Foreword

Foreword

The term “simony” is derived from Simon Magus, the Samaritan sorcerer of Acts 8 who offered Peter silver in exchange for the power of the Holy Spirit. While it most frequently refers to the purchase of church office, the term refers more broadly to the buying and selling of any spiritual thing.

When The Anatomy of Simon Magus, or, The Sin of Simony Laid Open was first published in London at the turn of the 18th century, the sale of ecclesiastical privileges was alive and well in the Church of England, albeit in forms that were not widely regarded as simony. These usually centered around the right of presentation, also known as advowsons, by which one could recommend a candidate for a vacant church office¹. The anonymous author penned this work not as a historical curiosity but as an autopsy, to expose the very real corruption of his own day.

Why, then, does this Anglican treatise from 1700 demand our attention in 21st-century evangelicalism? Because the concerns present therein have found their modern analogs. We may not traffic in benefices and bishoprics, but we have found new ways to make commerce of spiritual things. Spiritual words² are merchandised as biblical instruction is licensed and sold through conference tickets, seminary tuition, ebooks, and more. As the anatomist sought an antidote by dissecting the ancient sorcerer, we would do well to follow suit. The way forward is backward: We must revive the distinctions of the early and medieval church.

While the text of this work has been modernized, the world it describes remains distinctly foreign. Additionally, Reformed readers like myself will find the Anglican presuppositions theologically uncomfortable. I urge you not to be distracted by the author’s specific background and ecclesiastical grievances but rather to look to the anatomy he presents: a surgical exposure of the sin of simony.

It seems fitting at this point to end with the words of a contemporary review: “The author…has uttered some ungrateful truths, which will not be well relished by several in this age; and perhaps some will be free in their censuring of us also for giving this account of it. But, magna est veritas, & prævalebit; truth will still be such, in spite of the prejudices, prepossessions, and contradictions of unreasonable and gainsaying men.”³

Conley Owens
Sunnyvale, CA
January 29, 2026