Anonymous

Anonymous

Anonymus

Author unknown.

The Flower of the Commandments of God

The Flower of the Commandments of God

The Floure of the Commandementes of God

1521·585 pages

Of Simony, Which God Forbids

Of Symony That God Defendeth

A chapter from The Floure of the Commandementes of God, the English translation (first printed 1510, traditionally ascribed to the translator Andrew Chertsey) of the French Fleur des commandements de Dieu, giving a complete popular treatise on simony. It opens with the scholastic definition — Simonia est studiosa voluntas emendi vel vendendi spirituale vel spirituali annexum — and the three modes of simoniacal exchange (the gift of the hand, of the tongue, and of service), then surveys simony in benefices, resignations, and pensions. It turns to the great scriptural exempla: Simon Magus and Peter's rebuke, and Gehazi and the leprosy that clung to him for taking Naaman's gifts. It closes by condemning the simony of advocates who sell their pleading and of clerks who sell the gospel and the sacraments, and by commending penance and almsdeeds as the remedy for those who have sinned by simony.

The Commandments: Of Simony·fol. 78va–82rb
The Anatomy of Simon Magus, Or, the Sin of Simony Laid Open

The Anatomy of Simon Magus, Or, the Sin of Simony Laid Open

The Anatomy of Simon Magus, Or, the Sin of Simony Laid Open

1700·232 pages
Didascalia and Apostolic Constitutions, Volume I

Didascalia and Apostolic Constitutions, Volume I

Didascalia et Constitutiones Apostolorum, Volumen I

1905·773 pages

Apostolic Canons, Canon 29

Canones Apostolorum, Canon XXIX

The twenty-ninth of the Canones Apostolorum, the collection of eighty-five disciplinary canons appended to Book VIII of the Constitutiones Apostolorum (c. 380). Presented in Funk's edition with the Greek text on the facing page. Canon 29 forbids the purchase of episcopal, presbyteral, or diaconal office: anyone who obtains ordination through money is to be deposed, along with the bishop who ordained him, and both are to be cut off entirely from communion — "as Simon Magus was by me, Peter."

Canon XXIX·fol. 577–577

Apostolic Constitutions VI, 9

Constitutiones Apostolorum VI, 9

Chapter 9 of Book VI of the Constitutiones Apostolorum (c. 380), presented in Funk's critical edition with the Greek text. Peter narrates his encounters with Simon Magus — first at Caesarea, then at Rome, where Simon attempts to fly before Nero, falls, and breaks his legs. One of the principal patristic retellings of the Simon Magus legend.

Constitutiones Apostolorum VI, 9·fol. 324–326