Golden Summa on the Four Books of Sentences

Summa aurea in quattuor libros Sententiarum

1500·Latin·661 pages PDF (679.3MB) Source

William of Auxerre's Summa aurea in quattuor libros Sententiarum, an early scholastic systematic theology composed in the 1220s and arranged as a commentary on the four books of Peter Lombard's Sentences. Simony is treated in Book III in connection with the sacrament of orders. This editio princeps was printed at Paris by Philippe Pigouchet for the booksellers Nicolas Vaultier and Durand Gerlier on 3 April 1500, edited by the theologian Guillermus de Quercu, who also added the alphabetical index that follows the main text. This copy is from the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Munich.

Author

William of Auxerre

Guillelmus Altissiodorensis

1150–1231

Readings

On Simony

De symonia

William of Auxerre's treatise on simony, occupying the second half of Book III, Tractatus XXI of the Summa aurea (c. 1220s). Following the discussion of usury that opens the tractate, Auxerre turns to simony with the question quid sit symonia, defining it as "the deliberate will to buy or sell something spiritual or annexed to a spiritual thing." The treatise then proceeds through a series of questions: whether a secular judge selling justice commits simony; whether preaching for temporal gain is simoniacal; the sale of sacraments and the canonical gift-types (munus a manu, a lingua, ab obsequio); the conferral of prebends for money; the sale of schools; whether the decretists err on simony; the sale of testimony; and whether the right of patronage may be sold. Throughout, Auxerre weighs Scripture, the Decretum, and the Parisian theological tradition, marking an important early-scholastic moment in the transition from canonistic to systematic-theological treatment of simony.

William of Auxerre·1225·Latin·Liber III, Tractatus XXI·fol. 226va–230va