SIMONY, is the corrupt presentation of any one to an ecclesiastical benefice, for money, gift, reward, or benefit. It was not an offence punishable criminally at the common law, it being thought suf ficient to leave the clerk to ecclesiastical censures. But as these did not affect the simoniacal patron, none were .etfica cious enough to repel notorious prac tice of the thing. Several acts of parlia ment have, therefore, been made to re strain it, means Of civil forfeitures, which the modern prevailing usage with regard to spiritual preferments call aloud to put in execution.
By one of the canons of 1603, every person, before his admission to any ec clesiastical promotion, shall, before the ordinary, take an oath, that be bath made no simoniacal contract, promise, or pay ment, directly or indirectly, by himself or any other, for the obtaining of the said promotion; and that he will not afterwards perform or satisfy any such kind of payment, contract, or promise, by any other, without his knowledge or consent.
To purchase a presentation, the living being actually vacant, is open and no torious simony ; this being expressly in the face of the statute. But the sale of an ad vowson during a vacancy is not with.
in the statute of simony, as the sale of the next presentation is ; but it is void by the common law.
A bond of resignation is a bond given by the person intended to be presented to a benefice, with condition to resign the same ; and is special or general. The condition of a special one is, to resign the benefice in favour of some certain person, as a son, kinsman, or friend of the patron, when he shall be capable of taking the same. By a general bond, the incumbent is bound to resign on the request of the patron. A bond, with con dition to resign within three months after being requested, to the intent that the patron might present his son when he should be capable, was held good ; and the judgment was affirmed in the ex chequer chamber: for that a mail may, without any colour of simony, bind him self for good reasons ; as, if he take a se cond benefice, or if he be non-resident, or that the patron present his son, to re sign ; but if the condition had been to let the patron have a lease of the glebe or tithes, or to pay a sum of money, it had been simoniacal.