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much of faith, that it is the gift of God and that it must not be forced upon any one by the sword of iron " (i. 196) whoever refused to accept the creed of the State was relentlessly persecuted. Even the ruler of Saxony and sovereign of Luther, Elector John Frederick, treated " Anabaptism " as a capital crime. In 1536 a number of Anabaptists were beheaded at Jena in Saxony, upon Melanchthon's advice, for no other cause than error in doctrine. Menno says: " I seek . . . the praise of the Lord and my salvation and the salvation of many souls. For this I, my poor feeble wife and little children have for eighteen years endured extreme anxiety, oppression, affliction, misery, and persecution, and wherever we sojourned, we were in fear and danger of life. Yea, when the preachers [of the state churches] repose on easy beds and downy pillows, we generally must hide ourselves in secluded corners . . . and when the dogs bark, it may mean that the catch polls are upon us here. Whilst they are gloriously rewarded for their services with large incomes and easy times, our recompense and portion must be fire, sword, and death " (i. 7).

The writings of Menno Simons and Dirk (Theodor) Philips are the principal sources for the study of the principles and aims of the most prominent dissenting party of the Netherlands, Germany, and Switzerland of Reformation times. Not only were these men the spokesmen of their immediate followers, but the Swiss Brethren were of one mind with them on all vital points of doctrine and practise. A view of the Reformation which fails to take due account of the great body of Christians which attempted, with unexcelled devotion to principle -the Reformed historian Ernst Muller speaks of them as " a church of martyrs "-the restoration of the Church to its primitive purity and power; which, at variance with the leading Reformers, insisted on the voluntary principle and separation of Church and State, must necessarily be inadequate.

JOHN HoRscH.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Biographies have been written by A. M. Cramer, Amsterdam, 1837 (still the best); C. Harder, Konigsberg, 1846; B. C. Roosen, Leipsic, 1848; Browne, Philadelphia, 1853; F. Bastian, Strasburg, 1857; and C. Fleischer, Amsterdam, 1892. See also the literature under MENNONITES.

SIMONS, WALTHER EDUARD: German Protestant; b. at Elberfeld May 27, 1855. He was educated at the universities of Bonn, Strasburg (lie. theol., 1880), Zurich, Berlin, and Giittingen, and after holding pastorates at Rheinfelden, near Basel (1881-83), and Leipsic (1883-92), became, in 1892, privat-docent for practical theology at Bonn, where he was appointed professor three years later. Since 1902 he has been professor of the same subject at Berlin, and also director of the catechetical seminar of the same university. In theology be belongs to the liberal school. He has written Hat der dritte Evangelist den kanonischen Matthdus benutzt f (Bonn, 1880); Eine altkolnische Seelsorgegemeinde als vorbild fur die Gegenwart (Berlin, 1894); Die dlteste evangelische Gemeindearmenpflege am Niederrhein (Bonn, 1894); Freikirche, Volkskirche, Landeskirche (Freiburg, 1895); Niederrheinisches Synodalund Gemeindeleben " unter dem Kreuz " (1897 ); Konfirmation and Konfirmandenunterricht (Tiibingen,

1900); KBlnische Konsistorialbeschliisse (Bonn, 1905); Matthes TV eyer, sin Mystiker aus der Reformationszeit (Tabingen, 1907); Bin Vermachtniss Calvim an die deutschrevangelischen Kirchen (1909); Urkundenbuch zur rheiniachen Kirchengeschichte, i. Synodalbuch (1909; in collaboration with others); and Die Konfirmation (1909).

SIMONY: A term defined by Thomas Aquinas as " the deliberate will to buy and sell spiritual things [privileges and rights] and their appurtenances." The primitive Church regarded this offense as the gravest among those exclusively-within the province of ecclesiastic legal ruling, it being conceived as a sin against the Holy Ghost in that it assumed to engage the offices of the Holy Ghost in consideration of money or its equivalent. The name has its origin, according to the narrative in Acts viii. 18 aqq., in the sacrilege of Simon Magus (q.v.), who desired to buy from the Apostle Peter the power to impart the Holy Ghost to whom he would. Especially the sale or purchase of ordination for money or its equivalent must, from this account, have been viewed as simony, seeing that (even as early as the fourth century) the theory had grown up that by means of ordination, through the laying on of a bishop's hands, the Holy Ghost is received, and with it the power to forgive and to retain sins. By degrees the concept reached the expanded form expressed by Thomas Aquinas, ut sup. In the main, however, simony was held to be traffic in spiritual offices. The viciousness of simony in this peculiar sense of the term was purposely emphasized by the popes in opposition to the emperors during the investiture strife (see INvEs=RE), and was employed as chief weapon in that conflict. The Evangelical conception of ordination involves the consideration of simony as the bestowal and procurement of spiritual offices for money.

It is directly consonant with the primitive concept of simony, that to give and to take money or its equivalent not simply for the sacrament itself, but also for the administration of sacraments and sacramental acts, came generally to be viewed as simony. Nevertheless, it soon grew clear that a voluntary gift in token of gratitude for such dispensations and their acceptance ought not to be so branded; indeed, where a fixed custom had grown up of showing oneself thankful by means of suitable presents, not to recognize the favor came to be regarded as reprehensible. In that way the Stole Fees (q.v.) came into being. A special kind of simony, which can occur only in the Roman Catholic Church, is the granting or obtaining of admission into a spiritual order for money or its equivalent.

An extension of the idea is found when the Church treats as simony the selling and buying of the right of patronage on its own account. According to canon law, certified simony involves in the Roman Catholic Church for all the guilty parties excommunication from which the pope alone can give absolution. If the act has remained secret, however, the bishops can absolve it. In connection with ordination, simony subjects the ordained offender to suspension from the received rites of consecration, and to the construction of irregularity. Likewise