Simony Condemned

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“1. Following the examples of the holy fathers and renewing them as we are bound by our office, by the authority of the apostolic see we altogether forbid anyone to be ordained or promoted in the church of God for money. If anyone indeed should have been ordained or promoted in the church in such a fashion, let him be utterly deprived of the office acquired. ”-**First Lateran Council
**

“63. On simony
As we have certainly learnt, shameful and wicked exactions and extortions are levied in many places and by many persons, who are like the sellers of doves in the temple, for the consecration of bishops, the blessing of abbots and the ordination of clerics. There is fixed how much is to be paid for this or that and for yet another thing. Some even strive to defend this disgrace and wickedness on the grounds of long-established custom, thereby heaping up for themselves still further damnation. Wishing therefore to abolish so great an abuse, we altogether reject such a custom which should rather be termed a corruption. We firmly decree that nobody shall dare to demand or extort anything under any pretext for the conferring of such things or for their having been conferred. Otherwise both he who receives and he who gives such an absolutely condemned payment shall be condemned with Gehazi and Simon.

1. Simony with regards to monks and nuns
   The disease of simony has infected many nuns to such an extent that they admit scarcely any as sisters without a payment, wishing to cover this vice with the pretext of poverty. We utterly forbid this to happen in the future. We decree that whoever commits such wickedness in the future, both the one admitting and the one admitted, whether she be a subject or in authority, shall be expelled from her convent without hope of reinstatement, and be cast into a house of stricter observance to do perpetual penance. As regards those who were admitted in this way before this synodal statute, we have decided to provide that they be moved from the convents which they wrongly entered, and be placed in other houses of the same order. If perchance they are too numerous to be conveniently placed elsewhere, they may be admitted afresh to the same convent, by dispensation, after the prioress and lesser officials have been changed, lest they roam around in the world to the danger of their souls. We order the same to be observed with regard to monks and other religious. Indeed, lest such persons be able to excuse themselves on the grounds of simplicity or ignorance, we order diocesan bishops to have this decree published throughout their dioceses every year.
2. Simony and extortion
   We have heard that certain bishops, on the death of rectors of churches, put these churches under an interdict and do not allow anyone to be instituted to them until they have been paid a certain sum of money. Moreover, when a knight or a cleric enters a religious house or chooses to be buried with religious, the bishops raise difficulties and obstacles until they receive something in the way of a present, even when the person has left nothing to the religious house. Since we should abstain not only from evil itself but also from every appearance of evil, as the Apostle says, we altogether forbid exactions of this kind. Any offender shall restore double the amount exacted, and this is to be faithfully used for the benefit of the places harmed by the exactions.
3. Simony and avarice in clerics
   It has frequently been reported to the apostolic see that certain clerics demand and extort payments for funeral rites for the dead, the blessing of those marrying, and the like; and if it happens that their greed is not satisfied, they deceitfully set up false impediments. On the other hand some lay people, stirred by a ferment of heretical wickedness, strive to infringe a praiseworthy custom of holy church, introduced by the pious devotion of the faithful, under the pretext of canonical scruples. We therefore both forbid wicked exactions to be made in these matters and order pious customs to be observed, ordaining that the church’s sacraments are to be given freely but also that those who maliciously try to change a praiseworthy custom are to be restrained, when the truth is known, by the bishop of the place. “- **Fourth Lateran Council
   **

 

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“If the election is made in another way and of a different kind of person than the above or by the wickedness of simony, the election shall be invalid and null by law. Those electing simoniacally shall be automatically subject to perpetual deprivation of the right of electing, besides other penalties. Others shall be subject to canonical penalties. Those elected simoniacally and those who take part in such a simoniacal election, as well as the electors and those confirmed shall automatically incur the penalty of excommunication in horror of so great a crime. Moreover, those so elected and confirmed cannot be absolved from such guilt and excommunication unless they freely resign the churches and dignities which they had disgracefully obtained, and they are rendered perpetually disqualified from acquiring them again. In order to remove every root of ambition this holy synod implores through the tender mercy of Jesus Christ and most earnestly exhorts kings and princes, communities and others of whatever rank or dignity, ecclesiastical or secular, not to write letters to electors or to provide petitions for someone who will get such petitions or letters for himself or for another, and much less to resort to threats or pressure or anything else whereby the process of election would be rendered less free. Similarly, in virtue of holy obedience, it is enjoined on electors not to elect anyone on the strength of such letters, petitions, threats or pressure.”-Council of Basel Session 12 paragraph 3

