376 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
secundus canon VII. ; sed pro infirmitate hominis, per consilium dixerunt III. annos penitere.
19. Si f rater cum fratre naturali fornicaverit per commixtionem carnis, XV. annos ab omni carne abstineat.
20. Si- mater cum filio suo parvulo fornicationem imitatur, III. annos se abstineat a carne, et diem unum jejunet in ebdomada, id est, usque ad vesperum.
21. Qui inludetur fornicaria cogitatione, peniteat usque dum cogitatio superetur.
22. Qui diligit feminam mente, veniam petat ab eo [a Deo] id est. de amore et amicitia si dixerit si non est susceptus ab ea, VII. dies peniteat"
The remaining chapters of the first book treat De Avaritia Furtiva ; De Occisione Hominum [De Homicidio] ; De his qui per Heresim decipiuntur ; De Perjurio ; De multis et diversis Malis ; De diverso Lapso servorum Dei ; De his qui degraduntur vel ordinari non possunt ; De Baptizatis bis, qualiter peniteant ; De his qui damnant Dominicam et indicia jejunia ecclesice Dei; De communione JEucharistice vel Sacrificio ; De Reconciliatione ; De Penitentia Nubentium specialiter ; De Oultura Idolorum. The last chapter shows how many heathen superstitions prevailed in con nection with gross immorality, which the church endeavored to counteract by a mechanical legalism. The second book treats De Ecclesice Ministerio ; De tribus gradibus ; De Ordinatione ; De Baptismo et Conftrmatione ; De Missa Defunctorum, etc.
§ 86. Ecclesiastical Punishments. Excommunication, Anathema,
Interdict.
FRIEDRICH KOBER (B. 0.) : Der Kirchenbann nach den Grundsatzen des canonischen Eechts dargestellt. Tubingen 1857 (560 pages). By the same author : Die Suspension der Kirchendiener. Tub. 1862.
HENRY C. LEA: Excommunication, in his Studies in Church History (Philadelphia 1869), p. 223-475.
The severest penalties of the church were excommunication, anathema, and interdict. They were fearful weapons in the hands of the hierarchy during the middle ages, when the church was believed to control salvation, and when the civil power enforced her decrees by the strong arm of the law. The punishment ceases with repentance, which is followed by abso lution. The sentence of absolution must proceed from the bishop who pronounced the sentence of excommunication ; but in articulo mortis every priest can absolve on condition of obedience in case of recovery.
\ 86. ECCLESIASTICAL PUNISHMENTS. 377
1. EXCOMMUNICATION was the exclusion from the sacra ments, especially the communion. In the dominions of Charle magne it was accompanied with civil disabilities, as exclusion from secular tribunals, and even with imprisonment and seizure of property. A bishop could excommunicate any one who refused canonical obedience. But a bishop could only be excommunicated by the pope, and the pope by no power on earth.1 The sentence was often accompanied with awful curses upon the bodies and souls of the offender. The popes, as they towered above ordinary bishops, surpassed them also in the art of cursing, and exercised it with shocking profanity. Thus Benedict VIII., who crowned Emperor Henry II. (A. D. 101 4); excommunicated some reckless vassals of William II., Count of Provence, who sought to lay unhallowed hands upon the property of the monastery of St. Giles,2 and consigned them to Satan with terrible imprecations, although he probably thought he was only following St. Peter's example in condemning Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon Magus.3
1 But during the papal schism, the rival popes excommunicated each other, and the Council of Constance deposed them.
2 Aegidius (Aiyt&of) • Italian: Sant Egidio; French: S. Gilles. He was an abbot and confessor in France during the reign of Charles Martel or earlier, and much more celebrated than reliably known. He is the special patron of cripples, and his tomb was much visited by pilgrims from all parts of France, England and Scotland. Almost every county in England has churches named in his honor, amounting in all to 146. See Smith and Wace I. 47 sqq.
3 Bened. Papa; VIII. Epist. 32 (ad Guilldmum Comitem). In Migne's Patrol. T. 139, fol. 1630-32. Lea translates it in part, /. c. p. 337. " Benedict Bishop, Servant of the servants of God, to Count William and his mother, the Countess Adelaide, perpetual grace and apostolic benediction .... Let them [who at tempted to rob the monastery] be accursed in their bodies, and let their souls be delivered to destruction and perdition and torture. Let them be damned with the damned : let them be scourged with the ungrateful ; let them perish with the proud. Let them be accursed with the Jews who, seeing the incarnate Christ, did not believe but sought to crucify Him. Let them be accursed with the heretics who labored to destroy the church. Let them be accursed with those who blaspheme the name of God. Let them be accursed with those who despair of the mercy of God. Let them be accursed with those who lie damned in Hell. Let them be accursed with the impious and sinners unless they amend their ways, and confess themselves in fault towardi