is the judicial exclusion of offenders from the
religious rites and other privileges of the particular community to
which they belong. Founded in the natural right which every society
possesses to guard its laws and privileges from violation and abuse by
the infliction of salutary discipline, proportioned to the nature of the
offences committed against them, it has found a place, in one form or
another, under every system of religion, whether human or divine. That
it has been made an engine for the gratification of private malice and
revenge, and been perverted to purposes the most unjustifiable and even
diabolical, the history of the world but too lamentably proves; yet
this, though unquestionably a consideration which ought to inculcate the
necessity of prudence, as well as impartiality and temperance in the use
of it, affords no valid argument against its legitimate exercise. From
St. Paul’s writings we learn that the early excommunication was effected
by the offender not being allowed to “eat” with the church, that is, to
partake of the Lord’s Supper, the sign of communion. In the early ages
of the primitive church also, this branch of discipline was exercised
with moderation, which, however, gradually gave place to an undue
severity. From Tertullian’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 from the communion of the church, and lamented as
lost and dead unto God; [_ut perditos Deoque mortuos_;] but that on
making confession and giving evidence of penitence, they were received
back as restored to life. It was at the same time specially ordained,
that no such delinquent, however suitably qualified in other respects,
could be afterward admitted to any ecclesiastical office. But it does
not appear that the infliction of this discipline was accompanied with
any of those forms of excommunication, of delivering over to Satan, or
of solemn execration, which were usual among the Jews, and subsequently
introduced into them by the Romish church. The authors and followers of
heretical opinions which had been condemned, were also subject to this
penalty; and it was sometimes inflicted on whole congregations when they
were judged to have departed from the faith. In this latter case,
however, the sentence seldom went farther than the interdiction of
correspondence with these churches, or of spiritual communication
between their respective pastors. To the same exclusion from religious
privileges, those unhappy persons were doomed, who, whether from choice
or from compulsion, had polluted themselves, after their baptism, by any
act of idolatrous worship; and the penance enjoined on such persons,
before they could be restored 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
religious 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 beloved; 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.
2. 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 lawless
ambition and ecclesiastical domination, than for the just punishment of
impenitent delinquents, and the general 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 offences 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, sustained by an
ecclesiastic, was deemed a sufficient cause for the promulgation of an
anathema. Whole families, and even provinces, were prohibited from
engaging in any religious exercise, and cursed with the most tremendous
denunciations of divine vengeance. Nor were kings and emperors secure
against these thunders of the church; their subjects were, on many
occasions, declared, by a papal bull, to be absolved from allegiance to
them; and all who should dare to support them, menaced with a similar
judgment. These terrors have passed away; the true Scriptural
excommunication ought to be maintained in every church; which is the
prohibition of immoral and apostate persons from the use of those
religious rites which indicate “the communion of saints,” but without
any temporal penalty.
religious rites and other privileges of the particular community to
which they belong. Founded in the natural right which every society
possesses to guard its laws and privileges from violation and abuse by
the infliction of salutary discipline, proportioned to the nature of the
offences committed against them, it has found a place, in one form or
another, under every system of religion, whether human or divine. That
it has been made an engine for the gratification of private malice and
revenge, and been perverted to purposes the most unjustifiable and even
diabolical, the history of the world but too lamentably proves; yet
this, though unquestionably a consideration which ought to inculcate the
necessity of prudence, as well as impartiality and temperance in the use
of it, affords no valid argument against its legitimate exercise. From
St. Paul’s writings we learn that the early excommunication was effected
by the offender not being allowed to “eat” with the church, that is, to
partake of the Lord’s Supper, the sign of communion. In the early ages
of the primitive church also, this branch of discipline was exercised
with moderation, which, however, gradually gave place to an undue
severity. From Tertullian’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 from the communion of the church, and lamented as
lost and dead unto God; [_ut perditos Deoque mortuos_;] but that on
making confession and giving evidence of penitence, they were received
back as restored to life. It was at the same time specially ordained,
that no such delinquent, however suitably qualified in other respects,
could be afterward admitted to any ecclesiastical office. But it does
not appear that the infliction of this discipline was accompanied with
any of those forms of excommunication, of delivering over to Satan, or
of solemn execration, which were usual among the Jews, and subsequently
introduced into them by the Romish church. The authors and followers of
heretical opinions which had been condemned, were also subject to this
penalty; and it was sometimes inflicted on whole congregations when they
were judged to have departed from the faith. In this latter case,
however, the sentence seldom went farther than the interdiction of
correspondence with these churches, or of spiritual communication
between their respective pastors. To the same exclusion from religious
privileges, those unhappy persons were doomed, who, whether from choice
or from compulsion, had polluted themselves, after their baptism, by any
act of idolatrous worship; and the penance enjoined on such persons,
before they could be restored 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
religious 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 beloved; 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.
2. 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 lawless
ambition and ecclesiastical domination, than for the just punishment of
impenitent delinquents, and the general 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 offences 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, sustained by an
ecclesiastic, was deemed a sufficient cause for the promulgation of an
anathema. Whole families, and even provinces, were prohibited from
engaging in any religious exercise, and cursed with the most tremendous
denunciations of divine vengeance. Nor were kings and emperors secure
against these thunders of the church; their subjects were, on many
occasions, declared, by a papal bull, to be absolved from allegiance to
them; and all who should dare to support them, menaced with a similar
judgment. These terrors have passed away; the true Scriptural
excommunication ought to be maintained in every church; which is the
prohibition of immoral and apostate persons from the use of those
religious rites which indicate “the communion of saints,” but without
any temporal penalty.