This is similar to a word I am familiar with, barratry. MW on-line has:
barratry < ME barratrie < MF baraterie, deception, < barater to deceive, exchange.
1. the purchase or sale of office or preferment in church or state.
2. an unlawful act or fraudulent breach of duty on the part of a master of a ship or of the mariners to the injury of the ship or cargo.
3. the persistent incitement of litigation.

I am quite familiar with the second definition, being in the shipping business, but I was surprised to find that barratry is the same as simony, at least in the case of ecclesiastical preferment. Simony is, of course, derived from Simon Magus, whose story is told in The Acts of the Apostles. And I certainly have never heard this as used in def. 3.