I E) RAFLY 
 OF THE 
 U N IVLRSITY 
 or ILLINOIS
 
 urn
 
 ^^ ^ 
 
 On the Sale of Ch^trch Patronage, 
 and Simoiiy. 
 
 A PASTORAL 
 
 BY 
 
 CHR. WORDSWORTH, D.D., 
 
 BISHOP OF LmcoLisr. 
 
 SECOND EDITION. 
 
 1874. 
 
 LINCOLN : 
 
 PRINTED BY JAMES WILLIAMSON, HIGH STREET. 
 
 LONDON: RIVINGTONS. 
 
 Price Threepence.
 
 On the Sale of Church Patronage, and Simony. 
 
 TO THE CLERGY AND LAITY OF THE DIOCESE OF LmCOLN. 
 
 Bkethren of the Clergy and Laity, — 
 
 N"o ONE, who considers the signs of the times, and is acquainted 
 with the circumstances of the case, can fail to foresee that a severe 
 trial is at hand, — perhaps a violent struggle, — with regard to 
 Church Patronage. 
 
 Purchase has been recently abolished in the Army, at a great 
 national sacrifice ; and the question is now freely asked, — If 
 promotion in the Army is to depend solely on merit, ought advance- 
 ment in the Church to be saleable for money % Is the salvation of 
 men's souls of less importance than the protection of their bodies % 
 Are faithful and valiant Soldiers more needed for warfare against 
 foreign foes than against spiritual enemies % Are national conquests 
 more glorious than moral victories % and is it more noble to enlarge 
 the territory of England than to advance the Kingdom of Christ % 
 
 The Ecclesiastical history of another part of Great Britain in the 
 present century is fraught with instruction to ourselves. 
 
 Purchase of Ecclesiastical preferments is unknown in the Free 
 Church of Scotland, — and in the Established Kirk the purchase of 
 next presentations is illegal. Why, — it may be said, — is it allowed 
 and encouraged in England"? Are the spiritual interests of the 
 Parishes on this side the Tweed less entitled to the protection of 
 Law than those who dwell on the north of the border % If Church 
 Patronage is to be a marketable commodity in the former case, 
 why not in the latter % 
 
 But this is not all, Scotland also teaches us tins lesson. If we 
 neglect to adopt measures for a salutary reform in Church Patronage, 
 we may have cause ere long to rue a revolution with regard to it. 
 
 In the spring of 1834 the "Veto Law" was passed by the 
 Genera] Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland. This Law was framed 
 for the protection of Parishes against the intrusion of unworthy
 
 Ministers by Patrons. In the autumn of the same year, the 
 celebrated Auchterarder case occurred. Lord Kinnoull, as Patron 
 of it, nominated and presented Mr. Eobert Young to the Cure. 
 The " call " to it was sustained by only three names in a Parish of 
 3,000 souls. And among 330 persons entitled to vote, there were 
 287 dissentients, who objected to the settlement of the nominee. 
 An appeal was made to the Presbytery ; and from the Presbytery 
 to the Synod of Perth and Stirling ; and thence to the General 
 Assembly; and on the 30th May, 1835, the proceedings of the 
 Presbytery, disallowing the call, and sustaining the dissentients, were 
 confirmed. 
 
 "But the question was not allowed to rest there. It was carried 
 into the civil Courts ; and after long debates, a majority of the 
 Judges of the Court of Session decided on March 10th, 1838, that 
 the Presbytery of Auchterarder " had acted illegally in refusing to 
 take trial of Mr. Young, and in rejecting him on the ground that a 
 majority of the male heads of families, communicants in the said 
 Parish, have dissented, withovt any reasons assigned, from his admis- 
 sion as Minister."" 
 
 An appeal was made to the House of Lords 18th March, 1839, 
 and on the 2nd May, Lord Brougham and Lord Cottenham delivered 
 their judgments to the effect that the presentee was not rightly 
 rejected by the Presbytery. 
 
 Perhaps the wisest thing that was said in the course of the 
 protracted discussion of that grave question, was dictated by tlie 
 Duke of Wellington in a letter to Lord Aberdeen in 1840.t 
 
 " What I would recommend (his Grace said) to the Kirk to 
 consider is, that their utility as an Establishment depends in a 
 great measure upon their intimate connexion with the State. They 
 cannot be an Establishment without such a union, everij care being 
 taken to preserve their exclusive spiritual iMicer, and to secure it to 
 them. But in the exercise of this exclusive power, particularly of 
 
 * See Vol. 1 , p. 446 of IDr. Buchanan's Ten Years' Conflict, being the history of the 
 disruption of the Church of Scotland. Glasgow, 184!) ; and the interesting record of these 
 eveuts in the recently published Memoirs of Dr. Guihrie (1874). 
 
 t Earl of Aberdeen's Correspondence, p. 26. 
 
 ,U(UC 

 
 those branches thereof which have relation with the municipal 
 power of the State, it is very desirable, and not inconsistent with 
 former practice, that the Kirk should state dearly the rule whicli it 
 is proposed to adopt, that that rule should he made the subject of an 
 Act of Parliament, a7id shoidd regulcde cdl such qiiestions for the 
 future." 
 
 If this judicious advice had been followed with regard to 
 Patronage, the unhappy disruption, which has now taken place in 
 Scotland, and which is disastrous to religion and polity, might have 
 been averted. The Patrons might have been maintained in theii 
 equitable rights ; the sj)iritual welfare of the People would have 
 been promoted, and the reasonable liberty of the Kirk would 
 have been preserved. 
 
 But these wise counsels were disregarded. 
 
 In the year 1843, in consequence of this dispute concerning 
 Patronage, the Kirk was rent assunder. The Schism has now be- 
 come inveterate. The People have triumphed over the Patrons : 
 but, whether the victory has proved a boon to themselves, and 
 whether liberty has not often degenerated into licentiousness, may 
 admit of a doubt. This, however, is certain, — that the exercise of 
 Patronage, having been abused, is now paralysed, and is in danger 
 of being extinguished, even in the Establishment itself.* 
 
 Here is a warning for England. Let the counsel of the Duke 
 of Wellington not be forgotten. Let the Church declare her laws 
 concerning Patronage, and against Simony, as set forth in Holy 
 Scripture, and in the judgment and practice of the best ages of 
 Christianity, and by our own divines at the Eeformation. And let 
 the State give effect to those laws of the Church. In this, as in 
 other matters, the surest and speediest way to arrest Eevolution is 
 by seasonable and salutary Eeformation. f 
 
 * See " The Statement in the Law of Church Patronage bj^ a Committee of the General 
 Assembly of the Church of Scotland (pp. 28, 30) where is a petition to Parliament (adopted on 
 May '28.186!)) tor tVie Abolition of Patronage ; and (p. 30) a motion was adopted on May 'iS, 
 1871, for the introduction of " a Bill into Parliament for the Abolition of Patronage'' 
 
 t It is satisfactory to know that measures have already been adopted in this direction ; 
 in the Repoi-t of the Committee of Convocation (on the Law of Patronage) presented in the 
 Upper House by the present Bishop of London in Feb. 17th, 18G0 (Chronicle of Convocation, p. 
 224), and in the Report, due, in a great measure, to the Bishop Suffragan of Nottingham, of the 
 United Committees presented to the Lower House in Feb. 1871 ; (cp. Chronicle for July, 1873, 
 p. 485). A motion will shortly be made in the House of Lords (by one who will do ample 
 justice to the cause) for a Select Committee of enquiry upon this subject,
 
 6 
 
 Let me now advert to another consideration. 
 
