simony

noun

1. (countable, uncountable)The buying or selling of spiritual or sacred things, such as ecclesiastical offices, pardons, or consecrated objects.

   “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.”

   “‘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.’”

   “He openly practiced simony; in other words, he sold benefices.”