Under the title of Gorboduc it was published first very corruptly in 1565, and in better form as The Tragedy of Ferrex and Porrex in 1570.
The penalty for taking money, &c., to procure ordination or to give orders or licence to preach is a fine of £40; the party so corruptly ordained forfeits £10; acceptance of any benefice within seven years after such corrupt entering into the ministry makes such benefice merely void, and the patron may present as on a vacancy; the penalties are divided as in the last case.
By the Simony Act 1713 if any person shall for money, reward, gift, profit or advantage, or for any promise, agreement, grant, bond, covenant, or other assurance for any money, &c., take, procure or accept the next avoidance of or presentation to any benefice, dignity, prebend or living ecclesiastical, and shall be presented or collated thereupon, such presentation or collation and every admission, institution, investiture and induction upon the same shall be utterly void; and such agreement shall be deemed a simoniacal contract, and the queen may present for that one turn only; and the person so corruptly taking, &c., shall be adjudged disabled to have and enjoy the same benefice, &c., and shall be subject to any punishment limited by ecclesiastical law.
Selected as minister of public works by Depretis in 1887, and by Crispi in 1893, he contrived to mitigate the worst consequences of Depretis's corruptly extravagant policy, and introduced a sounder system of government participation in public works.