Saint Tarasios of Constantinople
Prolegomena
Our divine Father Tarasios lived in the reign of Constantine and Irene his mother, in the time of Nikephoros the Administrator General. In the year 795, through the influence exerted by Empress Irene, who was a woman belonging originally to the populace, he was elevated to the Patriarchal throne of Constantinople, succeeding Paul as Patriarch of Constantinople on the 21st day of the month of December, and held the office of Patriarch for 21 years and 2 months. He really did a great deed in that through his importunity he persuaded the Emperor and Empress to assemble the holy Seventh Ecumenical Synod, and by means of his begging letters to Pope Adrian of Rome and to the Patriarchs of the East, he persuaded these dignitaries to send legates, or deputies, to the Synod. He was an uncle of the most holy Patriarch Photios. Besides his other letters, he wrote this letter of his against simoniacs and despatched it to Pope Adrian of Rome because such an evil practice was going on also in Rome. This letter was accepted by the Church as a Canonical Epistle, and is to be found on p. 896 of the second volume of the Conciliar Records, and in volume II of the Pandects.
In many places and many ways, Evangelically, Apostolically, and Patristically, we are taught to have an unavaricious policy in the exercise of Holy Orders, and not to take gold or silver for the ordination of any hieratic man or priestly functionary, as we shall prove in the subjoined essays, based upon Scriptural utterances of God and upon the teachings of the Fathers of th Church. For those men who impose hands are servants of the Holy Spirit, not vendors thereof. For they have declared (Matt. 10:8) that men who have received the grace of the Holy Spirit freely must give it freely to those receiving it from them in turn, having acquired this liberty from the Lord’s utterance. But if anyone be proved to have bought this with gold, they pronounce such a man to be outlawed from the priestly class. For though he may have acquired Holy Orders nominally in a clerical manner, yet the assertion is disproved by the fact of the matter. For no one can serve both God and Mammon, as we learn evangelically (Matt. 6:24). And since we have been told prophetically through the shouting of God: "Priests, speak ye to the heart of Jerusalem" (Isa. 40:2) and again threatening: "But if the watchman see the sword coming, and blow not the trumpet, and the people be not warned; if the sword come, and take any person from among them, he is taken away in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at the watchman’s hand" (Ezek. 33:6); for fear of condemnation resulting from silence, we announce to all presiding dignitaries of our Churches, to speak openly and freely, in accordance with the words of the Apostle: "We are pure from the blood" (Acts 20:26) of those transgressing the Canonical injunctions, and most especially of those who have ordained or been ordained for money.
Peter the divine Apostle, whose seat your brotherly holiness has come into clerically, deposed these offenders like Simon the sorcerer. On this account we do not hesitate to announce the truth, keeping and holding on to the doctrines published by the Holy Apostle and our Fathers of celebrated memory, and if anything therein has been violated or transgressed by some men, we loathe and abominate them. Your brotherly and priestly prelatical holiness, therefore, legitimately and in accordance with the will of God pioneering in the exercise of prelatical authority enjoys a glory that is well known everywhere. For the great and first High Priest Christ our God has said through the Prophet: "As I live, I will glorify them that glorify me" (Rom. 14:11). For I am aware, Sir, imbued with the desires of the spirit, that the ungodly heresy of Macedonius and his Spirit-fighting adherents is more tolerable. For while the former prate about the Holy Spirit being a creature and servant of God and of the Father, the latter, it seems, would make Him their servant. For any lord, if he wish, can sell whatever he owns, whether it be a household servant or any other possession he has acquired. Likewise in the case of one buying, he acquires an object by paying the price in money because he wishes to become the lord of the object he is buying.
Thus those men who are engaged in this lawless practice, lower the Holy Spirit, by sinning equally with blasphemers who said that Christ casts out demons by Beelzebul (Matt. 9:34); or, to express the fact more truly, they are very much like Judas the traitor, who sold and betrayed Christ to the God-slaying Jews in exchange for pieces of silver. As, therefore, the Holy Spirit is of the same essence as Christ our God, it is plain that they will be of the same portion to everybody, as has been proved. If therefore it can be sold (for it evidently cannot), it is indisputable that the grace of the Holy Spirit is not in them, or, more explicitly speaking, they neither have received nor do they possess the power to exercise priestly functions, or the offices of Holy Orders. Let them remember the words of Saint Peter, who told the one professing this: "You have neither part nor lot in this matter" (Acts 8:21). For if the dignity of the Priesthood can be sold, then decent conduct during their life is superfluous to priests, and so is conformity with the requirements of chastity and virtue. According to them Paul the divine Apostle is also superfluous when he is teaching that: "A bishop, then, must be irreproachable, sober, modest, didactic, continent, an abstainer from intoxicating drinks, well equipped to teach the faithful word, in order to be strong enough to be of influence in the matter of sound doctrine, and to refute those gainsaying him" (I Tim. 3:2-7). All these qualifications are absent in a buyer and seller of Holy Orders. For the holy essays below presented declare him to be utterly a stranger to the Priesthood who ever gives or takes at any time money whether before the ordination or after the ordination. For taking is taking irrespective of when the taking occurred; moreover, they pretend to remove all ecclesiastical inconveniences if paid the money.
