Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who practices simony.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who practises simony.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun One who practices simony, or who buys or sells preferment in the church.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who carries on or is guilty of simony.
  • adjective Practising simony

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

See simony

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Examples

  • Anita by describing the strong chastisements of Honuphrius and the depravities (turpissimas!) of Canicula, the deceased wife of Mauritius, with Sulla, the simoniac, who is abnegand and repents.

    Finnegans Wake 2006

  • But then I remembered that it had died of paralysis and I felt that I too was smiling feebly as if to absolve the simoniac of his sin.

    Dubliners 2003

  • So one may not want to show up the simoniac rector before his own congregation (and the celebrants 'friends and relatives) not only because it makes the Church, which is divine, look bad, but also because Father Stock might go to pieces when his grossness becomes widely known and fall prey to the devil through despair.

    Waiting for God in Inglenook Moynahan, Julian 1988

  • Reply Obj. 6: In God's sight the mere will makes a man guilty of simony; but as regards the external ecclesiastical punishment he is not punished as a simoniac, by being obliged to resign, but is bound to repent of his evil intention.

    Summa Theologica, Part II-II (Secunda Secundae) Translated by Fathers of the English Dominican Province Aquinas Thomas

  • Provence; 1100, the Bishop of Autun was suspended as a simoniac;

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 15: Tournely-Zwirner 1840-1916 1913

  • A faithful follower of Gregory VII in his conflict with the simoniac clergy, born probably at Milan made Cardinal of San Mareo, assisted

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 2: Assizes-Browne 1840-1916 1913

  • The church of Gap had, among other bishops, St. Aregius (or Arey, 579-610?), who established at Gap a celebrated literary school and was held in great esteem by St. Gregory the Great; also St. Arnoude (1065-1078), a monk of Trinité de Vendôme, named bishop by Alexander II to replace the simoniac Ripert, and who became the patron of the episcopal city.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 6: Fathers of the Church-Gregory XI 1840-1916 1913

  • The latter was succeeded by Guido (1045), also a simoniac.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 10: Mass Music-Newman 1840-1916 1913

  • Blasphemers and incontinent, negligent, or simoniac ecclesiastics were to be severely punished.

    The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 9: Laprade-Mass Liturgy 1840-1916 1913

  • But then I remembered that it had died of paralysis and I felt that I too was smiling feebly as if to absolve the simoniac of his sin.

    Dubliners James Joyce 1911

Comments

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  • One who practices simony, or who buys or sells preferment in the church. According to Dante, a resident of Malebolge in the afterlife.

    December 11, 2007