Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 14.djvu/24

 SIMPLE

SIMPLICIUS

States: (1) The priest may accept what is freely off ered I after the administration of baptism or matrimony, but should refrain from asking anything (no. 221). (2) The confessor is never allowed to apply to his own use pecuniary penances, nor may he ask or ac- cept anything from the penitent in compensation of his services. Even voluntary gifts must be refused, and the offering of Mass stipends in the sacred tri- bunal cannot be permitted (no. 289). (3) The poor who cannot be buried at their own expense should re- ceive free burial (no. 393). The Second and Third Plenary Councils of Baltimore also prohibited the ex- action of a compulsiu y contribution at the church en- trance from the faitliful who wish to hear Mass on Sundays and Holy Days (Cone. Plen. Bait. II, no. 397; Cone. Plen. Balt.'lII, no. 288). As this prac- tice continued in existence in many churches until very recently, a circular letter addressed 29 Sept., 1911, by the Apostolic Delegate to the archbishops and bishops of the Initecl States, again condemns the custom and requests the ordinaries to suppress it wherever found in existence.

To uproot the evil of simony so prevalent during the Middle Ages, the Church" decreed the severest penalties against its perpetrators. Pope Julius II de- clared simoniacal papal elections invalid, an enact- ment which has since been rescinded, however, by Pope Pius X (Constitution "Vacante Sede", 25 Dec, 1904, tit. II. cap. vi, in "Canoniste Contemp.", XXXII, 1909, 291). The collation of a benefice is void if, in obtaining it, the appointee either committed simony himself, or at least tacitly ajjproved of its commission by a third party. Should he have taken possession, he is bound to resign and restore all the revenues received during his tenure. Excommunica- tion simply reserved to the Apostolic See is pro- nounced in the Constitution Apo.stoliciE Sedis" (12 Oct., 1869): (1) against persons guilty of real si- mony in any benefices and against their accomplices; (2) against any persons, whatsoever their dignity, guilty of confidential simony in any benefices; (3) against such as are guilty of simony by purchasing or selling admission into a religious order; (4) against all persons inferior to the bishops, who derive gain {q-ua^s- tum facientes) from indulgences and other spiritual graces; (5) against those who, collecting stipends for Masses, realize a ijrofit on them by having the Masses celebrated in places where smaller stipends are usu- ally given. The last-mentioned provision was sup- plemented by subsequent decrees of the Sacred Con- gregation of the Council. The Decree "Vigilanti" (25 May, 1893) forbade the practice indulged in by some booksellers of receiving stipends and offering exclusively books and subscriptions to periodicals to the celebrant of the Masses. The Decree "Ut De- bita" (11 May, 1904) condemned the arrangements according to which the guardians of shrines some- times devoted the offerings originally intended for Masses partly to other pious purposes. The offend- ers against the two decrees just mentioned incur sus- pension ipso facto from their functions if they are in sacred orders; inability to receive higher orders if they are clerics inferior to the priests; excommunication of pronounced sentence (latce sententice) if they belong to the laity.

B.\llerini-Palmieri, Opus Theologicum Morale, II (Prato, 1890), 306-74; Lehmkuhl, Theotagia Maralis (llthed., Freiburg, 1910), I, 297-30.S; II, 707-09; G^nicot-Salsmans (6th ed.. Brussels, 1909), 237-44; Slater, Manual of Moral Theology, 1 (3r:i(l-;-,2: I.eini. Die Simonie (Freiburg. 1902); Barry. .Sinrthi.il M„n^lrnlions as an Occasion of Emolu- ment in Eccle.iin^lir,,! li.nnr. X.XXIX (1908). 234-45; Weber, A History ofSimum/ in th,- ChrMian Church (Baltimore. 1909).

N. A. Weber. Simple (Simplex). See Feasts, Ecclesiastical.

Simplicius, Saint, Pope (468-483), date of birth vinknown; d. 10 Mtirch, 483. According to the "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 249) Simplicius was the son of a citizen of TivoU named Castinus; and after the death of Pope Hilarius in 468 was elected to succeed the latter. The elevation of the new pope was not attended with any difficulties. During his pontificate the Western Empire came to an end. Since the murder of Valentinian III (455) there had been a rapid succession of insignificant emperors in the Western Roman Empire, who were constantly threatened by war and revolution. Following other German tribes the Heruli entered Ital}-, and their ruler Odoacer put an end to the Western Empire by deposing the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and assuming himself the title of King of Italy. Al- though an Arian, Odoacer treated the Catholic Church with much respect; he also retained the greater part of the former administrative organization, so that the change produced no great differences at Rome. During the Monophysite controversy, that was still carried on in the Eastern Empire, Simplicius vigorously defended the independence of the Church against the Ca'saropapism of the Byzantine rulers and the authority of the Apostolic See in questions of faith. The twenty-eiglith canon of the Council of Chalcedon (451) granted the See of Constantinople the same privileges of honour that were enjoyed by the Bishop of Old liome, although the primacy and the highest rank of honour were due to the latter. The papal legates protested against this elevation of the Byzantine Patriarch, and Pope Leo confirmed only the dogmatic decrees of the council. However, the Patriarch of Constantinople sought to bring the canon into force, and the Emperor Leo II desired to obtain its confirmation by Simplicius. The latter, however, rejected the request of the emperor and opposed the carrying out of the canon, that moreover limited the rights of the old Oriental patriarchates.

The rebellion of Basiliscus, who in 476 drove the Emperor Zeno into exile and seized the Byzantine throne, intensified the Monophysite dispute. Basilis- cus looked for support to the Monophysites, and he granted permission to the deposed Monophysite patriarchs, Timotheus Ailurus of Alexandria and Peter FuUo of Antioch, to return to their sees. At the same time he issued a religious edict (Enfcyklikon) addressed to Ailurus, which commanded that only the first three oecumenical synods were to be accepted, and rejected the Synod of Chalcedon and the Letter of Pope Leo. All bishops were to sign the edict. The Bishop of Constantinople, Acacius (from 471), wa- vered and was about to proclaim this edict. But the firm stand taken by the populace, influenced by the monks who were rigidly Catholic in their opinions, moved the bishop to oppose the emperor and to de- fend the threatened faith. The abbots and priests of Constantinople united with Pope Simphcius, who made e^-ery effort to maintain the (Catholic dogma and the definitions of the Council of Chalcedon. The pope exhorted to loyal adherence to the true faith in letters to Acacius, to the priests and abbots, as well as to the usurper Basiliscus himself. In a letter to Basiliscus of 10 Jan., 476, Simplicius says of the See of Peter at Rome: "This same norm of Apostolic doc- trine is firmly maintained by his [Peter's] successors, of him to whom the Lord entrusted the care of the entire flock of sheep, to whom He promised not to leave him until the end of time" (Thiel, "Rom. Pont.", 182). In the same way he took up with (he emperor the cause of the Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Timotheus Salophakiolus, who had been superseded by Ailurus. When the Emperor Zeno in 477 drove away the usurper and again gained the supremacy, he sent the |)ope a completely Catholic confession of faith, whereupcm Simplicius (9 Oct., 477) congratulated him on his restoration to power and