Canon 29 of the Holy Apostles
"If any Bishop become the recipient of this dignity through money, or any Presbyter, or any Deacon, let him be deposed as well as the one who ordained him, and let him be cut off from Communion, as was Simon the sorcerer by me Peter."
From the Acts of the Apostles
"And when Simon saw that through the laying on of the apostles’ hands the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money, saying, 'Give me also this power, that on whomsoever I lay hands, he shall receive Holy Spirit.' But Peter said unto him, 'Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money. Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter, for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Repent therefore of this thy wickedness, and pray God, that perhaps thy heart’s thought may be forgiven thee. For I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness, and in the clutch of injustice'" (Acts 8:18-23).
From the First Book of Kings, ch. 18, v. 38-34
"After this thing Jeroboam, returned not from his evil way, but made again from among all the people priests of the high places: whosoever would fill his hand, he consecrated him, that there might be priests of the high places. And this thing became a sin unto the house of Jeroboam, even to cut it off, and to destroy it from off the face of the earth."
From the Second Book of Kings, ch. 5, v. 15-27
"And Naaman returned to Elisha, he and all his company, and came, and stood before him: and he said, 'Behold, now I know that there is no God in all the earth but in Israel; now therefore, I pray thee, take a present from thy servant.' But Elisha said, 'As the Lord liveth, before whom I am standing, I will accept none.' And he urged him to take it; but he refused.
And Naaman said, 'If not, yet I pray thee let there be given to thy servant two mules’ load of earth; for thy servant will henceforth offer neither burnt offerings nor sacrifice unto other gods, but unto the Lord. In this matter the Lord pardon thy servant; when my master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, when I bow myself in the house of Rimmon, the Lord pardon thy servant in this matter.' And said he unto him, 'Go in peace.' So he departed from him a little way.
But Gehazi, the servant of Elisha, the man of God, said, 'Behold, my master hath spared this Naaman the Syrian, in not receiving from his hands that which he brought: as the Lord liveth, I will run after him, and take something from him.' So Gehazi followed after Naaman. And when Naaman saw someone running after him, he alighted from the chariot to meet him, and said, 'Is all well? My master hath sent me, saying, Behold, just now there have come to me from the hill country of Ephraim two young men of the sons of the prophets. Give them, I pray thee, a talent of silver, and two changes of raiment.' And Naaman said, 'Be content, take two talents.' And he urged him, and bound two talents of silver in two bags, with two changes of raiment, and laid them upon two of his servants; and they bore them before them. And when he came to the hill, he took them from their hand, and bestowed them in the house: and he let the men go, and they departed. But he went in, and stood before his master. And Elisha said unto him, 'Whence comest thou, Gehazi?' And he said, 'Thy servant went no whither.' And he said unto him, 'Went not my heart with thee when the man turned again from his chariot to meet thee? Is it a time to receive money, and to receive garments, and oliveyards and vineyards, and sheep and oxen, and menservants and maidservants! The leprosy therefore of Naaman shall cleave unto thee, and unto thy seed forever.'
And he went out from his presence a leper as white as snow."
Of Basil the Great, from his Commentary on Isaiah, ch. 8, v. 20
"He gave a law to help them say not like this word of the ventriloquist. For it was not invented for deception, like those words, but is a teacher of truth, whereas they practice divination for money. For this is the ludicrous thing, that ones deceived pay them money for the falsehood. But this word of the law is not such as to have presents be given for it. For no one can pay for grace, or give it for any payment. 'Freely,' He says, 'ye received, freely give ye' (Matt. 10:8). You see how Peter became indignant with Simon when the latter offered him money for the gift of the Holy Spirit? 'Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought that the gift of God may be purchased with money' (Acts 8:21). So the words of the Gospel are not like the words sold by ventriloquists. For what could anyone give for it as equivalent exchange! Listen to David wondering and saying: 'What shall I give unto the Lord for all that he hath given unto me?' (Ps. 115). So, then, there are no gifts or presents that can be given in exchange for this that are worth the grace received from Him. One gift is worth giving alone: that of keeping what has been given. He who gave you the treasure does not expect any payment of a price for what was given, but the keeping of it in a manner worthy of the gift."
