The law of the Protestant Episcopal Church in America, as expressed by the 42d canon of 1832, is as follows : Sec. 1 . If any persons within this Church of- fend their brethren by any wickedness of life, such persons shall be repelled from the holy communion, agreeably to the rubric. Sec. 2. On information being laid liefore the bishop that any one has been repelled from communion, it shall not be his duty to institute an in(|uiry unless there bo a complaint made to him in writing liy the repelled ]}arty. But on receiving com- plaint, it shall be the duty of the bishop, unless he think fit to restore him from the insufficiency of the cause assigned b3-the minister, to institute an inquiry, as may be directed by the canons of the diocese in which the event has taken place. Sec. 3. In the case of a great heinousness of offence on the part of mem- bers of this Church, they may lie proceeded against to the depriving them of all privileges of church mem- l)ership, according to such rules or process as ma.y be provided by the General Convention, and, until such rules and process shall be provided, bj- such as ma}' be provided liy the different State Conventions. See also the 33d Artie' e of Relif/ion.
In the Methodist Episcopal Church the power of ex- communication lies with tlic minister after trial before a jury of the peers of the accused party. The grounds and forms of trial are given in the J}isci])!ine, part iii, chap. i. It is provided in the Constitution tliat no law ehall ever be made doing away the privilege of accused
ministers or members to have trial and right of appeal {Discipline, pt. ii, ch. i, § 1).
" Among tlie Jndr; endents, Congregationalists, and Baptists, the persons who are or should be excommu- nicated are such as are quarrelsome and litigious (Gal. V, 12) ; such as desert their privileges, withdraw them- selves fiom the ordinances of God, and forsake his peo- ple (Jude 19) ; such as are irregular and immoral in their lives, railers, drunkards, extortioners, fornica- tors, and covetous (Eph. v, 5 ; 1 Cor. v, 11). In the United States these simple principles of Church disci- pline are very generally followed by all evangelical denominations" (Buck, s. v.). See particularly the Form of Government of the Presbyterian Church, Lk. ii of Discipline ; Dexter, 0?i Congregationalism (Boston, 1865), p. 191-2 ; Eipley, On Church Polity (Bost. 1^67), p. 81 sq. ; Edwards, Nature and Use rf Exccmmunica- tion {Works, N. Y. 1848), iv, GlJS.
Literature. — See, besides the works alread}"- cited, Ferraris, Promta Bihliotheca, ed. INIigne, iii, 84G sq. ; Siegel, Christl.-kirchL Allerthiimer, ii, 131 sq. ; Bing- ham, Cr/f/. Eccles. bk. xvi, chap, ii, iii ; Van Espen, De Censuris Ecclesiasticis (Optera, Paris, 1753, 4 vols.) ; Scheele, Die Kirchenzucht (Halle, 1852, 8vo) ; Hooker, Eccl. Polity, viii, 1, 6 ; (!alvin. Institutes, Ik. iv, ch. xii ; Thorndike, B^orfo (Oxford, 1856), vi, 21; Watcrland, Works (Oxford, 1853), iii, 456; AViner, Corny). DareteU hmg, § 20; Hagenbach, Hist, of Doctrines, ed. Smith, § 255 ; Yi.eYzo^,Real-Encyklopddie, s. v. Bann ; Palmer, On the Church, i, 96; ii, 277, S04; Watson, Theological Institutes, ii, 574; Burnet, 0« the Articles, Browne, On the Articles, Forbes, On the Aiiicles (each on Article XXXIII); Wheatly, On Common Prayer, J] ohn's ed., p. 442 sq. ; Scott, >y nod of Port (Philadeliihia Presb. Board), p. 249; Gibbon, Decline and Fall, ch. xv, pt. V. Sec Anatiiejia ; Ban ; Discipline.
!Bxeat, a Latin term, signifying either the permis- sion given bj' a bishop to a clergyman of his diocese that he may for a time go out of his diocese, or the same permission given by an abbot to one of the "re- ligious" of his monastery, or by the authorities of a college (in England). to a student (Eden).
Execration (!TN, alah', Jer. xlii, 18; xliv, 12; a '■^ curse' ' or "oath," abstractly, as elsewhere) is prop- erly the representative of the Greek word harapa, which occurs (in tlie verb KaTapaopai) in the Sept. at Num. xxiii, 8 ; xxiv, 9 ; Josh, vi, 26 ; 1 Sum. xvii, 43, etc., as a rendering of various Heb. terms ("^i^Jl, t?*, b^l?, etc.), and also in the N. T. (" curse," Matt, v, 44 ; Mark ii, 21, etc.). It is used also in profane authors to denote the imprecations which it was customary among ancient nations to pronounce upon their ene- mies for the purpose of calling down the divine wrath, branding them with infamy, and exciting against them the passions of the multitude. B3' this niear.s they also devoted their enemies to the ruin they considered them to deserve. These imprecations were chiefly pronounced by priests, enchanters, or prophets. See 13ALAAM. The Athenians made use of them against Philip of Macedon. They convened an assembly, in whicli it was decreed that all statues, inscriptions, or festivals among them, in awy waj- relating to him or his ancestors, should be desti-oyed. and every other possible reminiscence of him profaned ; and that the priests, as often as they prayed for tlie success of the Athenian affairs, should pray for the ruin of Pliilip. It was also customarj', both among the Greeks and Romans, after having destroyed cities in war, tiie re- vival of whose strength they dreaded, to jironounce execrations upon tliose who should rebuikl them. Strabo observes that Agamemnon pronounced execra- tions on those who should rebuild Tny, as Croesus did against those -who should rebuild Sidena ; and this mode of execrating cities Strabo calls an ancient cus- tom (Kara T7<i\ati'i> tVoc, xiii, p. 898, edit. 1707). The Romans published a decree full of execrations against