simony
Sign in to saveSimony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he would place his hands. The term extends to other forms of trafficking for money in "spiritual things".
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Simony is the practice of buying or selling church positions and sacred things for money, named after Simon Magus in the Bible who tried to pay for spiritual powers. The term matters because it describes a corruption of religious authority—treating spiritual roles and blessings as commodities to be traded rather than as gifts or responsibilities to be earned through faith and merit.
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10 sectionsContents
- Origin
- In the Middle Ages
- In literature
- In the Catholic Church
- Church of England
- See also
- Citations
- General and cited references
- Further reading
- External links
Simony () is the act of selling church offices and roles or sacred things. It is named after Simon Magus, who is described in the Acts of the Apostles as having offered two disciples of Jesus payment in exchange for their empowering him to impart the power of the Holy Spirit to anyone on whom he would place his hands. The term extends to other forms of trafficking for money in "spiritual things".
==Origin== The earliest church legislation against simony may be that of the forty-eighth canon of the Synod of Elvira (), against the practice of making a donation following a baptism.