medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
In C. 1 q. 1 of Gratian's Decretum, a decree of Urban II says a man
ordained via simony committed by his family without his knowing it cannot
act as a priest unless the bishop permits it. The text says: suspensus a
sacerdotali officio. Urban seems to admit valid orders use of which is
suspended.
Tom Izbicki
> medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>
> You've "opened a can of worms" with your
> question. The best treatment of the question is
> Uta- Renate Blumenthal's The Invesitutre
> Controversy. On p. 95 she notes that Peter
> Damiani asserted the validity of ordinations by
> simoniacs in his Liber gratissimus.
>
> Further from the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia:
> After the eleventh century the discussions
> concerning simony gave new sharpness to the
> controversy about reordinations. Cardinal Humbert
> affirmed the nullity of simoniacal ordinations as
> did also the Synod of Girona (Spain) in 1078. In
> the strife between the emperors of Germany and
> the popes of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
> the power of ordination of schismatic bishops was
> discussed and denied in various ways (cf. Saltet,
> "Les réordinations", 205-412). In the thirteenth
> century the conditions for the validity of Holy
> orders were determined in such a way that since
> then all uncertainty has been excluded.
>
> That ordinations performed by an unlawful
> minister are illicit, no theologian ever doubted;
> but whether they are, moreover, to be regarded as
> null and void was of old a most intricate
> question-so much so that the Master of the
> Sentences writes: "This problem is rendered
> complex and almost insoluble by the statements of
> the doctors which show considerable discrepancy"
> (I, iv, dist. 25). He then presents four
> opinions, none of which he adopts. For each
> view-that which affirms and that which denies the
> nullity of such ordinations-there seemed to be
> innumerable evidences from church history, as
> long as the question was not cleared up. But for
> several centuries past, the teaching of St.
> Thomas alone has prevailed and is accepted by the
> whole Church, to the effect that ordinations
> performed by heretical, schismatical, or
> simoniacal ministers are to be considered as
> valid ["Tractatus de ordine", cap. iv, n. 136, in
> Migne, "Theologiĉ cursus completus", XXV (Paris,
> 1841), 55].
>
>
>>medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
>>
>>I have what I hope is a quick question about simony. Simony was
>> considered
>>a heresy, in that it seeks to exchange the Holy Spirit for financial gain
>> or
>>other favors, but was a simoniacal ordination considered to actually
>> endow
>>the recipient with the Holy Spirit? In other words, if I purchase my
>>ordination, do I receive the Holy Spirit and thereby the ability to
>> absolve
>>sins, perform the eucharist, and so on? Do the parishoners who receive
>> the
>>sacraments from me receive valid sacraments or not?
>>
>>Andrew E. Larsen
>>
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>
> --
> George Hardin Brown, Professor of English Emeritus
> Department of English, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94305-2087
> Home: 451 Adobe Place, Palo Alto, CA 94306-4501
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