Excommunication

“ Everything passes away quickly—but the excommunication—to outrage a minister of Christ! No one less than the Pope can pardon that!”
“God, who commands honor for father and mother, will pardon it, God will not excommunicate him! And I tell you that if that young man comes to my house I will receive him and talk with him, and if I had a daughter I would want him for a son-in-law; he who is a good son will be a good husband and a good father—believe it, Sister Rufa!” ”

“ Minor excommunication is separation on account of mortal sin from participation in spiritual benefits by which a man makes himself unworthy through criminal offence to continue to participate in grace, and this excommunication no one may impose upon a man who persists in God's grace. Major excommunication is the separation which the prelates of the church announce against a man as an open sinner, and by which they set him off from intercourse with Christians and from participation in the sacraments. ”

“ That excommunication was feared by the great majority of parish folk there is no reason to doubt. Certainly the greater excommunication might seriously injure a man in his business as well as his social interests, not to mention the trouble and expense of getting an absolution. [168] That excommunication reduced most offenders to order the church court proceedings demonstrate. ”

“ Meanwhile, I sat silent, with downcast eyes, and when they threatened me with excommunication if I did not go to the church meetings, and “fulfil my covenant,” I mustered up courage to say, with shaking voice, “I do not believe; I cannot go to your church, even if you do excommunicate me.”
When my Universalist friends heard of this threat of excommunication, they urged the preparation of a letter to the church, giving my reasons for non-attendance; and this was published in a Lowell newspaper, July 30, 1842. ”

“ Excommunication should not be used except where the Scriptures command it, that is, against those that have not the right faith, or that live in open sin, and not in matters of temporal goods. But now the case has been inverted: each man believes and lives as he pleases, especially those that plunder and disgrace others with excommunications ”

“ In the latter case—excommunication—the person absolutely loses his membership in the church, together with all the priesthood he holds; and if he ever regains a standing it will be by baptism and confirmation as at the first.
25. Of course to those who hold lightly their standing in the church, suspension of fellowship, or excommunication has no especial terror; but to the man of faith, whose full hopes of eternal life with all its advantages stand or fall with his standing in the church of Christ, no greater punishment can threaten him. ”

“ They are all guilty of simony, excommunicated of God, Who looks upon those whose own downfall will be caused by the excommunication they themselves pronounce. And seeing that there is a multitude of people excommunicated of God, therefore it is, dear friends, that we should flee His excommunication and entreat His grace, that it may please Him to keep us in His benediction. ”

“ Sine totius &c.: “Without the consent of some whole church (saith Zanchius1095) no man ought to be excommunicate. Yea, I add, if it be a small church, and not consisting of many learned and skilful men, excommunication ought not to be done, except the neighbour churches be asked counsel of.” And, as touching the pastor's part, Calvin saith well, Nunquam, &c.:1096 “I never thought it expedient the liberty of excommunicating should be permitted to every pastor.” ”

“ The secret excommunication is, whereby a man is separated from the mystical body of Christ, and so from God through sin, according unto the 59th of Isaiah, "Your iniquities have made separation between your God and you." And with this excommunication doth the apostle excommunicate every man who doth not love the Lord Jesus Christ; saying in the firsth epistle to the Corinthians, and the last chapter, "If any man do not love the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be accursed." ”

“ I Cor. 5:11: "Likewise it must be known that every one sinning mortally is excommunicated of God, in accordance with that Psalm, 'Cursed are those who depart from thy commandments,' and I Cor. 16:22, 'If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema.'" And although this excommunication is called minor because it is not pronounced solemnly in public by a prelate, nevertheless I fear it more than the major excommunication, with which the prelates now assail me. ”

“ That all particular Churches ought to be so constituted as, having their owne peculiar Officers, the whole body of every Church may meet together in one place, and jointly performe their duties to God and one towards another. And that the censures of admonition and excommunication be in due manner executed, for sinne, convicted, and obstinately stood in. ”

“ Heathens as well as Christians resorted to excommunication. The Druids made use of excommunication against rebels, and interdicted the communication of their mysteries to such as refused to submit to their judgments.
In the Christian Church, excommunication has been practised in all ages, and ecclesiastics have had continual recourse to it as one of their spiritual weapons. Not only have they excommunicated individuals, but whole families and provinces have come under their law, with horrible ceremonies and dreadful imprecations. Even kings have not escaped the Church's maledictions. ”

“ This much, in brief, with respect to excommunication, in regard to which that good Christian of holy memory and that great zealot of Christ's law, Master Frederick Epinge, bachelor of canon law, treating of the first article, said: "No prelate ought to excommunicate anybody unless he first knows that the person has been excommunicated by God." ”

“ After this sentence no person, his wife and family only excepted, may have any kind of conversation with him who is excommunicate; be it in eating and drinking, buying or selling, yea, in saluting or talking with him, except that it be at the commandment or with licence of the ministry, for his conversion; that he by such means confounded, seeing himself abhorred by the faithful and godly, may have occasion to repent and so be saved. The sentence of his excommunication must be published universally throughout the realm, lest any man should pretend ignorance. ”

“ Those who will not hear the Church must be excluded from the communion; but the civil power is to intervene when the ecclesiastical excommunication has been pronounced, and men must be compelled to come in. For, according to the more accurate definition of the Church which is given in the Confession of Schmalkald, and in the Apology of the Confession of Augsburg, excommunication involves damnation. There is no salvation to be hoped for out of the Church, and the test of orthodoxy against the Pope, the devil, and all the world, is the dogma of justification by faith. ”

