Canon 5 Against simony and those who boast of it

It is a sin unto death when some, sinning, remain uncorrected. And worse than this, if, stiff-necked as well, they rise up against piety and truth, preferring Mammon to obedience to God, and not holding to his canonical ordinances. In these the Lord God is not, unless perhaps, being humbled, they return to soberness from their own fault; for they ought rather to draw near to God, and with a contrite heart to ask the remission and pardon of this sin, not to pride themselves on the unlawful giving. For the Lord is near to those who are contrite in heart. Those, then, who boast that they have been placed in the Church through the giving of gold, and who rest their hope on this evil custom, which estranges from God and from all priesthood, and who from this, with shameless face and open mouth, dishonour with reproachful words those who, for virtue of life, were chosen by the Holy Spirit and appointed without the giving of gold: those who do this are first to take the lowest rank of their own order; and if they persist, they are to be corrected by penance. And if anyone should ever appear to have done this in an ordination, let it be done according to the apostolic canon which says: If any bishop becomes master of this dignity through money, or a presbyter, or a deacon, let him be deposed, both he himself and the one who ordained him, and let them be cut off altogether from communion, as Simon the magician was by me, Peter. Likewise also according to the second canon of our holy Fathers in Chalcedon, which says: If any bishop should perform an ordination for money, and bring down to sale the grace that is not for sale, and ordain for money a bishop, or a chorepiscopus, or a presbyter, or a deacon, or any of those numbered in the clergy, or promote for money a steward, or an advocate, or a warden, or anyone at all belonging to the canon, for his own base gain, he who has attempted this, being convicted, let him be in peril of his own rank; and let the one ordained be in no way benefited by the ordination or promotion made by trade, but let him be estranged from the dignity or the charge which he obtained for money. And if anyone should appear even acting as go-between in such shameful and unlawful takings, let him too, if he be a cleric, fall from his own rank; and if a layman or a monk, let him be excommunicated.