Introduction

“There is hardly one sin in the world, whose nature is less known, and whose heinousness is less considered, than the sin of simony.”¹Review of The Anatomy of Simon Magus, 502. These words began the review of a work of retrieval similar to our own, and they are truer now than they were when they were penned over three and a quarter centuries ago. Simony once resided among the most discussed sins in the Christian tradition. It featured prominently in canonical legislation from the patristic period through the Middle Ages, received ample treatment from nearly every major scholastic theologian, and entered the confessional standards of the Reformation. Yet today, it is virtually forgotten. Most Christians have never heard the word, and those who have tend to regard it as a relic of medieval corruption with no bearing on the modern church.

In the face of such ignorance, we must begin our study as have those before us, with the assumption that simony exists. Scripturally, this approach is warranted: though some may regard the transgression of Simon Magus (Acts 8:9–24), from whom the sin takes its name, as impossible to reproduce after the era of the apostles, biblical narrative is given as an example to instruct disciples against temptations that continue to ensnare men in every age (1 Cor. 10:6; 2 Tim. 3:16). Methodologically, this approach is necessary: the serious study of any topic presupposes a real object.²“On account of the contagion of this disease, the Church must guard against it all the more warily. In treating simony, then, one must first presuppose that it exists.” Wycliffe, Tractatus de Simonia, cap. 1 (2:1–4). However, our starting assumption is not an axiom; we will demonstrate both the existence and prevalence of simony in due course, once we have sufficiently mapped out its boundaries.³Adopting the same strategy, the Puritan Henry Burton conceded that he “may seem to usurp the mathematician’s privilege, in begging a suppositum, that such a thing there is, as simony.” Burton, A Censure of Simonie, 1.

Simony is an earnest desire to buy or sell something spiritual or something annexed to a spiritual thing.⁴Lat.: “studiosa voluntas emendi et vendendi aliquid spirituale vel spirituali annexum.” This precise formulation comes from Thomas Aquinas,⁵Aquinas, Summa Theologiae, II-II, q. 100, a. 1. though all its constituent parts had been well established by his time.⁶For example, see Raymond of Peñafort, Summa de Poenitentia, Lib. I, tit. I, §. I (p. 2); Albert the Great, Commentarii in IV Sententiarum, IV, d. 25, a. 2 (p. 88a). Later schoolmen typically adopted it without modification. Even John Wycliffe, who quibbled with multiple features of the phrasing, ultimately appealed to it along with the approval of “Saint Thomas,”⁷Wycliffe, Tractatus de Simonia, cap. 2 (14:13–15, 23–27). Translating Wycliffe’s treatise, Terrence A. McVeigh reported that “Throughout the second chapter Wyclif seems to have Aquinas’ exposition of the subject before him.” Wycliffe, On Simony, 61n1. and Post-Reformation English treatises rendered it directly.⁸E.g., “Simony is an earnest desire of buying or selling any spiritual thing, or that which is annexed to that which is spiritual.” Burton, A Censure of Simonie, 2. We will therefore proceed with this received definition.

The present work is an exercise in historical theology, which is to be distinguished from theological history. Several histories from the past century address the practice of simony,⁹The fullest narrative history remains Weber, A History of Simony in the Christian Church, though it reaches only to Charlemagne and treats the practice rather than the doctrine. but consideration of its attendant theology is typically incidental, and dedicated monographs exploring the doctrine of simony from a historical perspective are virtually nonexistent. A number of short articles summarize the doctrine, and some larger works explore narrow aspects of it, but none brings the matter together into a unified account.¹⁰The literature divides among studies of particular periods, e.g., Meier-Welcker, Die Simonie im frühen Mittelalter; canonistic analyses, e.g., Leinz, Die Simonie; and discrete questions—e.g., the term simoniaca haeresis (Leclercq, Simoniaca heresis; Rosé, Simon le Magicien hérésiarque?), the validity of simoniacal orders (Gilchrist, `Simoniaca haeresis'; West, The Simony Crisis), and simoniacal entry into religious life (Lynch, Simoniacal Entry). Accordingly, we intend to supply what is lacking and present a historical theology of simony that is comprehensive in scope without pretending to be exhaustive in detail.

Though our method is historical, it will not be neutral, as we will proceed from decidedly Reformed convictions. This is necessary since true neutrality is impossible, but more importantly, commitment to a governing perspective is prerequisite for such a work to bear any real fruit. Retrieval should be conducted for the benefit of the church rather than for its own sake, and this requires a framework both sound enough to support an honest reading of the history and amenable to a people eager to take up what is recovered under its guidance. The Reformed tradition furnishes just that. This commitment will inform which sources we consider and in what measure. It will likewise shape our conclusions and subsequent analysis.

Our inquiry is divided into six parts. Part I addresses historical considerations, both the history of the doctrine of simony and our approach to historical theology and retrieval. Part II expounds the definition of simony, clause by clause: something spiritual, something annexed to a spiritual thing, to buy or sell, and earnest desire. Part III turns to ministerial maintenance, setting the boundaries of licit exchanges in the gift, giving, and receiving. Part IV gathers and presents the biblical passages that earlier generations most frequently adduced to establish and reinforce the doctrine. Part V considers the censure of simony, both the nature of the sin in general and its ancient classification as a species of heresy. Part VI offers several focused analyses of the historical doctrine in light of present circumstances.

While the doctrine of simony may not be widely known or understood today, there is no reason it could not be otherwise. Moreover, we have every reason to suspect that its retrieval would bring substantial blessing. The Protestant Reformation itself began in a dispute over the sale of spiritual things. What new reformation awaits the church if she learns again to discern this sin in its present forms?