EXCOMMUNICATION

An ecclesiastical censure, by which a man is cut off from communion with his church, The right po e ed by any community of ejecting any person who contravenes the laws by which it is governed IS founded on the original principles of society, and is excrcisedin some shape or other by every sect among Christians. If we suppose, however, one society to be the depositary of all God's covenants and mercies, and to afford the exclusive means of salvation, excommunication will in such case involve eternal perdition, and must be defended on some higher grounds than those of social expediency. An appeal is made to scripture in defence of this practice on the following grounds: — The power of binding and loosing is undoubtedly given to the apostles. St. Paul delivers over to Satan a heretic, or one who troubled the church; the sudden death of Ananias and Sapphira seems to have been inflicted upon them by tlie apostle himself as a punishment for their crimes; the faithful are charged to keep no company with heretics; Titus is directed by St. Paul to reject such after the first and second admonition. Upon the authority of these pa ages many Christian churches have a umed the power of excommunication. Protestants, however, do not generally venture to pronounce upon the future condition of a person thus excluded from covenanted benefits; whereas in the forms of excommunication of the Greek and Roman churches, the excommunicated person is solemnly dovoted to the devil. The English church retains a form of excommunication, in cases of adultery, incontinence, heresy, simony, and neglect of public worship, .; the practice, however, has. long become obsolete. In English law, excommunication was the ordinary mode by which contempt of the ecclesiastic<U jurisdiction was punished and its proce enforced. Forty days after sentence the writ de eicommunicatio capiendo i ued (called also a significavit, from the recital of the bishop's certificate with which it commenced), under which the party was apprehended by the sheriff. By stat..53 G. 3. c. 127. the legal effect of excommunication is abolished, and the writ de contumace ca^picndo substituted for the former one. [s. 441]