So the Doctors commonly. Unskilled readers reading these things think that the Doctors of the Church so teach; and hence with a secure conscience they commit simony. Behold how true is what I said at the outset, that, these opinions being admitted, no simony is given in the world.

XXI. The sale of the habits of military Orders, which are given to Religious deputed to the choir and the divine office, is simony. Similarly to sell pensions erected into the title of a benefice, as praestimonia or simple benefices, is simony, as all confess. Several things concerning these pensions St. Pius V established in the Bull which begins Ex proximo. Someone asserts that this Bull is nowhere received. But he is deceived, and deceives. For the Salmanticenses testify, no. 74, that it is received in Spain. And the common opinion teaches that pensions of this kind cannot be redeemed or sold without simony. Simoniacal also is the sale of an ecclesiastical right of patronage.

XXII. He who has been elected to a benefice, and has the collation from a lawful superior, although he do not yet possess it, has a right in the thing. Therefore he can redeem an unjust vexation with money, provided it be truly unjust, without simony, as St. Thomas teaches, II-II, q. 100, art. 2, reply 5. To redeem with money a vexation before a right in the thing is acquired is simony, as St. Thomas asserts in the same place. Authors nevertheless distinguish a vexation intended against a right to be acquired by one who can hinder but cannot profit, from a vexation intended against a right to be acquired by one who can both hinder and profit. When a vexation is redeemed from one who can hinder and profit by electing, confirming, and so forth, simony is committed. But to redeem a vexation intended by one who can hinder but cannot profit is no simony.

XXIII. To commute spiritual things for spiritual things is no simony, benefices being excepted. Wherefore it is lawful for you this week to celebrate four Masses for Peter, that Peter may celebrate just as many for you at another time. So relics can be delivered for relics.

XXIV. QUESTION VII. Can benefices be exchanged without simony? ANSWER. By ecclesiastical right all exchanges of benefices are forbidden and declared simoniacal, unless the authority and dispensation of a superior accede. For although the titles of benefices be spiritual, and on this account a spiritual thing can be commuted for a spiritual; nevertheless, because to the titles of benefices there are annexed temporal revenues which kindle avarice, therefore the Church has forbidden that these exchanges be made without the superior's authority. Under the name of benefices are understood all spiritual things which have annexed temporal emoluments. There is required therefore the authority of that superior who conferred the benefices. Wherefore a bishop cannot grant the faculty of exchanging benefices conferred by a superior, namely by the Pope. If the benefices be in diverse dioceses, the consent of each bishop is necessary, or of the patrons who have the right of nominating and presenting.

XXV. Exchangers of benefices can at the same time mutually enter upon honourable conditions, and propose them to the lawful superior. Elsewhere I shall show that these exchanges are rarely lawful. The acceptance of money for the collation of a benefice is not only simoniacal but also against justice; the opposite opinion Alexander VII condemned, no. 22.

XXVI. Bishops cannot grant a faculty of exchanging a benefice with a clerical pension. If the pension be lay, it can by no wrapping, not even by the Pontiff's authority, be exchanged with a benefice, as is plain. When benefices are unequal either in revenues or in dignity, they cannot be compensated with money, or with the accession of a temporal thing, whatever some may say to the contrary.

XXVII. A transaction in composing a suit over a benefice is simoniacal, if it be done without the authority of the Apostolic See. Several things concerning this matter some dispute, which it is not worth while to weigh, as being useless, because it pertains to the Apostolic See to settle them.

XXVIII. QUESTION VIII. How can a benefice be resigned without simony? ANSWER. 1. Anyone can resign a benefice into the hands of his bishop, no condition being added; 2. In favour of such a person; 3. In favour of such a person, a pension being reserved to himself; 4. Without designation of a person, and with reservation of a pension. A resignation made in the first way is true, and can be safe. For a resignation made in the other ways the authority of the Supreme Pontiff is required, who can dispense for the good and convenience of the Church.