 Friendly overtures have recently been made, not without some 
 success, to our ISTonconformist brethren, especially to the Wesleyans, 
 with a view to their re-union with ourselves — a consummation 
 earnestly to be wislied for the sake of our connnon Christianity. 
 
 They who have taken part in these measures of reconciliation 
 have found, by painful experience, that a barrier is opposed to this 
 reunion by the scandal of the sale and purchase of Church j^refer- 
 ments ; which would not be toleiated in any dissenting community. 
 
 Charges are brought by Nonconformists against Laymen and 
 Clergymen in the Church of England, which cannot be refuted ; 
 
 " Pudet hsec opprobria nobis 
 
 Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli.""^ 
 
 The " Ecclesiastical Gazette " is supposed to be the accredited 
 organ of the Church of England. In the pages of that semi-official 
 periodical is an unblushing display, month after month, of an unholy 
 traffic in spiritual things. There, if we may so speak, the sellers 
 of sheep and oxen exhibit their sacrifices ; the moneychangers set 
 up their tables, and they who sell doves attract customers in the 
 Temple of God. The Divine Head of the Church, Who, on two 
 occasions — one at the beginning of His Ministry, the other at the 
 close of itt — drove the traffickers in sacred things with holy indig- 
 nation from His presence, and said, " Make not My Father's house 
 an house of merchandize," and "My house shall bo called the 
 house of prayer, but ye have made it a den of thieves," beholds 
 these things. He marks the Advertisements in which clerical pur- 
 chasers of preferment,' — Pastors of the Church of Christ, — are 
 tempted by the inducements — not of saving souls and promoting 
 the glory of God, in imitation of the Good Shepherd Who laid down 
 His life for the sheep — but by such allurements as gardens and green- 
 houses, coach-houses and stables, a comfortable parsonage, and well 
 
 * Ovid, Met. i. 578. 
 
 Matt. xxi. 12, 13 ; John ii. 14—16. This act of our Blessed Lord has been regarded by 
 the best Expositors of Holy Scripture as expressive of His wrath against Simoniacal traffic in 
 His Church. See for example St. Augustiue's Comment on John ii. 14—16. Tractat. x. in 
 Joannem.
 
 kept grounds, with a trout-stream and grammar school for the sons, 
 and with the sea not far off for the wife and daughters, and good 
 society, and a railway station within a mile, and an income of <£800 
 a year ; and it is added that the incumbent is 75 years of age, and 
 that the population is small, with light duty. 
 
 We are informed that this traffic is increasing.* 
 Some persons may say, Why bring these things to light 1 Why 
 not throw a veil over them 1 Why encourage obloquy and swell 
 clamour against the Church 1 I answer, They bring themselves to 
 light, they shew themselves openly in noonday. They parade 
 themselves before the eye. To attempt to disguise them is to 
 encourage them. The wounds of the Church will fester unless they 
 are probed. The only remedy is in vigorous and immediate action ; 
 
 Alitur vitium vivitque tegendo, 
 Dum medicas adhibere manus ad vulnera Pastort 
 Abnegat .... 
 
 Cuncta prills tentata ; sed immedicabile vulnusj 
 Ense reddendum. 
 
 Besides, even if they could be concealed from human eyes, what 
 would it profit us 1 He Who is described by the beloved disciple 
 
 * The evidence of this increase in traffic is given in the following Advertisements trans- 
 cribed from the Ecclesiastical Gazette of December, 1873. Similar notices may be seen in the 
 Numbers for January and February, 1874 : — 
 
 " IMPORTANT NOTICE-REMOVAL.— Mr. begs to inform his Clients 
 
 that, in coiisequence of the continued ina^ease of Business in the various departments of his 
 Ecclesiastical Offices, he will REMOVE opposite to larger Offices, &c.. from January 1st, 1S74." 
 
 " THE CHURCH PREFERMENT REGISTER for November— first work of its kind ever 
 issued— contains full and confidential particulars of about ONE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY 
 ADVOWSONS, PRESFNTATIONS, &c., in almost every County and Diocese. For SALE by 
 private treaty. Sent to bond fide Principals, or their authorized Solicitors, on receipt of three 
 stamps. Address, &c. N.B.— Personal attendance every day (except Saturday) from Ten 
 till Four o'clock." 
 
 "Mr. OFFICES FOR THE SALE, PURCHASE, AND EXCHANGE OP 
 
 CHURCH PREFERMENT, &c 
 
 TO PATRONS.— Mr. having on his books the names of over TWO HUNDRED 
 
 hand fide Purchasers, will be glad to receive, in confidence, the particulars of ADVOWSONS, 
 NEXT PRESENTATIONS, EPISCOPAL CHAPELS, &c. intended for disposal." 
 
 The following is from the Number for February, 1874 : — 
 " The Monthly Register of Church Preferment, for February, contains particulars of a very 
 larpe number of ADVOWSONS, NEXT PRESENTATIONS. DISTRICT CHURCHES, 
 EPISCOPAL CHAPELS, &c.. for Sale, and should be seen by all intending Purchasers. 
 Forwarded on confidential application of Principals, or their Solicitors, in return for two 
 Gtamps. Apply, &c." So bold is this nefarious traffic become, that in the Gazette for March, 
 1874, many Advowsons are advertised for sale " with immediate possession " ! 
 
 t Virg. Georgic. iii., 454. % Ovid, Met. i., 190,
 
 as walking iu the midst of tlie Golden Candlesticks* — which are 
 the Cliurches,t — and as marking whether they burn brightly, has 
 His eye upon them, and He will remove the Candlestick of a 
 Church which allows its light to be dimmed by the impurities of 
 worldly corruption. He will stir up against us those who desire 
 our destruction. They who now demand that the Church of England 
 should be disestablished and disendowed have their best allies in 
 those of the Clergy and Laity, who abet and connive at the sale of 
 spiritual things. The most effective appeals in the speeches of 
 popular orators haranguing upon democratical platforms, and 
 inveighing against the Church of England, are supplied by those 
 Churchmen and Clergymen who sell or purchase preferments for 
 themselves or for their friends and relatives. 
 
 iSTor is this all. The infidel and the scoffer jDoint with scorn to 
 those Clergy and Laity who profess a reverential zeal for holy things 
 and yet treat them as articles for sale. 
 
 Eeligious divisions among Christians, and the hostile aggressions 
 of Secularists, and the open assaults of Scepticism and Unbelief 
 gain strength from Simony in the Church. 
 
 We have shut up the Slave-market at Zanzibar, but we have 
 opened slave-markets of souls in London. Congregations of im- 
 mortal beings are publicly put up for auction, and are sold to the 
 highest bidder ; and the clergyman who has bought them, either 
 directly by his own money, or by some clandestine and obhque 
 subterfuge and evasion (which is known to God, the Searcher of 
 hearts and the Judge of all,) comes and presents himself to a Bishop 
 for Institution to the cure of souls, and makes a solemn declaration 
 that he has " not made, by himself, or by any other person on his 
 behalf, any payment, contract, or promise of any kind whatso- 
 ever, which to the best of Ms knoiv/ed</e or belief is Simoniacal 
 
 touching or concerning the obtaining the preferment of 
 
 and that he will not at any time perform or satisfy in whole or in 
 part any such kind of payment, contract, or promise made by any 
 other without his knowledge or consent." 
 