“ The injury to neighbors which might easily arise as a result of the excommunication as, for example, the deprivation of wholesome teaching and sacraments, for he who wrongly excommunicates sometimes is the cause of the perdition of many through the withholding from the excommunicate teaching by which he would be instructed most profitably in the law of Christ. ”

“ Friedberg, 1: 446] : "No one ought to be excommunicated except for a criminal offence."
All, however, agree in saying that excommunication is of two kinds, major and minor, as is apparent from de Sent. Excom. si quem de cleri excommunicat. fieri, de except. cap. 2 [Friedberg, 2: 912] [4] where it is stated that a minor excommunication removes from the participation of the sacraments but the major separates from the communion of the faithful. ”

“ The three ends proposed by the church in such discipline are there stated to be, (1) that those who lead scandalous lives may not to the dishonour of God be numbered among Christians, seeing that the church is the body of Christ; (2) that the good may not be corrupted by constant association with the wicked; (3) that those who are censured or excommunicated, confounded with shame, may be led to repentance. He differentiates decisively between excommunication and anathema. ”

“ To the fourth they say, “That their first oath was for the profit of the realm, and the whole church, and all the prelates of the kingdom have passed the sentence of excommunication against all that contravene it: and being still of the same mind, they are ready prepared to die for the said oath. Wherefore they require the legate to recall his sentence of excommunication, otherwise they would appeal to the apostolic see, and even to a general council, or if need were, to the sovereign judge of all.” ”

“ By this excommunication they now designate me in processes and denunciations, shutting me out from all human communion. But blessed be God, who did not give such force to this [kind of] excommunication as to make it possible for it to take away from a good man virtue or righteousness, when he endures in humility, nor is it able to impose upon him sin [when he refuses to obey it] . ”

“ Nothing can more clearly prove the injustice of such excommunication. If the rabbi be not bound to regard the disciples’ excommunication, why should all the people be bound? If the offence committed against the disciple be a sin before God, and such it ought to be to require such severe punishment, the excommunication ought to be as binding upon the rabbi as upon the people. ”

“ The forms of excommunication.—The nature of the excommunication and discipline should be suited to the extent of the guilt, which is to be determined by the abbot. If the brother is guilty of one of the lighter sins, let him be deprived of participation in the common meal. The one who has been thus deprived shall not lead in the psalms and responses in the oratory or read the lessons; he shall eat alone after the common meal; so that, for example, if the brothers eat at the sixth hour, he shall eat at the ninth, and if the brothers eat at the ninth hour, he shall eat at vespers. ”

“ As for those who fear lest they, too, should incur excommunication by coming to hear my sermons, I ask: Is it a sin to preach? Is preaching a crime? If the author of the excommunication were to say so he would contradict the Gospel. ”

“ Although privation does not receive more or less in itself, yet it can, as regards its cause. In this way an excommunication can be repeated, and a man who has been excommunicated several times is further from the Church's prayers than one who has been excommunicated only once. ”

“ Since excommunication is only penalty and not guilt, and can be laid upon the innocent and allowed to remain upon the man who has returned to his senses, and, furthermore, since it is sometimes necessary to put off satisfaction, because of the length of the journey required or because of poverty; therefore the penitent who is excommunicated or under censure should be absolved from all his sins, if he seeks absolution, and be dismissed to the higher authorities to be loosed from excommunication and to make satisfaction. ”

“ Once upon a time there was only one church, and excommunication from that was a simple and straightforward matter; it can hardly be an irreligious age when one can feel, in listening to the testimony from the score of temples one’s friends have built, that one is in danger of being excommunicated from all twenty. ”

“ I had to begin at Padua.”
“Yes,” said the abbé, “but you are excommunicated, for I am a priest.”
“It’s little I care for the excommunication of a scoundrel like you, and if you say another word I will give you some more.”
“Calm yourself, my child,” said I; “you have cause to be angry, but you should not beat him. Take up your things and follow me.” ”

“ Ye are not bound in any way whatever to avoid any man, even though he be for the time being held under sentence of excommunication, either at the time of the celebration of the divine Mysteries or at other seasons (unless indeed there be any in your churches that are publicly denounced as excommunicate) , nor shall such intercourse be held to impute guilt to you or to any one of your company. ”

“ Hilary the bishop: adding this also, that the bishop do execute the pope's commandment, under pain of excommunication; this notwithstanding, if the catholic priests, learned in the law of God, do leave off preaching against the pope's heresies, for fear of excommunication of men, they are already excommunicate; which thing is evident, forasmuch as they are accursed through the consent of their silence, as St. Isidore saith, 11 quest. 1 par.: "He that doth consent unto sinners, or defendeth a sinner, he shall be cursed both before God and man, and shall be punished with a most severe rebuke." ”

“ An illegal excommunication, however, hurts not the person cited, but only the person who excommunicates. Hence it is to be noted that the Gloss of the Decretum, summarizing the chapter, says concerning these words of St. Augustine: "That that bishop had excommunicated Clazianus's whole family for Clazianus's sin, and that seemed to him the right thing to do, because one is sometimes punished with corporal punishment for the sins of another and also because some priests of great name have excommunicated certain persons for sins not their own. ”

“ So that excommunication is made use of, not as a punishment only, but as a remedy; that sinners, seeing the evil state they are in, being deprived of all hopes of salvation while they are out of the Church, may desire to be restored to God's grace, from which they are fallen, that they may work out their salvation with more fear for the time to come. ”