XXIX. The Salmanticenses, no. 55, contend that a resignation can be made into the hands of a bishop in favour of Peter, provided this condition be not made in all rigour by the resigner, so that he should suspend the resignation, but only declare to the Prelate the mode conceived by the resigner and to be observed in the provision of the benefice after the absolute renunciation is made. These are bland thoughts, which a prudent bishop alone can resolve, by admitting no condition at all, whether rigorous or bland. For in this fashion he will explore the sincerity of the resigner.

XXX. Simoniacal are reciprocal renunciations, by which you renounce in favour of Peter, that he in turn may renounce to you. Similarly simoniacal are the renunciations which they call triangular, as when you renounce to Peter, that Peter may renounce to Paul, and at last Paul renounces his benefice to you.

XXXI. QUESTION IX. Whether a confidential renunciation of benefices be simoniacal? ANSWER. That resignation of a benefice is called confidential which is made into the hands of a lawful Superior with a trust that he in whose favour the benefice is renounced will resign the same benefice to him or to another, or will pay a pension or something else. A fiduciary resignation with an express or tacit agreement is beyond doubt simoniacal, forbidden by divine, natural, and human right, as all confess. A fiduciary resignation without any agreement, but with the hope that the resignee will under the title of gratitude at an opportune time resign the same benefice either to himself, or to a friend, or to a blood-relation, or to whomsoever he shall have willed, or will pay part of the fruits — although absolutely and speculatively it may be without simony, in practice nevertheless it is almost always to be reputed simoniacal.

SIMONY is a studied will to buy, or sell a spiritual thing, or one annexed to the spiritual. So D. Thomas here, and D. Bonaventure p. p. centil. sect. 30. and in the opusc. Declaratio terminorum Theol. and in speculo animae, cap. 2.

The Saintly Doctor teaches, in 4. dist. 25. dub. 2., why those who sell spiritual things are called Simoniacs rather than Gezites; for Giezi sold the grace of miracles; but Simon wished to buy it.

He answers, that it is done because Simon here wished to traffic in the grace of the new testament, at the time of grace revealed, and wished to buy a greater grace, and to strike a pact.

Therefore the Saintly Doctor observes in the places cited, and with him D. Thomas and the rest, that the spiritual is here distinguished threefold. First spiritual in essence, as are grace, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the supernatural virtues. Secondly spiritual causally, as are the Sacraments, instituted for causing grace. Similarly Ecclesiastical offices. Thirdly spiritual in effect, as are the acts of thanksgivings, of orders, and of the offices of the Church.

That which is ANNEXED to the spiritual is also twofold... it is annexed in three ways. First antecedently, as are sacred ornaments, vessels, temples, and any sacramentals whatsoever. Likewise the Right of patronage, presentations, elections, renunciations, collations, all of which are referred antecedently to Ecclesiastical benefices. Secondly accompanying, as is the labor itself to be undergone in the administration of sacred things, or of Ecclesiastical offices. Thirdly annexed consequently, as is the right of receiving the fruits, and revenues of the Church, on account of the spiritual ministry, and office.

By purchase, and sale the Theologians understand any contract whatsoever, not gratuitous, by which a spiritual thing is compensated with a price; whether that be a gift which is called of the hand, as money, which is received by hand; or a gift from service, as service, help, etc.; or a gift from the tongue, as human praise, or intercession for acquiring human favor, according to the can. Salvator, 1. quaest. 3. and D. Thomas art. 5. and D. Bonaventure in speculo, loco cit. Tanner. disp. 5. quaest. 8. dubio 2.

This sin is opposed to Religion, and mortal in kind.

It is proved by the Saintly Doctor first. Because to sell things of which we do not have dominion is injustice; but the Simoniac sells spiritual things, of which he has not dominion, but only administration, as it is said in 1 Cor. 4.: So let a man esteem us as the ministers of Christ, and the dispensers of the Mysteries of God. Therefore Matth. 10. commands: Freely have you received, freely give.

Next it is proved by the Saintly Doctor in 4. dub. cit. from 4. Reg. 5. and the Acts 8. where Simon and Giezi are condemned; and in the Council of Chalcedon cap. 2. and extra de Simonia, 1. quaest. 1. as S. Bonaventure notes in 4. dist. 25. quaest. 4.