 » Revelation i., 13. t Rev. i., 20.
 
 " Sine me haec hand mollia fando 
 
 Siiblatis aperire dolis."* 
 
 These things are done among us, and are said to be on the 
 increase, and are affording a triumph to our enemies, and are 
 provoking God's anger against us. At the same time it is not fair 
 to say that the fault is with the Clmrcli herself. Simony is no part 
 of her system. The Canons of the Church strongly and solemnly 
 condemn it. She earnestly protests against it, and endeavours to 
 remove it.t If the Church had her will, Simony would not exist. 
 But the misfortune is that temporal laws stifle her voice and restrain 
 her action. And some Laymen and Clergymen are found to use 
 those temporal Laws as instruments of resisting her authority, and 
 sullying the honour and injuring the weKare of the Church, of 
 which they are members and ministers. But the fault is not with 
 her, but with them. This is the condition of the Church in this 
 world. Even among the Apostles was a Judas. " Offences must 
 come, but woe to that man by whom the offence cometh." (Matt. 
 xviii. 7.) 
 
 In the mean time let it also be remembered that many of 
 the Clergy and Laity are entangled in the sin of Simony, without 
 
 * Virg. ^n. xii. 24. 
 
 t Among those protests and endeavours the following'may be cited :— 
 Extract from " Chronicle of Convocation," Feb. 17, 1860 (p. 224).— The present Bishop of 
 London brought up and read the following Report : — 
 
 1. That the existing Law of Simony requires careful revision ; the object of which should be, 
 on tha one hand, to restrain really corrupt practices with regard to the sale of benefices and 
 residences ; on the other hand, to" enlarge the discretion of the Ordinary with respect to sanc- 
 tioning innocent and beneficial arrangements respecting the exchange of Livings, the resig- 
 nation of disabled Clergy, the endowment of Livings by presentees, and other matters, which, 
 according to the general law of the Church, and the reason of the thing, might safely and 
 wisely be placed under Episcopal control. 
 
 2. That the discretion of the Ordinary should always be exercised with the consent of the 
 Archbishop of the Province, and also with the concuiTence of the Patron, in cases where his 
 interests are directly or indirectly concerned. 
 
 •i. That in order to effect these objects, the Statute of 31 Eliz. c. 6 should be repealed ; 
 and a statute passed, conferring on the Ordinary the discretionary powers which have been 
 mentioned, and also either forbidding the sale of next presentations, or permitting it under 
 such restrictions as may remove the grievous scandal incident to the present mode of advertising 
 and selling next presentations to Livings. Tlie statute should also provide more effectual means 
 — by power of examining the {jre.^entee on oath, or by some other method— of enabling the 
 Ordinary to detect corrupt and simoniacal presentations. 
 
 4. That the statute should be carefully prepared with reference to the ecclesiastical and the 
 common law, and the decision of Courts of Justice ; and that the preamble should be espe- 
 cially attended to, and should recite the object of the enactment to be the more effectually to 
 restrain corrupt practices irith respect to the sale of benefices and avoidances, and to enable 
 aiTangenients not intrinsically but only technically simoniacal to be effected, with due regard 
 to the authority of the Ordinary and the rights of the Patron. 
 
 This Report was framed with the assistance of a learned and distinguished Layman, th 
 Right Hon. Sir Robert Phillimore, Dean of the Arches.
 
 10 
 
 being aware of it. They do not resort to the inspired Word of 
 God, but to law books. They do not go to the House of God, but 
 to chambers in Inns of Court. They do not inquire what Holy 
 Scripture says concerning Simony, or what the Church of God 
 declares with respect to it ; but they apply to some professional 
 adviser, or to some clerical agent for the sale of preferments, and 
 they are assured by them that the thing which they desire to do is 
 legal, and may safely be done, especially if cautious and circuitous 
 processes are resorted to, and that no detection will ensue. And so 
 their consciences are laid to sleep, and they readily and calmly take 
 the above delaration (which, unhappily, has been recently sub- 
 stituted for the solemn oath in the 40th Canon), that they have 
 done nothing which to the best of their own knowledge or belief is 
 simoniacal ; it having first been arranged that the best of their own 
 knowledge should be ignorance, and that their own belief should 
 be a denial of the doctrine of Scripture and the Church concerning 
 the sin of Simony into which they are betrayed. 
 
 And if it should happen that after they have committed 
 this sin, their conscience is awakened to a sense of guilt, if 
 by some visitation of God — some blight in their domestic happi- 
 ness — some solemn and sudden revelation of His wrath — they are 
 bowed down to the dust in sorrow, — then what writhing of soul 
 and agonies of heart are theirs ! and then how bitterly do they 
 rue the act to which their tempters have beguiled them, and how 
 gladly would they exchange the luxuries of the comfortable parson- 
 age for the privations of an ill-endowed cure, and how thankfully 
 would they imitate the example of that conscience-stricken simon- 
 iacal Prelate, Herebert of Thetford, who laid aside his episcopal ring 
 and crozier, and received them back again after a penitential disci- 
 pline of self-reproach and self-abasement.'^ 
 
 Our temporal laws concerning Patronage and Simony urgently 
 need to be reformed, as was declared by the Royal (Jommission in 
 1864 ; but even if this were done, yet evasions of them would still 
 
 \ William af Mumicsbury de gestis Pontif. Auglorum, lib. ii.
 
 11 
 
 be possible. The best security is in the enlightenment of our 
 own consciences concerning Simony.* Let us honestly endeavour 
 to do this. Simony is so called from Simon, who offered 
 money to the Apostles at Samaria, in order to obtain from 
 them the power of giving the Holy Ghost by the laying on 
 of handsjf and to whom St. Peter replied — "Thy money perish 
 with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be 
 purchased with money ; for thy heart is not right in the sight of 
 God ; repent therefore and pray God if perhaps the thought of 
 thine heart may be forgiven thee ; for I perceive that thou art in 
 the gall of bitterness, and in the bond of iniquity." And it is 
 clear that St. Peter proceeded to denounce certain judgments upon 
 him from God for his sins, for Simon answered — '^Pray ye to the 
 Lord for me, that none of these things which ye have spoken 
 come upon me." 
 
 At the present time it is sometimes alleged, that inasmuch as 
 what Simqn Magus attempted to do was to purchase a spiritual gift 
 for money, therefore it is not Simony to buy an ecclesiastical benefice 
 to which temporal revenues are annexed. 
 
 But this assertion contains a double fallacy. 
 
 First, it is true that what Simon attempted to buy was a spiritual 
 gift, but he valued this gift not for any spiritual grace that it 
 bestowed, (this is clear from his character as described in Holy 
 Scripture and Church History), J but for the temporal advantage 
 that would accrue from it to himself — whether in secular profit, or 
 wordly fame, or both. This is what is done by the purchasers of 
 Church Preferment. They purchase spiritual things with a view 
 to temporal ends. 
 
