Dist. 25, Art. 1, Q. 4
by St. Bonaventure
Source text: Public Domain Mark 1.0. English translation/apparatus/encoding: CC BY-NC 4.0, Wroot Press.
https://bonaventure.wrootpress.com/browse/4/d/25/q/bon-sent-IV-d25-a1-q4
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### Article I. *On the ministers.*
### Question IV. *Whether one who confers orders simoniacally thereby becomes a heretic.*

Fourth, it is asked whether one who confers orders simoniacally thereby becomes a heretic. And that it is so, it seems.

1. Gregory in the *Register*, and it is found in Cause I, question I, *A presbyter, if through money*; and below: "That no one of the faithful is ignorant that to buy or sell tithes and the altar and the Holy Spirit is a simoniacal heresy."

2. Likewise, in the same: "Whoever is ordained through money is promoted to this end, that he may become a heretic."

3. Likewise, Cause I, question I, *Those who through moneys*; and below: "For more tolerable is the impious heresy of Macedonius and of those around him who assail the Holy Spirit; for they, raving, declare the Holy Spirit to be a creature and a servant of God the Father and of the Son; but these make the same Holy Spirit their own servant": therefore it seems that it is a most impious heresy.

4. Likewise, everyone who reckons *that the gift of God can be possessed by money* errs and is to be judged a heretic; but everyone selling or buying orders reckons that the gift of God can be possessed by money: therefore etc.

5. Likewise, there is no greater error concerning *natural things* than to attribute to one contrary its own contrary, as if someone should posit white [to be] black; and concerning *morals* none greater than to posit *good [to be] evil*: therefore neither concerning *divine things* is anyone in greater error than to posit that the grace of God is not grace; but this everyone posits who strives to buy or sell it: therefore etc.

6. Likewise, just as wisdom is attributed to the Son, so bounty to the Holy Spirit; but he who should attribute foolishness to the Son would lapse into heresy: therefore he who attributes avarice to the Holy Spirit is a heretic. But he who believes that the gifts of the Holy Spirit are sold or bought for money is of this kind, since he posits the Holy Spirit to be for sale: therefore etc.

**On the contrary:** 1. No heresy is in a contract, but in belief; but simony is in a contract of buying and selling: therefore it does not seem that the simoniac becomes a heretic.

2. Likewise, heresy is a sin against the Son and against truth; but simony sins against the grace and goodness of the Holy Spirit: therefore he does not seem to be a heretic.

3. Likewise, one does not seem to lapse into any sin by selling the gift of the Holy Spirit, since it is said in First Kings [Samuel] chapter nine concerning Saul, and in Third Kings chapter fourteen concerning the wife of Jeroboam, that both brought a price to the holy Prophets for a prophetic disclosure; and it is established that prophecy is a gift to him: therefore etc.

4. Likewise, through the New Testament, First Corinthians chapter nine: *If we have sown spiritual things for you, it is no great thing if we reap your carnal things*: therefore it is licit to receive carnal things for spiritual: therefore he does not seem to sin.

5. Likewise, he who buys does not seem to sin: since the kingdom of heaven, which is supreme among all things,

can be sold and bought, as Gregory says: "The kingdom of heaven is worth as much as you have": therefore etc.

6. Likewise, he who buys gives a temporal thing for a spiritual, therefore he holds the spiritual dearer than the carnal: therefore he does not turn himself away from the unchangeable good, but rather turns [toward it]: therefore he does not sin, since "sin is a turning away from the unchangeable good and a turning toward the changeable."

### Conclusion
> A simoniac is not properly a heretic, unless he believes that spiritual things are for sale.

**I respond:** It must be said that neither the sacred orders nor anything of the Sacraments can be given for money without a grave and enormous sin, for the reason that a spiritual thing — which out of pure liberality, according to its dignity, ought to be given — he makes an object of trade and renders cheap; and again, because he sets under a price that which was priceless; which can in no way come about without becoming an affront to the Holy Spirit: and therefore that is not only evil in itself, but even according to itself.

But *if you ask* me whether the sin is *in faith* or in *morals*; it must be said that he who buys or sells such spiritual things either believes that they can be reckoned for a price and equated to the value of an earthly thing and possessed through money — and this is a manifest heresy, and thus Simon Magus reckoned. For such a one errs in faith, since he believes that grace is not grace. — Or he who sells and buys *does not believe this*, that the grace of God is procured through money, but nevertheless, burning with avarice, strives to obtain or procure through money something that pertains to human dispensation; and thus it is not a sin *of faith*, but *of morals*, since such a one knows full well and yet does ill; just as also he who fornicates knowing that fornication is a sin does not err in faith, but in the way of morals. — And thus the simoniac is avaricious and in the worst species of avarice, nor is he properly a heretic, but nevertheless is called a heretic by the Saints, either because he acts after the manner of a heretic, or because, like a heretic, he is cast out from the service and worship of God on account of the enormous crime.

And thus it is clear how one is to respond to that which was objected, that the simoniac is not a heretic; it is clear also with respect to what is objected on either side.

3. But to that which is objected, that it is not a sin to sell after the example of the Prophets; it must be said that no Prophet who was good and holy sold the gift of prophecy, but only the evil ones, as such are expressly reproved in Micah chapter three: *Her judges judged for bribes, and her priests taught for hire, and her prophets divined for money*; and below: *Therefore on your account Zion shall be plowed as a field*, etc. — To that which is objected concerning the wife of Jeroboam and Saul; it must be said that it is nowhere read that those Prophets received anything; but they said this in ignorance, since they had grown accustomed in a certain way to take up this practice from the diviners, who were not true prophets.

4. To that which is objected, that one who sows spiritual things may reap carnal things; it must be said that if he sows for this purpose, that he may in the end reap those [carnal things], especially if a bargain intervenes, it is not justice, but rather malice and avarice; but if he does not intend this principally, but rather reaps carnal things that he may sustain himself and sow spiritual things; there is no avarice, no commerce, but rather manifest justice, as the Apostle proves by manifold example in First Corinthians chapter nine, since such a one ought to be sustained. — Whence from this it is clear that if a teacher and a counselor and a physician and others who labor should receive a price for counsel or for teaching *on account of the labor* and *their own sustenance*; there is no fault, no simony. If, however, someone should sell *a gift divinely given to him*, not his own labor, he would be judged a simoniac. Similarly it must be understood concerning the celebration of Masses and the like.

5. To that which is objected, that the kingdom of heaven is bought; it must be said that that buying is not a buying, for the reason that its price is nothing but a good will, which does not look to a reward; whence although one cannot serve without a reward, nevertheless, because he serves freely, no bargain at all intervenes; whence the whole is spiritual.

6. To that which is objected, that he turns himself toward the spiritual good; it must be said that although he turns himself, nevertheless he turns himself in a disordered way; and this is more to be turned away than to be turned. An example of this is in Lucifer, who, turning himself toward God, wishing to be made equal to Him, fell more than he ascended; so he who turns himself toward buying the gift of the Holy Spirit recedes from God more than he approaches Him.

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