2. There were two excommunications, the gi'eatet
EXCOMMUNICATION
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EXCOMMUNICATION
(major) and lesser (^mhior'). The excommunicatio minor ((((/loptfT/iuf) exchulfd from participation in the Eucha- rist and prayers of tlie faithful, but did not expel from the Cliurcli ; for the person under its sentence might stay to hear the ])salmody, reading of the Scripture, sermons and prayers of the catechumens and peni- tents, and then depart as soon as the first service, call- ed the sei-rke of cak'chuniens, was ended (Theod. Ep. 77 ; ad Eulnl. iii, 797). This punishment was com- monly inflicted npon lesser crimes, or if upon greater, upon such sinners onlj' as showed a willingness to re- pent— upon those who had lapsed rather through in- lirmitj' than maliciousness. The excommunicatio ma- jor, greater excommunication {TravTiKi)Q cKpopiaiioi!), was a total expulsion from the Church, and separation from communion in all holy offices with it (^Encyclop. Meti-opolitana). "When attended with execrations, ex- communication was called anathema (see article, vol. i, p. 219). The several churches mutually informed each other of their own separate excommunications, in order that a person excommunicated by one church might be held so by all ; and any church which re- ceived him was held deserving of similar punishment. He who was guilty of any intercourse with an excom- municated person, himself incurred a like sentence, which deprived him of Christian burial and insertion in the dipt3-chs or catalogues of the faithful. No gifts or oblations were received from the excommunicated. Kg intermarriages might take place with them. Their books might not be read, but were to be burned (Bing- ham, Ori<j.Eccl. bk. xv). For the jestoration of ex- communicated persons, penances (c]. v.) and public pro- fessions of repentance were required; and in Africa and Spain the absolution of lapsed persons (i. e. those who, in time of persecution, had yielded to the force of temptation, and fallen away from their Christian pro- fession b}^ the crime of actual sacrifice to idols) was forbidden, except at tlie hour of death, or in cases where martyrs interceded for them. See Lapsi.
(III.) The Romitn Church. — As the pretensions of the hierarchj' increased, excommunication became more and more an instrument of ecclesiastical power, as well as a means of enlarging it. When the Church had full control of the state, its sentences were attend- ed with the gravest civil as well as ecclesiastical con- sequences. There are three degrees of excommunica- tion, the minor, the major, and tiie anathema.
1. The minor is incurred bj' holding communion with an excommunicated person : oratvnie, locutione, bibendo, comedendo — praying, speaking, drinking, eating ; and absolution may be given by any priest on confession. Priests who have incurred the minor ban may admin- ister the Eucharist, but cannot partake of it.
2. The major excommunicatio falls upon those who disoliey the commands of tlic pope, or who, having been found guilt}' of any oftence, civil or criminal, re- fuse to submit to certain points of discipline ; in conse- quence of which thc}' are excommunicated from the Church triumphant, and delivered over to the devil and his angels. It requires a written sentence from a bish- op after three admonitions. It deprives the condemn- ed person of all tlie blessings of tlie Church in any shape, except that he is not debarred from hearing the "Word. So long as the State obeyed the Church, civil disabilities followed the sentence of excommunication; no obedience was due to the excommunicated; the laws could give them no redress for injuries ; and none could hold intercourse with them under penalty of ex- communication. On this last point, however, a dis- tinction has been made since the l.jtli centurj'' be- tween those who are called tolerati (tolerated) and those who are designated as vitandi (persons to be shunned). Only in the case of the latter (a case ex- tremely rare, and confined to heresiarchs, and other signal offenders against the, faith or ])ublic order of the Cinirch) are the ancient rules for prohibition of intercourse enforced. With the 'tolerated,' since the
celebrated decree of Pope Martin V in the Council of Constance, the faithful are permitted to maintain the ordinary intercourse. 13y the 12th century the word ban (hannus, bannum), which in ancient jurisprudence denoted a declaration of outlawry, had come into eccle- siastical use to denote the official act of excommunica- tion. Sec Ban.
The professed aim of excommunication was the re- form of the oftender as well as the purification of the Church. Absolution can be granted, in case of the major ban, only by the authorit}^ which laid the ban, or its successor. Before absolution the authorities must be satisfied of penitence. The "penitent must first swear to obej- the commands of the Church, and to make all necessary atonement for his special of- fence ; he must then be reconciled by kneeling, bare- headed and stripped to his shirt, before the bishop sit- ting at the church gates. Here he again repeats his oath, and the bishop, reciting the psalm Dens mlscrea- tur, strikes him with a rod during each verse. Then, after certain prayers, he absolves him and leads him into the church."
3. The anathema is attended with special ceremo- nies. " The bishop must be attended by twelve priests, each of whom, as well as himself, bears a light- ed candle. He then sits before the high altar, or any other public place which he prefers, and delivers his sentence, which adjudges the oflTender to be anathemi- zatum et damnatum cum diubolo et angelis ejus et omnibus reprobis in atemum ignem — cursed and damned with the devil and his angels and all the reprobate to eter- nal fire. The candles are then dashed down. The ceremonials of alisolution from this sentence arc not very different from the last, although the form of praj-er is varied" (Enci/clop. Metrop. s. v.). The ef- fects of the anathema were summed up in the monkish lines