EXCOMMUNICATION, an act of eccle siastical jurisdiction whereby a Christian is separated from the communion of the Church. It is not, however, peculiar to biblical religion, a discipline somewhat analogous being exercised by the ancient Romans. The clearest analogy to the Christian discipline is that •furnished by the rabbinical code, whereby offenders were ex cluded from civil and religious fellowship. Under the Christian dispensation this power was exercised by the Apostle Paul when in his first letter to the Corinthians, ch. v, he writes concerning a man guilty of incest that he "delivers such a one to Satan." Authority for excommunication is found in the words of Christ reported in Matt. xviii. "If he will not hear the church let him be to thee as the gentile and the publican.° In the Roman Catholic Church there are two degrees of excommunica tion — major and minor. By the minor an offender is deprived of the use of the sacra ments; by the major one he is deprived of all manner of communion or communication with the faithful. In the times when the laws of Church were enforced in their primitive rigor the excommunicated were denied communication with the faithful not only in sacred things but in the common life; and if a monarch, his subjects were absolved from all allegiance. This is greatly modified now, and persons who have incurred the uttermost ecclesiastical censures suffer only the spiritual penalties attached to their offenses. But though the Church's ex communication has in the present time lost all its civil effects, a brief notice of these effects is necessary for an appreciation of the condition of an excommunicattis vitandus, that is, of 'a person under the major excommunication, who must be avoided by the faithful, under penalty of themselves incurring the minor excommuni cation.
A person who is under the major excom munication is disqualified for acting as judge or juror, notary, witness in courts of law, advo cate, attorney; but he is competent to plead his own cause and to sue others on his own behalf. He cannot be a guardian of a minor,
nor curator, nor executor of a last will, nor can he make contracts. He cannot act as a legis lator. After death his body is deprived of Christian burial : and if it does get burial in consecrated ground in whatever way, it is to be dug tip and cast out. The excommunicate under major excommunication must be shunned by all the faithful: they must not, under pain of excommunication (minor), communicate with him either by word of mouth or by writ ing; must not greet him, nor have exchange of gifts with him. If an excommunicatus vitandus happens to enter a church while the Mass is proceeding, he must forthwith be put out ; if that cannot be, then the service must be suspended. Such is the letter of the laws; but long before these stern prescriptions went into desuetude there were notable assuagements of their rigor through the interpretations of moralists. To illustrate this by one example only: The serfs and servants and the children, grandchildren and other relatives (even by affinity only) were permitted to continue their relations of obedi ence and respect to their head even after he was excommunicated. See BELL, Boox AND CANDLE.
The Reformers claimed and exercised the same rights in regard to excommunication as did the Roman Church. In England the ex communicated person was subjected to various disabilities; he could not hold a benefice, or practise as a barrister or attorney in the courts; and could not be admitted as a witness. These were removed by Act of Parliament in England in 1813, and i'n Ireland in the following year. In the Presbyterian churches of Scotland the lesser excommunication involved deprivation of "sealing ordinances" ; the greater excommunica tion is now unheard of, and since the Revolu tion of 1688 has carried no civil consequences with it.