 * In a brief statement like the present it is not possible to treat this gi-ave question 
 adequately. Let me therefore invite the readers attention to the following works :— !'</« 
 Kspev De Simonid cirra heiiefcia. Jus Eccles. Univ. pars ii., Tit. xxx., and his separate treatise, 
 De Si7nonid, ibid, Tom ii., p. 185, Colon, 1748. Bishop Gibson's Codex, p. 799. Bishop 
 Stillingfleet, in. his treatise on Bonds of Resignation, Lond., 1702. lyioinassinus de lieneficiis, 
 Tom. vii., p. 443, ond Tom. x. p. 22.'). The treatise of Suarez de Simonia in Migne's T/ieol. Cnrsiis 
 Completus, Vol. xvi., p. 322. Dr. Phillimore's Judgment in the Dean of YorA's cane in Burn's 
 Eccl. Law. ed. Lond., 1842, iii. (J07. The British Critic, Art. Ix. Oct., 1841. Eev. W. D. Willis on 
 Simony, 1865- Dr. A. Stephens Eccl. Law, Sir R. Phillimore's .ficc/. Zatc, p. p. 1110— 1147 
 Lond., 1873. 
 
 t Acts viii. 18, 23, 
 
 X Which represents him as a sorcer-r (whence his name Simon Magus) and also as 
 an arch-heretic. See Tillemont, MemMres, Tome ii., p. 16, ed. 1732,
 
 12 
 
 Secondly, they allege that they buy the temporal benefice and 
 not the sacred office. But this is not true. The benefice is annexed 
 to the office, not the office to the benefice. The benefice exists on 
 account of the office, and not the office on account of the benefice. 
 The office is the principal thing, the benefice is an accessory to it. 
 The administration of spiritual functions was not instituted for the 
 sake of the temporal emolument, but the temporal emolument is 
 granted for the administration of the spiritual functions. 
 
 Let us ask this question. Do they desire to proclaim themselves 
 hirelings, and to incur the malediction of Him who said, " The 
 hireling fleeth because he is an hireling, and careth not for the 
 sheep '?"* The hireling cares only for his hire ; this is the essence 
 of his character ; and if he tells us that his hire is what he buys, 
 then he has condemned himself. 
 
 But further, it is evident that what he buys is the aire of souls, 
 for he camiot touch any part of the temporalities before he has been 
 admitted to the cure of souls. He must first come to the Bishop 
 for Institution. Institution is a solemn act by which the Chief 
 Pastor of a Diocese admits a Clergyman to a cure of souls in it :t 
 Institution is the act of the Bishop, and is a pre-requisite to 
 Induction. Induction is performed by another person, the Arch- 
 deacon ; and by it the clergyman, having first been instituted to the 
 cure of souls, and to the ministry of the Word of God and of the 
 Sacraments by the Bishop, is afterwards put into corporal possession 
 of the temporalities of the benefice. 
 
 It is clear, therefore, that what is bought (I do not say the only 
 thing that is bought) is the admission to the Cure of Souls and the 
 Ministry of the Sacraments ; for if that were not first procured, there 
 would be no claim to the revenues of the benefice. Therefore the 
 purchase of a benefice by a clergyman, or by any one acting on his 
 
 * John X. 13, see St. Anpustine's commentary there (Tract xlvi.), in which the words ot 
 our Lord are applied to Simoniacal clevgrymen ; also his Sermon on John x. 1-16, Serm. 137. 
 
 t The words of Institution are — " Wc do by these presents commit nnto you the c?/i-e and 
 government of the Sou/s of the Parishioners, and authorize you to preach the Word of God, and 
 toudntinister the Holy Sncrnments in the Parish Church. In the Name of the Father, and of the 
 Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen."
 
 13 
 
 behalf, is the purchase of spiritual things, which is Simony. This is 
 the judgment of the Church Universal and of the Church of England. 
 
 As to the Church Universal, — to omit other authorities,* — its 
 mind was clearly pronounced by a decree of the fourth General 
 Council, that of Chalcedon, A.D. 451. 
 
 The decree begins with condemning Simoniacal collations of 
 holy Orders, and then proceeds to speak of preferment to henefices 
 in the Church, and says, that if any Bishop, for the sake of money, 
 shall have promoted any treasurer, or advocate, or sacrist, or any eccle- 
 siastical persons, with a view to sordid lucre, he shall be in danger 
 of deposition ; and no one who shall have been so ordained or 
 promoted shall derive any benefit from the ordination or promotion 
 which has been 2Jurchased, but he removed from the dignity or cure 
 ivhicli he has ohtained hy money. And if any one can be proved to 
 have negociated as an agent in such base traffic, if he is a clergyman, 
 let him be degraded, but if a layman, let him be anathematized. t 
 
 By the law of the Church, Simony is defined to be a deliberate 
 act or a premeditated will and desire of selling or buying such things 
 as are spiritual, or of any thing annexed unto spirituals, such as an 
 ecclesiastical benefice ; or of giving something of a temporal nature 
 for the purchase thereof; or, in other words, it is a commutation of 
 a thing spiritual, or annexed unto spirituals, for something that is 
 temporal ; or as Lancelot J briefly expresses it, " Simonia est 
 studiosa voluntas sive cupiditas eniendi vel vendendi spiritualia, 
 vel spiritualihus annexa." 
 
 The Church of England is explicit in her declarations on this 
 subject. 
 
 The opinions of our English Eeformers may be seen in the 
 Injunctions published by King Edward YL, in 1547, and Queen 
 Elizabeth, in 1559,§ where it is said that "to avoid the detestable 
 
 * These have been collected by Launoy in his learned work ou Simoii;v. Launoii Opera. 
 Tom ii. Pt. ii. p. 451 — 563, ed. Colon. 1731. See also the works quoted above. 
 
 t This is the second Canon of the General Council of Chalcedon '; and may be seen in 
 Labbe's Concilia, Tom iv. p. 756, ed. Paris, 1671. 
 
 X Lancelot Instit. Juris Canon, Lib. iv.. t. 3. 
 
 § See Bishop Gibson's Codex, p. 01.
 
 14 
 
 sin of Simony, and because the buying and selling of Benefices is 
 execrable before God, therefore all such persons as buy any Benefices 
 shall be deprived of such Benefices, and be made unable at any time 
 after to receive any other spiritual promotion." And among the Canons 
 of 1603, Canon 40th was specially framed "for the avoidance of 
 the detestable sin of Simony, and because the buying of Ecclesi- 
 astical functions and livings is execrable before God." 
 