Of the same Saint, from his Epistle to the Bishops under himself, which is his Canon 90
"They think that they are not sinning because they accept the money after the ordination, and not at the same time that the ordination is carried out. But an acceptance is an acceptance no matter when the acceptance occurs. I therefore beg you to put aside this step, or rather this expedition to Gehenna. Accordingly, do not soil your hands by taking such things, and thereby render yourselves unworthy to perform the Holy Mysteries."
From the Life of Saint John Chrysostom
"Eusebius, who had involved all us Bishops in a long discussion and who was the accuser of six other Bishops, came forward with a demand to be admitted to communion. Some of the Bishops objected that he ought not to be admitted, on the ground that he was a slanderer. In the face of the objections he supplicated, saying: 'Since the trial has been prolonged during two years and the postponement of it has been requested for the purpose of bringing witnesses, I pray your God-beloved reverence to let me have the witnesses today immediately. For though Antoninus, the Bishop who took the money and ordained others is dead, yet at any rate there remain the persons who paid the money and were ordained.' The present Council allowed the matter to be heard, accordingly the case was commenced with a reading of the minutes of the previous transactions. The witnesses entered; and the six who had given (money) and been ordained also entered. At first they denied it. But when the witnesses insisted, laymen as well as Presbyters, who seemed confident, although at first the said Bishops denied their guilt, the witnesses charged them with it outright, reminding them of times and places, and telling the kinds of the pledges made, and the amount, feeling uncomfortably affected by their consciences, without much pressure the Bishops confessed of their own accord they had paid and become such, deeming this sort of procedure necessary to free themselves from the public ministry ‘and we pray,’ they said, (you to decide) ‘if it is permissible for us to be in the ministry of the Church, since we paid money in order to receive it; for we gave some utensils belonging to our wives.' In regard to these things John promsied the Council that he would clear them of the senate by appealing to the Emperor, but told them to give orders to have returned to them what they had given by the heirs of Antoninus. The Council gave orders that they should receive the money from the heirs of Antoninus; and that they be permitted to commune within the altar but be disfranchised as priests, lest, as a result of these men having been pardoned, the Jewish or Egyptian custom of buying and selling Holy Orders come to be adopted. For it is alleged that the ravager falsely called the Patriarch of the Jews changes the chief rabbis every year, or every other year, with a view to collecting money, and likewise as to their zealous imitator the Patriarch of the Egyptians, in order to fulfill the prophetic passage saying: ‘The priests thereof responded for gifts, and the prophets thereof divined for money’" (Micah 3:ll).
From the Encyclical Epistle of Patriarch Gennadios
"Let him therefore be and he is proscribed, and shorn of every priestly dignity and function, and is subject to the curse of the anathema whosoever presumes to obtain this by means of money, and whosoever promises to bestow this for money, whether he be a Cleric or a layman, and whether he be exposed or not be exposed doing so. For there is no possibility of reconciling things irreconcilable; neither can Mammon agree with God, nor can those serving it serve God. This is also an indisputable pronouncement of the Lord’s ‘Ye cannot serve God and Mammon’" (Matt. 6:21).
Canon 22 of the Canons of the Holy Sixth Ecumenical Synod
"We command that those men be deposed from office, whether they be Bishops or Clergymen whatsoever, who have been ordained or are being ordained for money, and not in accordance with a test and choice of life, as well as those who ordained them. Let all of us lend an ear to these words, and listen to them, not only who are prelates, but also those of us who are numbered among the Clergy, and all men who are inhabiting the earth. For ‘we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip’ (Heb. 2:1); since we have not been bought with perishable silver or gold money from out of vain way of life handed down from our fathers ‘but with precious blood, as that of the blemishless and immaculate lamb Christ’ (I Pet. 1:19). Thus teach us, most sacred Sir, to follow the Scriptural and Evangelical and Apostolical precepts, as well as those of the Canons and of the Fathers. For we are willing to obey the words of your mouth. ‘Get thee up into the high mountains,… lift up thy voice with strength’ (Isa. 40:9). Proceed on broad ground. Preach outspokenly, so that imposition of hands for money may take to flight and vanish completely, together tvith whatever else follows it out of avarice for shameful profit in the way of injustice and commercial traffic. For once this together with its concomitants is eliminated from the peculiar people called by the name of Christ and gratis accorded redemption, all the contaminations due to wickedness will be exscinded therewith by the roots; and the Priests will flourish like palm-trees exhaling a fragrance to the persons being saved, and singing to the Church in exultation over the victory: ‘The Lord hath taken away from thee thine unjust deeds’ (Zeph. 3:16). Furthermore, also sweetening the fruits reaped, as well as multiplying them in ripe old age, with their exaltation, I mean, as heirs of that blissful and indefectible life."