It is proved thirdly by D. Bonaventure ibidem: Everyone who esteems the inestimable gift of God as to be possessed for money, sins gravely: but the Simoniac so esteems it: Therefore. It is the Argument of D. Peter Act. 8. and he adds, that this man often errs in faith, because he believes grace not to be grace.

Hence he argues. No greater perversion exists than to treat one contrary as if the other contrary, but the Simoniac treats the spiritual things of God as his own vendibles, and corporeal things: Therefore.

It is proved fourthly by the Saintly Doctor: As wisdom is attributed to the Son; So goodness to the Holy Spirit; but he who attributed folly to the Son would err gravely: Therefore also he who ascribes avarice to the Holy Spirit; but thus esteems the Simoniac, treating the Holy Spirit, who is the gift liberal of love from the origin, as if through avarice He should sell his gifts, as Blessed Peter said Act. 8. Therefore.

It is proved fifthly by the Saintly Doctor in the body, from Micheas 3. where the Lord gravely reproves this vice, saying: Her princes judged for gifts, and her priests taught for hire, and her Prophets divined for money. For this cause, for thy sake, Sion shall be plowed as a field.

It is placed in the genus of Sacrilege by Azorius lib. 9. c. 17. quaesito 8. and Tanner. dub. 2. although others distinguish it also from Sacrilege, Cajetanus q. 99. art. 1. Valencia quaest. 16. puncto 4. with D. Bonaventure loc. cit. of the Centiloquium.

It is, however, a single sin, as the Saintly Doctor says in the body, although infidelity can be joined with it, believing the gifts of God vendible, and that a temporal price suits the spiritual thing, which exceeds every price, and the price of the grace of God.

It is called by D. Bonaventure loc. cit. of the Mirror, an injustice against God, insofar as that which is above every temporal price is sold against the Divine will. In which he does not seem to place Simony as a proper Injustice; for these things always remain under the free dominion of God, and just as to squander the grace of God is not a special injustice, so also to sell it, as Tanner. noted num. 25. although Sotus lib. 9. de Iust. quaest. 5. art. 1. and Valencia loco cit. esteem it a special injustice.

He objects to himself first, for Saul, and Jeroboam wished to offer a price to the prophets for the gift of prophecy.

The Saintly Doctor answers, that he never read that those prophets received anything; but they offered ignorantly, as they were wont to offer even to soothsayers.

He objects secondly: The Apostle argues, 1 Corinth. 9.: If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it a great matter if we reap your carnal things?

The Saintly Doctor answers, that to give spiritual things, for the end of receiving temporal things, is Simony: Yet to give spiritual things, and to receive sustenance for labors in spiritual things, is not Simony; and as a Physician, or Advocate can receive a fee for his labor; So also the one celebrating Mass.

He objects thirdly. The kingdom of heaven, which is most spiritual, is bought.

It is answered that it is bought by acts of the virtues, but not by money.

He objects fourthly: He who gives temporal things, that he may receive spiritual things, esteems them more: this therefore is not disordered.

The Saintly Doctor answers, that it is disordered, while the inestimable is esteemed for money.

First. Simony is divided into three genera, Mental, Conventional, and Real: the Mental is that which is expressed by no outward sign, but is conceived by the mind alone, lest the deed follow; but if the exchange of a spiritual thing is made with a perverse mind, it is no longer purely mental.

The Conventional is that which is already expressed by words, or signs, but is not yet in fact commanded to execution, whether on neither side, or on one; either because one gives only a temporal thing, while the other only promises the spiritual; or conversely, because one gives the spiritual, the other promises the temporal, as Navarr. teaches cap. 23. num. 103. Valencia num. 5. Tanner. n. 28. Zuadius, Sotus de Iustitia lib. 9. quaest. 8. art. 1. and Cajetanus quaest. 100. art. 6. say, that in the latter sense it is a real Simony.

Real Simony is when that perverse will is expressed, and commanded to execution in fact.

