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countable and uncountable, plural simonies
The buying or selling of spiritual or sacred things, such as ecclesiastical offices, pardons, or consecrated objects. quotations examples
To his eyes it had no attraction; it savoured of simony, and was likely to bring down upon him harder and more deserved strictures than any he had yet received: he positively declined to become vicar of Puddingdale under any circumstances.
1855, Anthony Trollope, chapter 20, in The Warden
‘There are those two,’ he then said, ‘who were recently arraigned on a charge of high simony. Fancying a monstrance and stealing it and proposing to sell it. They pleaded the usual pagan ignorance.’
1989, Anthony Burgess, “Hun”, in The Devil’s Mode
He openly practiced simony; in other words, he sold benefices.
2007, Edwin Mullins, The Popes of Avignon, Blue Bridge, published 2008, page 37