Simony

Background

The term simony comes from the account in Acts 8. In Samaria, Simon the sorcerer saw people receive the Holy Spirit when Peter and John performed the laying on of hands (placing hands on a person's head in prayer). He then offered them money and asked that he, too, be given this power. Peter rebuked him: "Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money" (Acts 8:20). Because of this episode, the church has named after Simon the practice of buying and selling what God gives freely.

Development

The Early Church

Once the church received legal recognition within the Roman Empire and came to possess property and influence, some people sought to obtain positions such as the office of bishop with money. In 451 the Council of Chalcedon adopted a canon forbidding the conferral of holy orders in exchange for money.

The Middle Ages

In medieval Western Europe, bishoprics and abbacies carried extensive landholdings and revenues. Emperors and lords therefore commonly received payment when appointing men to these positions. Eleventh-century church reformers regarded this practice as the heart of corruption in the church. Pope Leo IX (reigned 1049–1054) condemned simony at a number of church councils. In the 1070s Pope Gregory VII challenged the right of secular rulers to appoint clergy, and the dispute escalated into the Investiture Controversy between emperor and pope. The conflict was largely settled by the Concordat of Worms in 1122. In the early fourteenth century, Dante depicted the punishment of simoniacs in the Inferno of his Divine Comedy.

The Reformation Era

In the early sixteenth century, the papal curia raised revenue through various fees connected with ecclesiastical appointments and through the sale of indulgences. Albrecht, Archbishop of Mainz, reportedly borrowed from bankers the sums required to hold several dioceses at once and intended to repay the debt with a share of the proceeds from indulgence sales. In 1517 Martin Luther's Ninety-five Theses directly attacked these indulgence sales, sparking the Reformation.

Consequences and Influence

Opposition to simony repeatedly gave rise to movements for church reform. In the Middle Ages it contributed to the papacy's independence from secular power, and in the sixteenth century it was one of the immediate factors behind the emergence of Protestantism as a separate tradition. The Catholic Church also adopted reform decrees on ecclesiastical appointments and church finances at the Council of Trent (1545–1563). The Catholic Church's current canon law classifies simony as a punishable offense.

Assessment

Christian traditions broadly share the principle that church office and grace cannot be bought with money. Nevertheless, what counts as simony has continued to be debated, depending on the period and the circumstances of the church.

In Korean Protestantism, critics have described the following practices as "modern-day simony":

• Ordination offerings customarily expected at the ordination services of elders, kwonsa (female lay leaders), and others
• The sale of churches at prices set according to the size of the congregation
• Money or gifts exchanged during the pastoral call process
• Allegations of vote buying in elections for denominational General Assembly moderators and bishops

Critics argue that such practices effectively turn church office into something exchanged for money. Churches that retain ordination offerings, by contrast, explain that these are voluntary expressions of gratitude for receiving an office, not payments made in exchange for it. The issue is frequently discussed in debates over reform of the Korean church, together with hereditary succession of churches and transparency in church finances.