 In the Canons of 1571, framed under Archbishop Parker, and 
 subscribed by the Bishops of both Provinces, is the following 
 remarkable decree concerning Church Patronage and Simony,* " The 
 Bishop shall earnestly exhort Patrons of benefices to consider the 
 needs of the Church, and to have ever before their eyes the Last 
 Day and the Judgment and Tribunal of God; and, therefore, not 
 to present any one to an ecclesiastical office except such persons as 
 by learning, discretion, piety, probity, and blamelessness of life are 
 qualified to discharge so weighty a function ; and that they do 
 nothing in this matter, otherwise than with integrity, honesty, and 
 sincerity. And let the Bishop warn them that he will use all fair 
 and lawful means to discover the truth therein. And if he should 
 find, either at the time of presentation, or after it, that any corrupt 
 proceeding or Simoniacal traffic has been resorted to, in any manner 
 whatsoever, however clandestinely, either directly or indirectly, 
 either by the Patron himself or by others, Avith a view to the pro- 
 curing of any money or price, or any commodity, or any portion of 
 the revenues, let him advertise the Patron that he is resolved to 
 make a public proclamation of the fact, not only in his Cathedral 
 Church, but also in other places, to the disgrace and eternal infamy 
 of the Patron ; and that he is further determined to remove the 
 Presbyter, whom he has so nefariously presented, not only from the 
 benefice which he has dishonestly entered, but from all ministrations 
 in the Diocese." 
 
 Such was the language of the Church of England at the 
 Eeformation, concerning Church Patronage and Simony. 
 
 * In Cardwell's Synodalia i, pi 129.
 
 15 
 
 Our greatest Lawyers have used the same. Lord Chief Justice 
 Coke says (1 Inst. 17, b) that "the Common Law doth detest 
 Simony and all corrupt bargains for presentation to any benefice ; 
 and its design is, that a fit person for the discharge of the cure 
 should be presented freely, without expectation of any thing." 
 
 But I will not dweU on the temporal aspects of the question, 
 which is dealt with in the Statutes of 31 Eliz. cap. 6, and 12 
 Anne, cap. 12, which not only forbids a Clergyman to purchase for 
 himself a next presentation with his own money, but to take and 
 accept a next presentation so bought. 
 
 If the purchase of a next presentation by a Clergyman is 
 Simoniacal, it is difficult to see why the purchase of an Advowson, 
 with the intent to use in his own behalf the next presentation, is 
 not also Simoniacal j for what is an Advowson but a series of suc- 
 cessive presentations ? And if he may use the next presentation for 
 himself, and then sell the Advowson to another Clergyman who 
 may do the same thing in his turn, we have what the prophet calls 
 a process of " drawing sin as with a cart-rope" (Isaiah v. .18). 
 
 Our principal concern here is with the declarations of Holy 
 Scripture, and of the Church. They affirm that Simony is a sin 
 in the sight of God, and that " it consists not only in trafficking 
 for the gifts of the Holy Spirit (Acts viii. 18-20), but in purchases 
 made by Clergymen of spiritual preferments (Bingham, Ant. 
 xvi. 6)." 
 
 The Chm-ch of England (in the 40th Canon of 1603) defines 
 Simony to "be the buying and selling of Spiritual and Ecclesiastical 
 functions, offices, promotions, dignities, and livings," and declares it 
 to be a " detestable sin," and " execrable before God. " Simony 
 is punishable by Ecclesiastical Laws; the Canon of 1571, just 
 quoted, seems plainly to assume this. And our most learned 
 Canonists have shewn — namely. Archbishop Wake, Bishop Stilling- 
 fleet, and Bishop Gibson (see Codex ii. 798, 801) — that it was 
 never the intention of the Civil Legislature " to repeal Ecclesiastical 
 Laws concerning Simony, or to determine the nature and bounds of 
 it." The Temporal Courts have generally held that "Simony
 
 16 
 
 is a thing of spiritual cognizance," and have granted consultations 
 accordingly (Gibson, 798). In the case of Baker v. Rogers, the 
 Court of Common Pleas declared that it appertains to the Spiritual 
 Court to determine what is Simony {Ibid, 798), and Bishop 
 Stillingfleet says (Ecclesiastical Cases i. 59, cp. p. 316), "by the 
 Canon Law it was deprivation for a Clergyman to be convicted of 
 "buying an Ecclesiastical Benefice for his own benefit." 
 
 Let me now offer some remarks by way of practical application. 
 
 The Law of Church Patronage cannot remain as it is. The 
 question is — What is to be done for its amendment '? 
 
 1. Let the attempt already made in Parliament by the present 
 Home Secretary, Mr. Cross, with every prospect of success, be 
 renewed. Let the sale of Next Presentations to Cures of Souls be 
 prohibited by law, with penalties imposed on all persons who are 
 concerned in them. Let also the sale of Advowsons * for private 
 interests, after a certain date, be forbidden. This may seem a stringent 
 measure ; but nothing short of it will remove the present abuses, 
 and allay the prevalent just indignation against them. It is alleged, 
 indeed, that good comes from the present system : that the wealth of 
 capitalists, purchasing benefices for their sons, is thus brought into 
 the Church, and that some of our most exemplary clergymen have 
 thus been placed in positions of influence, and that great benefits 
 have thence accrued to their Parishes and to the Church at large. 
 This is not questioned ; but there is scarcely any system, however 
 vicious, from which some good may not be elicited ; and though it 
 may please God of His mercy to over-rule evil with good, and to 
 bring good out of evil, yet He condemns those who " do evil that 
 good may come." (Rom. iii. 8.) 
 
 The sale of spiritual things is declared by Him to be sinful ; it 
 is a profanation of what belongs to Him, and is therefore sacrilegious ; 
 it is an encroachment on that Christian liberty with which Christ 
 
 * If in iuiy case the sale of Advowsons were justifiable, it -svas in the case of certain 
 livings in the gift of the Lord Chancellor. The Sale was for the benefit of the Church, and 
 might, perhaps, be excused on the same principle as the casting of the wheat into the sea to 
 save the ship and the crew (A.cts xxvii. 38), and as the pulling down of an old Church is 
 ustified when it is done for the sake of building a better one on the same, or a more com- 
 jmodious, site.
 
 17 
 
 has made His people free ; it is a slave-trade of souls ; and it is a 
 great hardship to the faithful and zealous labourer in His vineyard. 
 There are upwards of six thousand benefices in private patronage. 
 If they are sold for money, the reasonabk hopes of advancement 
 which might otherwise be entertained by the poor meritorious Curate 
 are blighted.- Here is a bitter disappointment to those who are 
 growing old in the Ministry ; here is a powerful discouragement to 
 many who would otherwise enter it. Here is a great hindrance 
 to the benevolent schemes of those who would otherwise augment 
 poor benefices. Men mil not subscribe to increase the saleable 
 property of Patrons. Here is a public scandal, a plague-spot in 
 the Church ; and a cause of division and weakness. If the sale 
 of next Presentations were forbidden, these evils would be removed, 
 and great benefits would accrue to the Clergy, to the Church, and to 
 the Nation at large. 
 
 2. Let Bishops be protected and supported in refusing to institute 
 Clergymen, who, either directly or indirectly, are guilty of Simoniacal 
 practices. Let Parishes also be protected in declining to \ receive such 
 Clergymen as their Pastors. 
 
 The best course for rich capitalists, who have sons in holy orders, 
 is not to buy " good livings " for them, but to endow poor ones, and to 
 ©e'er their sons for the pastoral cure of those Parishes. This would 
 be a noble investment of their capital ; and would yield a rich profit 
 in a better world. 
 
