SOME REMARKS ON THE PHENOMENON OF SIMONY IN THE LIGHT OF LATE ANTIQUE AND EARLY MEDIEVAL NORMATIVE DOCUMENTS OF THE CHURCH: AN ATTEMPT TO ESTIMATE THE SCALE OF THE PROBLEM

Abstract

Simony, or the trade in church dignities, has accompanied the Church from the very beginnings (just mention the case of Simon Magus). In this article, I discussed cases of simony from the 4th to the 8th century in the light of the normative documents of the Church (canons issued at synods and councils). Based on the analyzed sources, I attempted to estimate the scale of the problem and show how the phenomenon of simony developed in the period in question. I used selected writings by Christian authors as supplementary literature. I based the main line of argument on the canons, because in them we can find confirmation of the existence of the phenomenon of simony on legal grounds (repeating prohibitions usually indicates the low effectiveness of previous recommendations). The documents show that the problem of simony existed and increased with the growth of the institution of Church. In the article, I also outlined some problems, the development of which would constitute future research postulates (such as the prices of church positions, the reasons for which they were traded, the possible consequences of such trade or the criticism of simony by Christian authors). Why did I propose the period of the 4th-8th centuries? As for the first caesura, at this time canons against simony appeared and also since the Edict of Milan in 313, Christianity became a tolerated religion, gaining more and more favor from the Roman authorities, and then, from the reign of Theodosius, it became the only accepted religion of the Roman Empire. The closing caesura is the 8th century, because it was then that the Second Council of Nicaea, which was extremely important for Christianity, took place in 787, and it was also a time of expansion of Islam and the slow end of the formation of the medieval era (some researchers, such as M. Banniard, date Late Antiquity to the 8th century). I would also like to note that many studies on simony have been written on later periods, and the period I have chosen, the 4th-8th centuries, did not have a comprehensive look at the scale of the problem and the development of the phenomenon of simony. The purpose of this study is to begin the process of filling the existing gap in research on simony, and also starting a discussion on the topic.