A Censure of Simony, Chapter 2
CHAP. II.
Wherein the former definitions are cleered from certaine obiections and nice distinctions.
BVt for answere to our former Argument, The sophisticall Simonist, or simoniacall Sophister, distinguisheth, Inter Beneficium & beneficium, betweene the Benefice, and the benefit; Or more distinctly, Beneficium em…t, non officium: He buyeth the profit, not the office: Non Curam, Sed curam not the Cure of others soules, but the Cure and prouision for his owne body. Paschalis P. answereth this obiection: Si quis obiecerit non consecrationes emi, …. 1. p. 2. q. 3.Sed res qua ex consecratione proueniunt, penitu… desiper… probatur; Nam cum corporalis Ecclesia, aut Episcopus, &c. If any shall obiect that hee buyeth not the Consecrations, but those things which follow and attend the Consecration, hee is a manifest Do…ard. For seeing a Corps of a Church, or a Bishop, or such, cannot subsist or be maintained, without things Corporall▪ no more then the soule can liue corporally without the body; whoso…er selleth the one of these, without which the other cannot goe alone, hee leaues neither vnsold. Whereupon Gratian saith, Quando quis promouendus est ad Ecclesiam vel ordinem, Ibid.fructus proueniunt iure ordinis; & ideo non licitè emit. When a man is to be promoted to a Church or Bishopricke, or to the order and office of it, the fruits doe follow by right of order, and therefore the purchase it not lawfull. Both Pascals comparison, and Gratians reason, are apt and good. For there is such a mutuall and immediate relation, yea, combination and vnion betweene the Ministery and the Maintenance, as one cannot Subsist without the Support of the other, no more the… the soule can exercise sundry faculties (especially those sensitiue offices) without the instrument of the body, or the body can doe her Dutie, without her ordinarie Diet. And as Boaz tendered to his kinsman the purchase of El… lechs Lands, which at first offer he was willing to buy;Ruth. 4. but told him withall, that hee must purchase it of Naomi by marrying Ruth, both must goe together: So he that will buy the lands or inheritance of the Church and of the Ministry, hee must make account to buy Ruth ▪ with it. The maintenance & the ruthful, and carefull office of the Ministery goe hand in hand together; buy the one, and buy the other too. Therefore anciently Ordination did vse to carry the title with it; as Concil. Chal. Can. 6. So that hee who would buy the Maintenance, must buy also the Ordinance. And is not as well the Maintenance, as the ordinance of the Ministery, a gift of the Holy Ghost? Doth not the Lord say, I hauehave giuen the tithes to the Leuites? and are not these tythes holy? And who can giuegive a holy gift, Num. 18.21.or make a gift holy, but the Holy Ghost? Whence I inferre this Conclusion: Simony is a Desire, or Act of buying or selling the gifts of the Holy Ghost: but tythes, holy tythes are a gift of the Holy Ghost: Therefore, the Desire or Act of buying or selling holy tythes (by which I vnderstand all Church Maintenance) is Simony.
So that the Simonists former distinction serueth onelyonly to distinguish betweene right reason, …nd his owne fond imagination, which are no way compatible, but must needs make him, vt cum ratione insani…t. And truely I very easily beleeue, that hee speakes as hee thinkes? For few such Merchants would bee at that cost, to purchase such a Cure,Chr. in Act. 1. Hom. 3. were it not for the Commodity, as Chrysostome saith, I suppose no man, though neuer so thirstie of glory, would euer be made a Bishop, vnlesse necessitie called him thereunto; For who is sufficient for these things?Remains. p. 232. And Cardinall Poole, being charged by a Cardinall of the aduerse faction, with ambion in ouer-hasty seeking after the Popedome, answered, That he thought not the burthen of that great office to be so light, but that he was of the minde, that it was rather to be feared, then desired. But later times are so pregnant, producing such sky-soaring spirits, as now, who is not sufficient for these things? And what reason hath any man of reason to thinke, that these sufficient men should hauehave such leaden heads, as once to vouchsafe to reach out their golden hands, to the end to purchase and pull vponupon themselues the burthen of such a Cure: no more then he would thinke, that such would euer bee content (if it were possible) to become ioynt-purchasers with Christ, whose Bishopricke cost him the shedding of his most precious bloud; no nor euer imitate Saint Pauls example, Phil. 2.17. or obey Saint Iohns precept, 1. Ioh. 3.16.