CHAP. X.

Of Prefentations to Benefices, and Simony.

I

Do not intend to treat of this Matter,

as it is a Part of our Law; but leaving that to the Gentlemen of another Robe, I fhall content my felf with offering an Historical Account of the Progrefs of it, with the Sense that the ancient Church had of it, together with fuch Reflections as will arife out of that.

At first the whole Body of the Clergy, in every City, Parish or Diocefe, was as a Family under the Conduct and Authority of the Bishop, who affigned to every one of his Prefbyters their peculiar District, and gave him a proper Maintenance out of the Stock of the Oblations of the Faithful.. None were ordained but by the Approbation, or rather the Nomination of the People, the Bishop being to examine into the Worth and Qualifications of the Perfons fo nominated. In the firft Ages, which were Times of Perfecution, it is not to be fupposed that Ambition or Corruption could have any great Influence, while a Man in holy Orders was as it were put in the Front, and exposed to the first Fury of the

2

Perfe

Perfecutors. So that what Tertullian fays on this Head will be easily believed, That thofe who prefided over them were first tried, having Apology. obtained that Honour, not by paying a Price for it, but by the Teftimony that was given of them; for the Things of God were not purchased by Money; he alluding probably to the Methods used by the Heathens to arrive at their Pontifical Dignities.

But as foon as Wealth and Dignity was by the Bounty of Chriftian Emperors made an Appendix to the Sacred Function, then we find great Complaints made of Diforders in Elections, and of Partiality in Ordinations, on which we fee fevere RefleЄtions made by the best Men both in the Eaftern and Western Churches. They not only condemned the Purchafing Elections and holy Orders with Money, but all the Train of Solicitations and Interceffions, with all Flattery and obfequious Courtship in order to thofe Things.

They indeed laid the Name of Simony chiefly on the Purchafing of Orders by Money, which was attempted by Simon of Samaria, commonly called Simon Magus; but they brought other Precedents to fhew how far they carried this Matter. Balaam's Hire of Divination, Gebazi's going after Naaman for a Present, and Jeroboam's making Priests of those who filled his Hands, are Pre- 2 Chron. Q 2 cedents xiii. 3.

Hom. in

cedents much infifted on by them to carry the Matter beyond the Cafe of a Bargain before Hand; every Thing in the Way of Practice to arrive at Holy Orders was all equally condemned. When Things were reduced into methodical Divifions, they reckoned a threefold Simony; that of the Hand when Money was given, that of the Mouth by Flatteries, and that of Service when Men by domeftick Attendance and other Employments did, by a temporal Drudgery, obtain the fpiritual Dignity.

Chryfoftom expreffes this thus; If you do Acta Ap. not give Money, but instead of Money, if you flatter; if you fet others at Work, and ufe other Artifices, you are as guilty: Of all these he adds, that as St. Peter said to Simon, Thy Money perish with thee, fo may thy Ambition perish with thee. St. Ferom fays, We fee many In Efai. reckon Orders as a Benefice, and do not feek for Perfons, who may be as Pillars erected in the Houfe of God, and may be most useful in the Service of the Church, but they do prefer thofe for whom they have a particular Affection, or whofe Obfequioufnefs has gained their Favour, or for whom fome of the great Men bas interceeded; not to mention the worst of all, those who by the Prefents they make them, purchase that Dignity.

A Corruption began to creep into the Church in the 5th Century, of ordaining vagrant Clerks, without any peculiar Title,

of

of whom we find St. Jerome often complainning. This was condemned by the Council of Chalcedon in a most folemn Manner. The Orders of all who were ordained Prefbyters, Deacons, or in the inferior Degrees, without a Special Title either in the City, in fome Village, Some Chapel or Monaftry, are declared null and void; and, to the Reproach of those who so ordained them, they are declared uncapable of performing any Function: But how facred foever the Authority of this Council was, it did not cure this great Evil; from which many more have sprung.

Can. 6.

A Practice rofe not long after this, which opened a new Scene. Men began to build Churches on their own Grounds, at their own Charges, and to endow thefe; and they were naturally the Mafters, and in the true Signification of the Roman Word, the Patrons of them. All the Churches in the firft Matricula were to be ferved by Perfons named to them by the Bifhop, and were to be maintained by him out of the Revenue of the Church; but these were put upon another Foot, and belonged to the Proprietors of the Ground, to the Builders, and the Endowers. They were alfo to Dos. offer to the Bishop a Clerk to ferve in them. It seems they began to think that the Bifhop was bound to ordain all such as were named by them: But Juftinian fettled this Matter

Q3

Fundus E

dificatio

Novel. 57.

C. 2.

Novel. 6.

сар. 1.

cap. 2.

Matter by a Law, for he provided that the Patriarch fhould not be obliged to ordain fuch as were nominated by the Patron, unless be judged them fit for it: The Reafon given is, that the holy Things of God might not be profaned. It feems he had this in his Eye, when by another Law he condemns those who received any Thing for fuch a Nomination, for fo I understand the patrocinium Ordina

tionis.

The Elections to moft Sees lay in many Novel.137. Hands, and to keep out not only Corruption but Partiality from having a Share in them, he by a special Law required, That all Perfons, Seculars as well as Ecclefiafticks, who had a Vote in Elections, fhould joyn an Oath to their Suffrage, that they were neither moved to it by any Gift, Promife, Friendship, or Favour, or by any other Affection, but that they gave their Vote upon their Knowledge of the Merits of the Perfons; it will easily be imagined that no Rule of this Kind could be much regarded in corrupt Ages.

Tom. 2.

195.

Gregory the Great is very copious in lamenting these Disorders, and puts always the threefold Divifion of Simony together. Manus, Oris, & Minifterii. Hincmar cites the Ifa. xxxiii. Prophet's Words, be that shaketh his Hands from holding of Bribes: in the Vulgar it is from every Bribe, applying it to three Sorts of Simony. And in that Letter to

15.