 3. Let it be suggested also for consideration, whether Bonds 
 of resignation of benefices should not be rendered illegal. After 
 
 * The following important statement on this subject has just been printed by the OflRcers 
 of the Curates' Augmentation Fund :— " The average time in which every clergyman might 
 expect to obtain a living, if all patronage were administered with the strictest impartiality, 
 would be eleven years. Curates without special claim on jyrlvate patronage or sufficient means 
 to enable them to take a very small living are compelled to wait for promotion about, on an 
 average, twenty-six years, many being obliged to remain curates all their lives." 
 
 tTo my own knowledge a living lately became vacant. It could not be sold durirg the 
 vacancy. What was done ? A decrepit clergyman was found, and he was presented to the 
 living. And then the living was advertised, and sold with "prospect of immediate pos- 
 session," and a large price was realized accordingly. The indignation of the Pari&Licuers 
 may be imagined. 
 
 Another case may be mentioned, A clergyman is a patron of a benefice which he holds ; 
 and wishes to sell the Advowson. He privately promises to present a clergyman who buys the 
 Advowson, or for whom, it is bought ; and then he i esigns the benefice and presents him to it. 
 
 t Bishop Stillingfleefs Discourses concerning Bonds of Resignation of Benefices in point of 
 Law and Conscience; in his Ecclesiastical Cases, Vol. i., p. 175, Lond , 1702. The thirty-fifth 
 Canon of the Church of Ireland (A.li. I(i34), condemns Bonds of Resignation. The judgments 
 of Lord Chancellor Thurlow and Lord Chancellor Eldou against them, may be seen in Burn 
 iu., 632, 636 ; Fhillimore, p. 1122, 1124.
 
 18 
 
 reading the learned treatise of Bishop Stillingfleet on this sub- 
 jectjj few persons can entertain a doubt that these bonds approach 
 very near to Simony. They are now lawful under certain conditions 
 by 9 Geo. 4, c. 94 ; but in this matter that which is lawful is 
 not expedient (1 Cor. vi. 12, x. 23) ; and the temptation to do it 
 ought to be removed. 
 
 4. The present Declaration taken at Institution, concerning 
 Simony, ought to be amended, either by being restored to its original 
 form as it stood in the 40th Canon, or by being directed against all 
 purchase, either direct or indirect, of the benefice. 
 
 But laws without morals wiU have little effect. Let all who are 
 concerned in this matter examine their own consciences, as in the 
 sight of God, and let them inform and regulate their consciences by 
 His "Will and Word, and by the judgment of His Church, and 
 resolve by His grace to act accordingly. 
 
 1. Church Patronage is a sacred Trust to be administered for the 
 glory of God, and the good of His People ; and He will demand a 
 strict account of Patrons how it has been exercised. Can a Patron 
 look with any reasonable hope to that Day of reckoning, if he has 
 used it for his own temporal interest '? On the other hand, 
 there is not a more noble spectacle, in this money-getting and 
 money-loving age, than that of a Patron resisting the temptations 
 of worldly gain, and administering his patronage in a pure, unselfish, 
 disinterested spirit of Christian patriotism and loyalty to God 
 and man. The Patrons of Ecclesiastical benefices hold a high place 
 of honour, and are entitled to respect. They represent those 
 who laid on God's altar the offering of tithes and other revenues 
 to be dedicated for ever to His Glory, and to the salvation of souls. 
 Their very name indicates a trust. They are patrons — that is, 
 advocates, defenders of the rights of God and His people.* Those 
 rights are their clientela ; a more honourable retinue than ever 
 escorted a Roman Patron in his progress through the crowded streets 
 of the city, or flocked early in the morning to offer their salutations 
 
 * Patrons are expressly called " advocati" and " defensores " in the Canon Law, see Van 
 Espen, Part ii., Tit. xxv., cap. i.
 
 19 
 
 in his marble halls. * The privileges and consequent responsibilities 
 of Patrons, have been expressed in the following not very elegant, 
 but truthful and just lines : — 
 
 Patronuni faciunt dos, aedificatio, fundus ; 
 and what follows 1 
 
 Patrono debetur honos, onus, utilitasque. 
 The onus and utilitas are consequent on the honos, and therefore it 
 is added — 
 
 Praesentet, praesit, defendat ; alatur egenus. 
 It is difficult to imagine a more dignified office than that of the 
 Christian Patron. He is the honoured son of a loving mother, the 
 Church of God. In ancient times the nobles and princes of Europe 
 gloried in the privilege of protecting and adorning t Christian 
 Churches. The Patron was met at the door of the Church by the 
 Clergy and Congregation as a public benefactor. And he regarded 
 the gratitude of the faithful, who enjoyed the benefit of a watchful 
 and zealous Pastor by his means, as his best reward on earth ; he had 
 the recompense of their prayers, and of their blessings upon him 
 and upon his family ; in those prayers and blessings he had a pledge 
 and foretaste of the infinite and eternal rcAvard which he would 
 receive at the Great Day from the Good Shepherd Who shed His 
 life-blood on the cross for him and for them. What unspeakable 
 pleasure did he feel on visiting the Church, and in taking part in 
 its holy ministrations, and in the consciousness that they were due, 
 in great measure, to himself, as an instrument in the hand of God. 
 Here was his joy in life, here was his comfort in the hour of death. 
 God be thanked that this beautiful picture is still realized jn 
 many Churches and Parishes in this and other Dioceses. 
 
 But let us look on the other side. 
 The Roman Poet, in his description of the nether world, and on the 
 penalties reserved for those who have lived guilty lives on earth, 
 represents the Fm^ies as inflicting the most painfid torments on those 
 
 * Virg. Georg. ii. 462, 
 
 t See the B?itish Critic, No. Lx., p. 294, which has suggested some of the thoughts and 
 words here.
 
 20 
 
 who hated their Ijrethren, or maltreated their parents, or debased 
 frauds on their chents; 
 
 ^' Hie quibus invisi fratres, dum vita manebat, 
 Pulsatiisve parens, et fraus innexa chenti."* 
 Are not these sins committed by him who injures his Christian 
 bretlu'en, or does wrong to his mother the Church, or practises 
 deceit on the Parishioners, who are his chents, and of whom he is 
 the Patron ? What woidd have been said of the Eoman Patron 
 who sold his clients for money 1 What must be said of the Patron 
 of a Church who barters the souls of a congregation for worldly 
 pelf 1 Can there be any true profit to him from such a bargain as 
 that 1 It is much to be feared that the purchase money may be a 
 blight on his property, and eat as a canker into his estate, his 
 family and himself, in body and soul, in this world and another. 
 
 On such grounds as these the sale of advowsons has been 
 strictly forbidden by Laws of the Church. (See Van Espen, Pars, 
 ii.. Tit. XV., c. iv.) What would be said of a Bishop, if he sold his 
 life interest in his advowsons? But why should the souls of 
 Parishes in lay patronage be saleable, and in a worse state than 
 those in Episcopal hands ] 
 
 But if we thus speak of Patrons acting in this manner, what 
 must be said of their legal advisers 1 
 
 Dr. Thomas Fullert describes the character of a good Advocate, 
 and compares him to the loyal soldier, who will never fight against 
 his Prince ; and in like manner, he says, the genuine Cliristian 
 Advocate will never fight against Him Who is the Truth, and the 
 King of Kings. The good lawyer will never fight against Christ. 
 