 

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“If any bishop performs an ordination for money and puts the unsaleable grace on sale, and ordains for money a bishop, a chorepiscopus, a presbyter or a deacon or some other of those numbered among the clergy; or appoints a manager, a legal officer or a warden for money, or any other ecclesiastic at all for personal sordid gain; led him who has attempted this and been convicted stand to lose his personal rank; and let the person ordained profit nothing from the ordination or appointment he has bought; but let him be removed from the dignity or responsibility which he got for money. And if anyone appears to have acted even as a go-between in such disgraceful and unlawful dealings, let him too, if he is a cleric, be demoted from his personal rank, and if he is a lay person or a monk, let him be anathematized”-Council of Chalcedon

 

[zab]

Are you getting married?

 

[otjm]

 

[thistle]

“If any bishop performs an ordination for money and puts the unsaleable grace on sale, and ordains for money a bishop, a chorepiscopus, a presbyter or a deacon or some other of those numbered among the clergy; or appoints a manager, a legal officer or a warden for money, or any other ecclesiastic at all for personal sordid gain; led him who has attempted this and been convicted stand to lose his personal rank; and let the person ordained profit nothing from the ordination or appointment he has bought; but let him be removed from the dignity or responsibility which he got for money. And if anyone appears to have acted even as a go-between in such disgraceful and unlawful dealings, let him too, if he is a cleric, be demoted from his personal rank, and if he is a lay person or a monk, let him be anathematized”-Council of Chalcedon

Do you actually have a question?

 

[Genesis315]

Nowadays we have a hard enough time recruiting clergy that it can be difficult to understand the Church’s past preoccupation with people trying to pay to become clergy–but it was a very big problem that tested the faith of a lot of believers.

We have different problems today that can test our faith, but we can still learn from those times in analogous ways. For example, here is an excerpt from a letter from St. Peter Damian during a period of rampant simony all the way to the top. I think its lessons are applicable to some temptations Catholics can face today, especially the most devout and rigorous (note, when he says “gratis” he means an ordination where simony was not involved).
St. Peter Damian:

For yourself consider sin to be mortally dangerous, but in others see it as a sign of their weakness. Decide that where someone else deserves to be beaten with switches, you ought to be lashed with a bullwhip. Do not be holier than the holy, and as yourself fear committing sin, do not hesitate to show pardon to sinners. That form of justice is improper that drags other down into the pit of despair. A medicine is hardly acceptable if, while it retards the infected part, at the same time it causes damage to the tissue that is healthy. A fire is harmful if it is used to burn brush, so that its fury also spreads to cause houses to go up in flames. It is only too true that he who customarily takes pleasure in reviling the failings of others will not avoid sinning himself, since even if he is zealous in practicing justice, at some times he will have to fall into the snares of slander. Obviously, if our lives did not seem to us so splendid, another’s way of life would not appear to our way of thinking so displeasing.

If we were strict with ourselves, as we should be, another’s sin would not find us such severe faultfinders; that is, our vigorous discipline would not encompass others, while at the same time we apply only the rules of love and mildness to our own excesses.

But where does this all lead? You are said to render such a severe and haughty verdict on your brothers, that only once during a whole year did you receive the sacraments, and that not from priests of your own monastery, but from those you sought elsewhere. I will tell you what you said: “Who ordained this priest?” And someone answered, “This bishop.” “And this bishop,” you said, “who promoted him to the episcopal office, and in what manner?” “It was the pope who did so.” But as to how fit they were, you then added, “Granted that the pope consecrated him a bishop gratis, did the pope himself come gratis to the apostolic throne?”

Therefore so far as you were able, you confound the whole world with the pernicious darkness of your endless questions, and like the sea that begets its storms from you, you never rest and will not let others live in peace. From this and similar indecision heresies and schisms often emerge, cutting off people who are uncertain from Catholic unity.

But to address you in words the Apostle used, “Who are you to pass judgment on someone else’s servant? Whether he stands or falls is his own master’s business; and stand he will, because God has power to enable him to stand.” In the palace of justice, all do not share the highest power in handing down decisions, nor does everyone in the Church receive the keys of the Church. When someone is proudly determined to judge others, he is found to be less keen in considering his own situation. For the order of social life is then properly arranged when each one is satisfied within the bounds of his own rights. But where one oversteps the boundaries of another, then indeed every norm for right living is necessarily confused. It should suffice for us to be occupied with our own problems, lest by excessive concern for the affairs of others we lose the fruit of our own work and its just reward.