 Accordingly, the Popes resorted to the expedient of selling several lucrative offices of the Roman Curia to the highest bidder; however, these sales were not of the offices "per se", but of the receipts of the offices, e. g., the taxes paid for the favours that were granted through the pertinent office.Some of the offices that Pope Sixtus V classified as "vacabili" were of minor importance and therefore did not require special competence were sold with a grant of the right of succession to the heirs of the purchaser.Offices that entailed grave obligations and for which only pious and learned men were eligible were sold without this right and therefore reverted to the Roman Curia on the death of the purchaser.