 It is therefore submitted very respectfully for the consideration of 
 solicitors and pleaders, especially of ecclesiastical lawyers, canonists, 
 and civilians, whether their profession would not be much more 
 honourable in the opinion of all good men, and much more profit- 
 able to themselves with reference to another world, if, instead of 
 applying their learning and talents to devise means whereby 
 the Clergy may evade the laws of the land concerning Simony, 
 
 * Virg. ^n. vi., G07. \ Fuller's Holy State, p. 51.
 
 21 
 
 and contravene the anthority of Holy Scripture and the Church 
 of God, they would endeavour to deter them from these sins, 
 which, though not perhaps discoverable by human eyes, or 
 punishable by human tribunals, will assuredly expose them and 
 their abettors and accomplices to severe pains and penalties from 
 Him, before Whom all clients and lawyers must appear, and from 
 Whom nothing is hid, and by Whom all things will be judged? 
 
 Bishop Stillingfleet thus writes* — It is much to be "wished 
 that Lawyers would not encourage their clients in indirect methods 
 of obtaining presentations. Here lies a great part of our present 
 mischief. Clergymen who want benefices say, We are ignorant of 
 the Law, but we go to those whose business it is to understand it, 
 and they teU us that they have cases and precedents in their books, 
 and therefore why are we to be blamed if we submit to them ? " 
 
 Thank God there are many noble examples of Christian lawyers 
 among us — may their number be greatly increased — who have dis- 
 suaded and deterred the Clergy from dishonouring themselves and 
 their profession by resorting to unworthy artifices for the sake of 
 worldly gain. Their names will shine hereafter among those of our 
 Mores and our Hales of former times, and of many in our own 
 days, who have shed a holy lustre on the Bench and on the Bar. 
 
 But the principal remedy of the evil lies with the Bishops and 
 Clergy of the Church. 
 
 Of ah the weights which press heavily on the conscience of a 
 BishojD, one of the heaviest is that which is laid upon him by the 
 present laws of the land with regard to Church Patronage and 
 Simony. Sometimes cases arise where everything appears to 
 be against him. Patrons are against him ; because they present 
 unworthy Clergymen to Benefices, who claim admission to the 
 cure of souls in Livings which they or their friends have bought 
 by means which are morally Simoniacal, but which cannot perhaps 
 be legally proved to be so. Lawyers and clerical agents are against 
 him, because they give opinions, or devise expedients, and set traps 
 
 * Bp. stillingfleet, Eccl, Cases, i. 358.
 
 22 
 
 by which the Clergy are ensnared into what is Simoniacal in the eye 
 of God and of the Church. Clergymen themselves are sometimes 
 against him, because they come to him with a deed of jDresenta- 
 tion in their hands which has been purchased for them by a 
 friend. Or they may even have bought it with their own money. 
 They buy advowsons, or life interests, of Patrons, and claim the 
 right of presenting themselves to the cure of souls which they have 
 bought with their own money — proving by the very act of the 
 purchase — that they are morally and spiritually disqualified for 
 the cure. 
 
 It seems to be forgotten by some, that a Bishop is the respon- 
 sible guardian of the souls in every Parish in his Diocese. A 
 Bishoj) is the Curate (to use the word in its proper sense) of 
 his Diocese. And " Institution " is the act by which he devolves 
 the cure of souls in a Parish on the Clergyman whom he institutes 
 to it. " Accipe curam tuam, et meam,^^ is the ancient form of 
 Institution,'^ and contains a solemn truth. Can a Bishop, there- 
 fore, in conscience, institute a Clergyman to a cure of souls which 
 he has bought 1 Would he not, by so doing, be a " partaker of 
 other men's sins " (1 Tim. v. 22). 
 
 And yet they whom a Bishop admonishes in a spirit of love, 
 and whom he would restrain from committing a heinous sin, and 
 from forcing themselves into a cure thus bought, and whom he 
 desires to save from the consequences of that sin, — in this world 
 and in another, — do not regard him as a benefactor, but count him 
 as an enemy, "because he speaks to them the truth." (Gal. iv. 16.) 
 
 But though all these things are against him, he must com- 
 mit his cause in faith and patience to God, and be content to suffer 
 for the truth's sake. He must carefully consider what is the Law 
 of Holy Scripture and the Church, and he must act accordingly. t 
 
 * Gibson, p. 807. Burn, i. 167. 
 t The following circular letter, with regard to Clergymen acting as Patrons for their 
 own benefit, was issued by the late Bishop of Exeter :— 
 
 "■ Bishopstotce, Torquay, '28th March, 1867. 
 Dear Mr. Archdeacon, 
 
 Questions having arisen respecting the operation of the Act 12 Anne, c. 12, I 
 request you to make known through the Rural Deans that I have thought it right to decline 
 to accept any nomination of a Clerical Patron of himself to a Living, unless the Patronage 
 has accrued to him "oy gift or succession. This resolution of mine has been taken as most 
 conformed to the spirit of the Statute. 
 
 I am, dear Mr. Archdeacon, 
 
 Your faithful friend and brother, 
 
 H. EXETER."
 
 23 
 
 Witli a view to the remedy of a grievous abuse in this respect, 
 let me quote the words of an earnest ^vriter, who has published a 
 learned work on Simony.* 
 
 "It may excite some suprise that the Bishops should not execute 
 their powers in refusing to institute Clergymen to Benefices, who, 
 if a closer investigation were made on their appearing before them 
 for Institution, might be detected in their endeavour ' to come by 
 their promotion by fraud or deceit,' and be prevented even from for- 
 swearing themselves, should they be inclined after a due explana- 
 tion of their position to persist in taking the oath. 
 
 "It is but little known, that the Bishops are under a severe 
 restriction in this matter. Should the Bishop resolve to reject the 
 nominee of a Patron, it will not be sufficient that he is fuUy 
 satisfied in his own mind that the person presented has been guilty 
 of buying and trafficking for the preferment in question, but he 
 must be prepared to j:>roye the facts upon which he grounds his 
 refusal, in a Court of law, under the process of a writ of quare 
 imped'd. And unhke the other Judges of the land — for it must not 
 be forgotten that the Bishop is the Judge in his Diocesan Court — 
 he is liable to the costs of the whole procedure should he not be able 
 to establish his case. This has a very marked and unjust eftect upon 
 the bringing of Clerical ofi'enders to punishment. And it must 
 necessarily affect the due prevention of Simony. But what remedy] 
 The same as applies to the case of Curates. If a Curate, deprived 
 of his licence by his Bishop, feels himself aggrieved, he can appeal 
 to the Archbishop. And so it ought to be in the case of an 
 accusation of Simony, without the liability of incurring the ruinous 
 costs to which a Bisho]} is subjected; and from these and many 
 other causes it is, that Simony walks among us with bold and open 
 front." 
 
 Though Simony is unhappily prevalent among us, yet scarcely 
 any case of it has been brought into Court (I believe) since that of 
 the late Dean of York in 1840. 
 
 The main responsibility here rests with the Clergy. 
 
 * The Rev. WiUiam Downes Willis, M.A., Prebendary of Wells, London, 1865, p. 92—93.
 
