- published: 13 Apr 2015
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Simony (pron. [ˈsaɪ.mə.niː] or [ˈsɪ.mə.niː]) is the act of paying for sacraments and consequently for holy offices or for positions in the hierarchy of a church, named after Simon Magus, who appears in the Acts of the Apostles 8:9-24. Simon Magus offers the disciples of Jesus, Peter and John, payment so that anyone on whom he would place his hands would receive the power of the Holy Spirit. This is the origin of the term simony; but it also extends to other forms of trafficking for money in "spiritual things". Simony was also one of the important issues during the Investiture Controversy.
Simony is an offence against the law of the church. In the canon law the word bears a more extended meaning than in English law. Simony according to the canonists, says John Ayliffe in his Parergon,
is defined to be a deliberate act or a premeditated will and desire of selling such things as are spiritual, or of anything annexed unto spirituals, by giving something of a temporal nature for the purchase thereof; or in other terms it is defined to be a commutation of a thing spiritual or annexed unto spirituals by giving something that is temporal.