Digital Continent Feast of Sts. Peter and Paul 2016 | Page 40

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motives, morals, and loyalty. Lacking reliable authority over their own bishops and the
possibility of pontiffs hand-selected by an emperor put the reformers in a very difficult position.
The Issue of Simony

For the reformers, simony was at the root of most of the issues that needed to be dealt with. The
term simony was derived from the story of Simon Magus in the Acts of the Apostles. According