 24 
 
 If the Clergy, whom it may concern, would take due care 
 to enlighten their consciences as to the true character of Simony ; 
 if they would not carry their conscience to law books, but to the 
 Word of God, and to the judgment of the Church ; if they would 
 be on their guard against all secidar allurements to obtain preferment 
 by questionable means, and would not entangle themselves in snares, 
 and so rob themselves of that peace of mind and ajDproval of God, 
 which every good man will value infinitely more than any benefice 
 in this world; and if they would unite in a deliberate resolve 
 to take no part, either directly or indirectly, in any purchase of a 
 benefice for themselves, or in procuring any benefice by means of 
 any corrupt promise or engagement, and if they would determine to 
 decline any benefice so purchased, or procured (and I rejoice to 
 know that many of them are so minded), then the sin of Simony 
 would soon disappear from among us. 
 
 We may apply here the solemn words of our Blessed Lord to 
 His disciples, " I say unto you, that except your righteousness exceed 
 the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case 
 enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. v. 20.) The Clergy, 
 the appointed teachers of the pure and perfect morality of the 
 Gospel, must not allow their consciences to be brought down to the 
 level of secular jurisprudence ; they must live above the standard 
 of temporal law-courts. Temporal laws, which are framed " for the 
 lawless and disobedient" (1 Tim. i. 9), are unsafe guides and 
 guardians for those whose work it is to save souls. The shrewd 
 acuteness of the jurisconsult (very necessary and laudable in its own 
 province) is a very different thing from the tender sensitiveness and 
 the disinterested self-sacrifice of the Christian Priest.. An act may 
 be Simoniacal in the eye of God and His Church, though no human 
 tribunal may punish it. He must look upward to the dictates of 
 that higher Law " whose seat is in the bosom of God ; and whose 
 voice the harmony of the world." (Hooker, i. xviii. 7.) 
 
 The Clergy are entitled by the Law of God to a liberal mainte- 
 nance. The labourer is worthy of his hire (Luke x. 7). But he 
 who labours for hire is a hireling, and is condemned by Christ as
 
 25 
 
 such. (John x. 12, 13.) The Lord hath ordained that they who 
 preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel. ( 1 Cor. ix. 13; 
 Gal. vi. 7). But woe unto those who preach the Gospel in 
 order to live by it ; and not that they to whom they preach may 
 live for ever by their ministry. In Scripture the examples of 
 selfishness in Ministers of holy things are exposed to eternal 
 infamy in Balaam, who loved the wages of unrighteousness, 
 and prophesied for reward (2 Pet. ii. 15), and in Hophni and 
 Phinehas, who made men abhor the offering of the Lord, by 
 thinking of what they could draw up for themselves by their own 
 flesh-hook. (1 Sam. ii. 12, 14), and whose sin is therefore said to 
 have been very great ; and in Gehazi, who was punished with leprosy 
 for not fearing to bring contempt on his master Elisha, and on 
 Elisha's God, by his covetousness (2 Kings v. 22, 26, 27), and in 
 those of whom Micah speaks : " The priests teach for hire, and the 
 prophets divine for money ; yet will they lean upon the Lord and 
 say. Is not the Lord among us? JS'one evil can come upon us." 
 (Micah iii. 11); and in those teachers, of whom St. Peter speaks, " by 
 reason of whom the word of truth is evil spoken of, who through 
 covetousness with feigned words make merchandise of men's 
 souls ; and whose damnation now of a long time slumbereth not." 
 (2 Pet. ii. 3.) 
 
 Such sins as these have become far more heinous under the 
 Gospel than they were under the Old Dispensation. 
 
 The Church of England, adopting the words of Holy Scrip- 
 ture, reminds her Priests at their Ordination, that " the Church 
 and Congregation which they must serve, is no other than the Spouse 
 and Body of Christ ; that they are His sheejD, which He bought 
 with His death, and for whom He shed His Blood upon the Cross." 
 Shall any man dare to sell or buy the SjDOuse of Christ with money 1 
 Shall any man venture to sell or buy the Body of Christ ? By 
 so doing, he adds the sin of Judas to that of Simon Magus. The 
 Christian Fathers do not hesitate to call all such persons *' sellers of 
 Christ;"* secular traffickers in spiritual things, who imagine that 
 
 * See Theodoret, Eccl. Hist., i. 3 ; and the passages in Bentley's Sermon on the Fifth Novem- 
 ber, near the beginning.
 
 26 
 
 " Godliness is a trade." (1 Tim. vi. 5). Shall any man treat 
 Christian congregations — the sheep and lambs of Christ, which He 
 has purchased with His own blood — as if they were only like the 
 beasts that perish, to be carried from pens in market-places to 
 slaughter-houses in the shambles 1 
 
 This is what is done by those Christian Priests who, like the 
 shepherds denounced by Ezekiel, undertake the pastoral office in 
 order to eat the fat and clothe themselves with the wool (Ezek. 
 xxxiv. 2 — 4), and to whom he says in the name of God, " Behold 
 
 1 am against the shepherds, and I will require My flock at their 
 hands." (Ibid. 7.) 
 
 But let us hope and pray that such shepherds as those, if they 
 have been like Gehazi in sin, ' may be like him in repentance' (see 
 
 2 Kings viii. 4) ; and that the number may greatly increase of those 
 who can say with the Apostle to their people, " I seek not yoiu-s, 
 but you " (2 Cor. xii. 14), "I have coveted no man's silver or gold — 
 for it is more blessed to give than to receive " (Acts xx. 33 — 35), 
 *' neither at any time used we a cloke of covetousness, God is witness." 
 (1 Thess. ii. 5). And whatever may be their temporal condition in 
 this life, may they obey the precept of that blessed Apostle, who 
 out of weakness became strong, and who rejoiced to follow his 
 Master to the Cross, and who, having heard those words which 
 prescribed the test by which his love to Christ was to be proved, 
 ''Feed My lambs ; feed M^ sheep" (John xxi. 15—17), left this 
 solemn charge to the clergy, " The elders which are among you I 
 exhort, who am also an elder, and a witness of the sufferings of 
 Christ, and also a partaker of the glory that shall be revealed ; 
 Feed the flock of God, taking the oversight thereof, not by con- 
 straint but willingly ; not for filthy lucre, but of a ready mind ; 
 neither as being lords over God's heritage, but being ensamples to 
 the flock ; and when the Chief Shepherd shall appear ye shall 
 receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away." (1 Pet. v. 1 — 4.) 
 
 I am, my dear Friends, 
 
 Yours faitlifully. 
 Lent, 1874. C. LINCOLN.
 
 27 
 
 PRAYER. 
 
 OLORD JESU CHRIST, Who didst twice drive the buyers 
 and sellers from the courts of Thy Father's House, and didst 
 give power to Thy holy Apostle St. Peter to rebuke and resist 
 Simon at Samaria, when attempting to purchase the gift of God 
 for money ; we humbly beseech Thee to cleanse and defend Thy 
 Church from all secular traffic in spiritual things, and grant that 
 being alway preserved from false apostles, it may be ordered and 
 guided by faithful and true Pastors, to Thy honour and glory, Who 
 livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost, One God, 
 world without end. Amen. 
 
 A LMIGHTY GOD, we beseech Thee to have mercy upon all 
 -^--*- who are entangled in the snare of the sin of Simony, and 
 deliver them from it, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
 
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