Without entering at all into the controversy concern ing the jus divinum of excommunication, under the Christian dispensation, we shall only observe, that the early fathers of the church appear to have justified it, chiefly on the ground of its necessity to the preservation of purity of conduct in their religious communities; and that during the two first centuries at least, it seems to have, been exercised with becoming moderation. From Termffidn's apology, we learn, that the crimes which in his time subjected to exclusion from Christian privileges, were murder, idolatry, theft, fraud, lying, blasphemy, adultery, fornication, and the like ; and, in Origen's treatise against Celsus, we are informed that such persons were expelled fl om the communion of the church, and lamented as lost and dead unto God, (ut /:erditos Deoque mortuos); but that on making profes sion, and giving evidence of penitence, they were re ceived back as restored to life. It was at the same time specially ordained, that no such delinquent, how ever suitably qualified in other respects, could be after wards admitted to any ecclesiastical office. Nor does it appear that the infliction of this discipline was accom panied with any of those forms of excommunication, of delivering over to Satan, or of solemn execration, which were usual among the Jews, and subsequently intro duced into them by the Romish church. The authors and followers of heretical opinions which had been con demned by the judgment of the Episcopal order, were also subjected to this penalty : and it was sometimes in flicted on whole congregations when they were judged to have departed from the faith. In this latter case, how ever, the sentence seldom went farther than the inter diction of correspondence with these churches, or of spiritual communication between their respective pas tors. To the same exclusion from religious privileges, those unhappy persons were doomed, who, whether from choice or compulsion, had polluted themselves, after their baptism, by any act of idolatrous worship: and the pen ance enjoined on such persons, before they could be re stored to communion, was often peculiarly severe. The consequences of excommunication, even then, were of a temporal as well as a spiritual nature. The person against whom it was pronounced, was denied all share in the oblations of his brethren ; the ties both of reli gious and of private friendship were dissolved; he found himself an object of abhorrence to those whom he most esteemed, and by whom he had been most tenderly be loved; and, as far as expulsion from a society held in universal veneration, could imprint on his character a mark of disgrace, he was shunned or suspected by the generality of mankind.
It was not, however, till churchmen began to unite temporal with spiritual power, that any penal effects of a civil kind became consequent on their sentences of excommunication; and that this ghostly artillery was not less frequently employed for the purposes of law less ambition and ecclesiastical domination, than for the just punishment of impenitent delinquents, and the ge neral edification of the faithful. But as soon as this union took place, and in exact proportion to the degree in which the papal system rose to its predominance over the civil rights as well as the consciences of men, the list of ofiences which subjected their perpetrators to excommunication, was multiplied; and the severity of its inflictions, with their penal effects, increased in the same ratio. The slightest injury, or even insult, sus tained by an ecclesiastic, was deemed a sufficient cause for the promulgation of an anathema. Whole families, and even provinces, were prohibited from engaging • any religious exercise, and arsed with the most tre mendous denunciations of divine vengeance. Nor were kings and emperors secure against these thunders of the church ; their subjects were, on many occa sions, declared, by a papal bull, to be absolved from allegiance to them; and all who should dare to sup port them, menaced with a similar judgment, Nay, to such an extravagant length was this exercise of power carried, that instances are on record of bishops having issued formal excommunications against rats, mice, and even caterpillars, after a regular judicial process against them, in which they were allowed the benefit of an ad vocate and proctor, to plead and defend their cause.
The pronouncing of sentence was accompanied with the lighting of torches, which were then thrown on the ground, and trampled under foot by the people, who beat time to solemn peals rung on the bells. Hence the old English expression, to curse with bell, book, and candle. The formula was then read to the congrega tion, and was of the following import : " M. et N. in nomine Patris et Filii, et Spiritus Sancti, et benedictae nostrx Doming: Sanctissima Maria, atque virtute an gelorum, archangelorumque, Ste. a sanctx matris Ec clesia gramio segregamus, ac perpetua mdledictionis anathemate condemnamus. Sintque maledicti in civi tate, maledicti in agro, maledictum horeum eorum, et maledictz reliquix eorum, maledictus fructus ventris eorum, et fructus terra illorum. Maledicti sint ingre dieutes, et egredientes. Sintque in domo maledicti, in agro profugi ; veniantque super cos omnes illx maledic tiones quas Dominus per Mosen in populum divine legis prxvaricatorem se esse missurum intentavit ; sint que Anathema Maranatha, id est, pereant in secundo adventu Domini. Nullus eis Christianus Ave dicat. Nullus Presbyter Missam cum eis celebrare prxsumat, vel sanctum Communionem dare. Sepultura asini se peliantur, et in sterquilinium sint super faciem terra. Et sicut hx lucernx de manibus nostris projectx hodie extinguuntur, sic eorum lucerna in xternum extingua tur, nisi forte resipuerint, et Ecclesix Dei quam Ixse runt, per emendationem et condignam pxnitentiam satis fecerint."—An excommunicated person was proscribed as unworthy of the commonest enjoyments of social life ; no one, not even his wife, children, or servants, was permitted to come near him, under pain of the les ser excommunication ; he forfeited every natural right and legal privilege ; and could not act in any public capacity, or succeed to any private inheritance. If he did not make satisfaction to the church, and procure absolution from the bishop within 40 days, he was laid hold of by the secular power, his property seized, his person imprisoned, and all his offices vacated ; and if he died unabsolved, his body was not allowed to be buried, but ordered to be flung into a pit, or covered over with stones.
In the Greek church, the formulas of excommunica tion are not less dreadful than they anciently were in the church of Rome. The most frivolous offences, equally as the most heinous crimes, are visited with it ; and the person who has been guilty of them is declared, if he do not repent, to be cc separated from the Lord God Creator, to be accursed and unpardoned, and undis solvable after death." Then follow such imprecations as these : 66 Let wood, stone, and iron be dissolved, but not he : May he inherit the leprosy of Gehazi, and the des pair of Judas : may the earth divide and swallow him up, like Dathan and Abiram may he sigh and trem ble on earth like Cain, and the wrath of God he on his head : may he reap no fruit of his labour, and beg his bread all the days of his life : may his works, his pos sessions, his labour, and his services, be accursed, al ways without effect or success, and blown away like dust : may he have the curses of the holy and righteous patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of the 318 saints who were the divine Fathers of the Synod of Nice, and of all other holy Synods : and, being with out the church of Christ, let no man administer to him the things of the church, or bless him, or offer sacri fice for him, or give him the Ay'betTety, or the blessed bread, or eat, or drink, or work, or converse with him ; and, after death, let no man bury him, under penalty of the same condemnation." Such is the superstitious ignorance of the common people of this church, that they are said firmly to believe that the dead bodies of the excommunicated not only remain unconsumed, but are possessed with evil spirits ; are fed and nourished during the night, and have been found 40 clays after death, as ruddy in their complexion, and full of blood, as if they had been in perfect health. To prevent this, their relations are accustomed to cut their bodies in pieces, and boil them in wine.