SIMONY, an offence, defined below, against the law of the church. The name is taken from Simon Magus (q.v.). In the canon law the word bears a more extended meaning than in English law. "Simony according to the canonists," says Ayliffe in his Parergon, "is defined to be a deliberate act or a premedi tated 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." In the Corpus juris canonici the Decretum (pt. ii. cause i. quest. 3) and the Decretals (bk. v. tit. 3) deal with the subject. The offender whether simoniacus (one who had bought his orders) or simoniace promotus (one who had bought his promotion), was liable to deprivation of his benefice and deposition from orders if a secular priest,—to confinement in a stricter monastery if a regular. No distinction seems to have been drawn between the sale of an immediate and of a reversionary interest. The innocent simoniace promotus was, apart from dispensation, liable to the same pen alties as though he were guilty. Certain matters were simoniacal by the canon law which would not be so regarded in English law, e.g., the sale of tithes, the taking of a fee for confession, absolu tion, marriage or burial, the concealment of one in mortal sin or the reconcilement of an impenitent for the sake of gain, and the doing homage for spiritualities. So grave was the crime of simony considered that even infamous persons could accuse of it. English provincial and legatine constitutions continually as sailed simony.
For the purposes of English law simony is defined by Black stone as the corrupt presentation of any person to an ecclesiastical benefice for money, gift or reward. The offence is one of purely ecclesiastical cognizance, and not punishable by the criminal law. The penalty is forfeiture by the offender of any advantage from the simoniacal transaction, of his patronage by the patron, of his benefice by the presentee; and now by the Benefices Act 1892, a person guilty of simony is guilty of an offence for which he may be proceeded against under the Clergy Discipline Act 1892. An innocent clerk is under no disability, as he might be by the canon law. Simony may be committed in three ways—in promotion to orders, in presentation to a benefice, and in resignation of a benefice. The common law (with which the canon law is incor porated, as far as it is not contrary to the common or statute law or the prerogative of the Crown) has been considerably modified by statute. Where no statute applies to the case, the doctrines of the canon law may still be of authority. Both Edward VI. and Elizabeth promulgated statutes against simony.
The general result of the law before the Benefices Act 1898, as gathered from statutes and decisions, may be stated as follows: (I) it was not simony for a layman or spiritual person not pur chasing for himself to purchase, while the church was full, an advowson or next presentation, however immediate the prospect of a vacancy; (2) it was not simony for a spiritual person to pur chase for himself a life or any greater estate in an advowson, and to present himself thereto; (3) it was not simony to exchange benefices under an agreement that no payment was to be made for dilapidations on either side; (4) it was not simony to make certain assignments of patronage under the Church Building and New Parishes Acts; (5) it was simony for any person to pur chase the next presentation while the church was vacant; (6) it was simony for a spiritual person to purchase for himself the next presentation, though the church be full; (7) it was simony for any person to purchase the next presentation, or in the case of purchase of an advowson the next presentation by the pur chaser would be simoniacal if there was any arrangement for causing a vacancy to be made; (8) it was simony for the pur chaser of an advowson while the church was vacant to present on the next presentation; (9) it was simony to exchange other wise than simpliciter; no compensation in money might be made to the person receiving the less valuable benefice. The law on
the subject of simony was long regarded as unsatisfactory by the authorities of the church. In 1879 a royal commission re ported on the law and existing practice as to the sale, exchange and resignation of benefices. Many endeavours were made in parliament to give effect to the recommendations of the com mission, but it was not until 1898 that any important change was made in the law. The Benefices Act of that year absolutely in validated any transfer of a right of patronage unless (a) it is registered in the diocesan registry, (b) unless more than 12 months have elapsed since the last institution or admission to the benefice, and (c) unless "it transfers the whole interest of the transferor in the right" with certain reservations; in other words, the Act abolished the sale of next presentations, but it expressly reserved from its operation (a) a transmission on marriage, death or bankruptcy or otherwise by operation of law, or (b) a transfer on the appointment of a new trustee where no beneficial interest passes. It also substituted another form of declaration for that required under the Clerical Subscription Act 1865, and this form has been again amended by the measure of 1923 (infra). It abolished the sale by auction of an advowson in gross, and em powered a bishop to refuse to institute or admit a presentee to a benefice on a number of specified grounds : among others, on the ground of possible corrupt presentation through a year not having elapsed since the last transfer of the right of patronage, and constituted a new court to hear appeals against a bishop's refusal to institute. This court consists of a judge of the Su preme Court, who shall decide all questions of law and of fact, and of the archbishop, who gives judgment. The Benefices Act 1892 has now been amended in many details by the Benefices Act 1898 Amendment Measure 1923 and the Benefices Rules 1926.
In Scotland simony is an offence both by civil and ecclesiastical law. The rules are generally those of the canon law. There are few decisions of Scottish courts on the subject. By the Act of 1584, c. 5, ministers, readers and others guilty of simony pro vided to benefices were to be deprived. An Act of Assembly of 1753 declares pactions simoniacal whereby a minister or proba tioner before presentation and as a means of obtaining it bargains not to raise a process of augmentation of stipend or demand reparation or enlargement of his manse or glebe after induction.
In the United States, there is no recognition of simony in the courts.