Interpretation of the Canonical Epistle
This Epistle, too, like that of Gennadios, in dealing with the subject of simony, premises in the beginning of it that we are taught on all hands not to accept any money, gold or silver, for ordaining anyone in Holy Orders, by the Gospel, I mean, by the Apostles, and by the divine Fathers. For the prelates who ordain others, being servants of the Holy Spirit, and not sellers of Him, since they received the grace of the Holy Spirit freely and without paying any money, so and in like manner they decreed that those persons should give it to others after they themselves had received it, pursuantly to the Lord’s words saying, 'Freely received ye, freely give ye.' If anyone be shown to have received it in exchange for money, let them make him an outcast from the priesthood; accordingly, though such persons may retain the name of priests, they shall not exercise the functions of a priest; for no one can serve at the same time both God and Mammon, or the god of riches. But since Isaiah says for priests to speak to the heart of Jerusalem, and through Ezekiel God threaten any watchman who upon seeing the approach of a war fails to make it known to the people, that He will require from his hands the blood of those persons, therefore we too, fearing lest we be condemned on account of silence, are pointing out to all prelates this sin in order to enable them to be on their guard against it; and in order to say with the Apostle that we are innocent of the blood of persons who transgress the divine Canons and ordain others for money, or are ordained therefor, at a time when Peter the Apostle sent Simon the sorcerer to perdition, who was the first man to become responsible for such a sin. At this point the Saint turns to the Pope and tells him that the ungodly heresy of the simoniacs is worse than the heresy of the Pneumatomach Macedonius and his party. For those persons used to say that the Holy Spirit was a creature and servant of the Father, whereas simoniacs make the Holy Spirit out a servant of their own. For just as every owner sells anything he possesses just as he may wish, whether that thing be a servant or any other piece of property; and just as anyone buying anything buys it with money and becomes its owner and possessor of the thing he has bought, so and in like manner simoniacs dishonor the Holy Spirit, and buy and sell It, and blaspheme in a similar manner with those who used to blaspheme Christ and say that He was casting-out the demons from men by the aid of Beelzebul the ruler of the demons; or rather to say they resemble the traitor Judas, who sold Christ to the Jews for money, because they too sell the Holy Spirit, which is of the same essence and has the same nature as Christ, because It is a God too. But if the grace of the Holy Spirit cannot be sold (for it is evident that it never can be sold), it certainly does remain with those who buy it as the grace of the holy orders or of the priesthood, but neither have they received any holy orders at all, nor do they possess any. And let them remember the words which Peter the Apostle told Simon: 'Thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter' (Acts 8:21). For if holy orders could be bought, it would be superfluous and vain for those buying them to show any modesty or good behavior in life, such as is demanded of those who are going to enter holy orders. Paul the Apostle too would be superfluous and vain, who insists that a prelate must be irreproachable, sober, modest, temperate, continent, and capable of teaching and inducing others to acquire knowledge of God, and of refuting those who may gainsay him, for all such persons are accounted nothing by a seller and buyer of holy orders, in their exchange of money. In what follows he cites the testimony of others in which a man is defined to be a stranger to the priesthood if he takes or gives money therefor, either before ordination or after ordination. Thus, the testimony derived from c. XC of St. Basil the Great, and that from c. II of the 4th, and that from the Epistle of Gennadius, and c. XXII of the 6th require no interpretation, because we have already interpreted them; and see each of them in its proper place. As for the other evidence he cites from Scripture and from Saint Basil and the Life of Chrysostom, we will explain them succinctly.
The evidence drawn from the Acts of the Apostles says that Simon the sorcerer offered the Apostles money to give him too the authority whereby anyone he laid his hand upon should receive Holy Spirit. But Peter told him for his money to perish with him because he had had the presumption to think that he could obtain with this the gift of God, and Peter told him to repent of that wickedness of his, etc.
As for the testimony drawn from the First Book of Kings, this says that Jeroboam the servant of Solomon (who had taken the ten tribes of Israel and was reigning in Samaria) made priests in high places, and that whoever so wished might fill his hand (that means, perhaps, might bribe Jeroboam with money) and become a priest in high places, and so on.
