simony
The buying or selling of spiritual or sacred things, such as ecclesiastical offices, pardons, or consecrated objects.
countable, uncountable
To his eyes it had no attraction; it savoured of simony, and was likely to bring down upon him harder and more deserved strictures than any he had yet received: he positively declined to become vicar of Puddingdale under any circumstances.
Where it comes from
From Middle English simonie, symonye, from Old French simonie, from Late Latin simonia, named after Simon Magus (Hebrew שִׁמְעוֹן (Šimʻôn, “Simon”)), with reference to Acts 8:18–20.
Adapted from the Wiktionary entry simony (CC BY-SA 4.0).