# Simony



## Scott (Oct 11, 2005)

Anyone have any recommendations for online resources regarding the history of the buying and selling of church offices, or of how church offices were inherited at certain points in history?


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 12, 2005)

Simony (ie., ecclesiastical corruption for financial gain) was such a widespread problem for the Roman Catholic Church for centuries before the Council of Trent that any treatment of the Reformation that covers the abuses of Tetzel and the like will give examples of simony. John Calvin (_The Necessity of Reforming the Church_ and the _Institutes_ -- see his famous quotes from the _Institutes_: "I maintain that, in the Papacy in the present day, scarcely one benefice in a hundred is conferred without simony, as the ancients have defined it (Calv. in Art. 8:21)."), Dante Alighieri (_Divine Comedy_, and Blaise Pascal (_Provincial Letters_) are some notables who have written against simony in their day. (Calvin himself received a benefice at age 12.) Pope Gregory VI deposed himself for the sin of simony, and canon law was later instituted (law of Julius II, 1503) to prevent the election of simonist popes.


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## New wine skin (Oct 12, 2005)

Wycliffe writes on the topic, see "Adovcates of Reform" in Library of Christian Classics. For online: Do a search on google w "Wycliffe" & "Simony" to locate online material.


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## VirginiaHuguenot (Oct 12, 2005)

Papalism and Simony


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## C. Matthew McMahon (Oct 12, 2005)

Schaff's Church History has quite a bit - but you need either the set, or the Ages Software search function.


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