As for the testimony from the Second Book of Kings, it says that after Naaman had been purified in the river Jordan, in accordance with the words of Elijah, he turned to him with all his array and sought to give him gifts and tried hard to induce him to accept them, but Elijah did not accept them. Seeing that Elijah did not take them, Gehazi, Elijah’s servant, secretly ran after Naaman and asked him for them. Naaman gave him two talents of silver in two bags, and two suits of clothes. But when Gehazi returned, Elijah upbraided him because he took the money in order to buy gardens and oliveyards and vineyards and sheep and oxen, and manservants and maidservants, and told him that he and all his seed would be affected with the leprosy of Naaman, and thereupon he became as white as snow from leprosy.
As for the evidence which he cites from the interpretation in the commentary on the eighth chapter of Isaiah made by Saint Basil the Great, the latter says: The law which God gave to help human beings is not like the words of magicians and sorcerers and their likes, to be bought with money (just as the things supposed to be bought by the deluded victims of sorcerers, which victims deserve to be fooled because they are not content with being deceived by falsehood, but even offer to buy it and pay money for it), since the grace of God cannot be sold. For the Lord has said, 'Freely received ye, freely give ye.' You see how angry Peter became with Simon and that he told the latter, 'Thy money perish with thee, because thou hast thought to obtain the gift of God with money,' do you not? So the words of the Gospel are not like those of sorcerers and of other magicians; for what payment can a man make in exchange for them? Listen how David is at a loss and wondering how he can requite God for His gifts; showing that no gift is worth divine grace. One gift alone is worth it, if a man keeps the gift of grace given him; for He who gave the man the gift is not demanding any payment for it, but only that the gift be kept.
As for the evidence drawn from the Life of Saint Chrysostom, it relates that a certain man by the name of Eusebius was accusing a certain bishop in Asia named Antoninus of receiving money for ordaining six bishops. The trial of this case had lasted two years, owing to the fact that Eusebius had had it postponed on the ground that he was going to bring witnesses to it. So, having fetched these witnesses after a delay of two years and after the said Antoninus had died, Eusebius told the Council that although Antoninus, the bishop who had ordained them, was dead, yet those persons who had paid the money and had been ordained were still alive. The Council heard the case, and the records of the previous trial were read. The six bishops in question stoutly denied that they had paid money in order to be ordained. But inasmuch as the witnesses too stoutly insisted and testified to the times and places at which the money was paid, and even to the kind of money paid, and to the amounts paid, at last the bishops confessed that they had paid money in order to have themselves ordained, and in order to avoid having themselves annoyed in the imperial services. If they were not going to be allowed to be bishops, they requested to be given back the money they had paid, which consisted of jewels owned by their wives. Hence divine Chrysostom and the Council ordered that the heirs of Antoninus return the money, and that the bishops so ordained be expelled from the priesthood, but be allowed to commune within the holy bema, lest, if permitted to perform the functions of holy orders, the Jewish or Egyptian custom of buying and selling holy orders obtain a foothold in the Church of God. For the one falsely called the Patriarch and chacham of the Jews changes the chief rabbis of the synagogues every year or two with a view to making more money; and the Patriarch of the Egyptians, in imitation of the Jews, does the same, in order that the prophecy may be fulfilled saying: 'Her priests (i.e., Jerusalem’s) give answers for hire, and her prophets divine (i.e., foretell the future) for money.'
After saying these things, divine Tarasios adds the following by way of epilogue. All of us, including both prelates and clerics, ought to listen to these words, and so ought all the inhabitants of the earth, by keeping them and paying heed wherever possible to what we are told therein, as Saint Paul says, in order to avoid being destroyed. He also urges Pope Adrian to mount the high places and lift up his voice, as the words of Isaiah suggest, in order to bring about the utter abrogation of the custom ordaining for money, and whatever results therefrom on account of avarice and greediness for shameful profits, and to effect the complete eradication from Christianity and from the Christian people altogether, who have been liberated freely from slavery to sin with the blood of Christ, of this pernicious vice and of the evil outgrowths resulting therefrom, in order that Christian priests may flourish like palm-trees (i.e., date-trees), exhaling the fragrance of Christ upon the Christians who are being saved from perdition, and at the same time telling the Church with Zephaniah: 'The Lord hath taken away from thee thine unjust deeds,' thus sweetening the spiritual fruits gathered by the people attending her vineyard, and making them heirs to the immortal and blissful life.
