simony
/ˈsʌɪməni
/ /ˈsɪməni/noun [mass noun] chiefly historical
The buying or selling of ecclesiastical privileges, for example pardons or benefices.He also outlawed simony, the practice of buying and selling church posts....
- To manipulate religious conviction into a political commodity is a contemporary form of simony.
- Selling something that belonged to God constituted the sin of simony.
Derivatives
simoniac
- Archbishop Laud and his allies, by deciding such arrangements in the Church were simoniac, needlessly disturbed the retirement of elderly clergymen.
- Dante sees there barrators, sowers of discord, counterfeiters, misusers of public funds, and simoniac popes.
- The validity of priestly ordinations administered by simoniac bishops proved a serious problem, because most theologians held that simony prostituted the sacrament of ordination.
simoniacal
- At the same time he sought to check the simoniacal practices of the apostolic chamber, and in connection with this to introduce a simpler and more economical manner of life into his court.
- We had, to some extent, diminished the simoniacal and infamous trade in masses; but unfortunately we had not destroyed it; and I know that today it has revived.
- He re-ordained many men who had been ordained by simoniacal bishops.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French simonie, from late Latin simonia, from Simon Magus (Acts 8:18).