Next it is divided by D. Bonaventure in 4. dist. 25. dub. 6. litt. and in other places cited, and other TT. into that which is prohibited by natural, and Divine law; and into that prohibited by merely positive human law, whether as the things are temporal, which are sometimes exchangeable, or as both sides are spiritual, as happens when benefices are illicitly exchanged, which nevertheless is not properly Simony.

Thirdly it is divided into the True, and the Presumptive in the external forum.

A contention can arise from a twofold head: whether it is Simony; first on the part of the object, while it is doubted whether it is a spiritual thing, and of this is the present question. Secondly on the part of the act, and of this there will be q. 3.

The first doubt: whether to sell the office or the labor of teaching Theology is Simony.

It is answered, with D. Bonaventure in 4 dist. 25 q. 4 ad 4, that to sell neither the office of teaching nor the labor of teaching Theology is Simoniacal. It is indicated by D. Thomas a. 3 ad 3; there follow Durandus in 4 dist. 25 q. 3, Richardus there, Cajetan q. 100 a. 3, Navarrus manu. cap. 23 n. 100, Soto lib. 9 de Iustitia q. 8 a. 1, Victoria relectio de simonia, Valencia q. 16 puncto 2, Suarez Tom. 1 de Religione lib. 3 c. 8 q. 8 dub. 2 n. 36, Fagundez de contractibus lib. 5 cap. 18. 23; although Altisiodorensis lib. 3 summa tract. 21 tit. de Simonia cap. 3, Alensis 2 part. q. 187 memb. 4 a. 3, and others in Sylvester V. Doctor q. 11 simply deny that it is lawful to teach all that science for a price.

Which they assert at least of Theology, as do Paludanus 4 dist. 25 q. 5 and Innocent in the cap. Quia nonnulli de magistris.

You will say. Theological doctrine is a gift of God, Eph. 4: he gave some Doctors.

It is answered, that the science which is ordinarily acquired can be taught; for this is what is properly taught. But something else must be said of the doctrine of faith, of which it is said Matth. 10: Freely you have received, freely give. Similarly in the cap. Prohibeas it is forbidden to Bishops to receive anything for the license given to masters to teach even Grammar, as others say; but rather I maintain the opposite with Fagundez n. 16 and others, since the matter is of the same reason as teaching: Indeed even to teach for a price, says Suarez n. 11, provided only a worthy amount is received.

It is doubted secondly: whether something of those things which are annexed antecedently to spiritual things can be sold without Simony.

It is answered, that those things which are estimable by price, abstracting from the consecration or order which they have toward a spiritual thing, can be sold, such as images, ornaments, sacred vessels, which are only patens and chalices, as Fagundez n. 21 says, which if sold to profane persons ought to be broken up; otherwise if to ecclesiastics for sacred uses. Thus from the common opinion: Durandus 4 dist. 25 q. 3, Sylvester V. Simonia q. 12, Soto lib. 9 de Iustitia q. 7 a. 2 ad 2, Navarrus manu. cap. 23 n. 108, Valencia q. 16 puncto 2, Sà, Tannerus disp. 5 q. 8 dub. 2 n. 44. Yet Fagundez de contractibus lib. 5 cap. 19 n. 19 says that to sell sacred vessels, even as material, to another church without necessity is sacrilege, yet not simony, because they are not sold as sacred.

From what has been related some things are excepted, such as the sale of the office of any administrator of a church, such as the steward, advocate, or sacristan, cap. Saluator 1 q. 3, as Valencia puncto 2 and 5 and Tannerus 46 note.

The rest of this kind, however, are not sellable, such as the Ius patronatus, as D. Bonaventure dub. 5 dist. 25 says, such as the right of presenting, etc.; Agnus Dei, relics; yet a price can be taken for the transport.

As to Agnus Dei, it is forbidden, even by reason of the material alone, by Gregory XIII under excommunication incurred ipso facto, to paint and sell them, and to keep them painted. But Filliucius tract. 14 cap. 6 says that outside the City this is not accepted: Indeed even white Agnus Dei by reason of the labor, etc., are lawful, say many in Diana part. 3 tract. 6 resol. 12. Caramuel subscribes lib. 2 n. 867, nor does Bassaeus refuse it, 3 n. 4.