EXCOMMUNICATION, an ecclesiastical censure, by
which, till it be removed, a person is excluded from com-
munion with his church. It is founded on the natural
right which all societies have to exclude from their body
such as contravene the established laws. Hence this power
has been exercised wherever societies have existed—secu-
lar, spiritual, literary, &c. It was in use among the Jews,
who, in certain cases, excluded persons from communion
in the benefits of religious worship with the people. Ex-
communication, or the act of excluding from a participa-
tion in the mysteries of religion, was also in use under
Paganism. Persons thus excommunicated were prohibited
from assisting at or attending the sacrifices, or entering the
temples, and were solemnly given over to the infernal deities
with certain imprecations. This was called by the Romans
diris devovere. Among the ancient Britons and Gauls the
Druids likewise made use of excommunication against
rebels, and interdicted from the communion of their myste-
ries such as refused to acquiesce in their decisions. Among
the early Christians excommunication was instituted for the
purpose of preserving the purity of the church, and enforce-
ing its discipline. It was originally exercised by the whole
community, but afterwards the right to excommunicate
was confined to the bishops. This formidable power, how-
ever, soon came to be wielded with little discretion, and
eventually ambitious ecclesiastics converted it into an engine
for aggrandizing themselves, frequently inflicting it on the
most frivolous pretences. In the Roman Church, since the
time of Pope Gregory IX., there have existed two kinds or
rather degrees of excommunication—the greater and the
less. By the former, parties are deprived of the sacraments
and benefit of divine offices, of the society and conversation
of the faithful, and are denied Christian burial. In the
case of an excommunicated sovereign, subjects were ab-
solved from their allegiance, or even forbidden to obey
him; though many ecclesiastical writers in later times
maintained that the excommunication of a prince ought
not to have any influence on matters of political adminis-
tration—a condition no less necessary than convenient,
when the relations between princes and people had assumed
a character very different from what they had been during
the middle ages. In those times of ignorance and super-
stitution, the Pope reigned supreme over the consciences
of men; and if he thought fit to excommunicate a city,
province, or country, the consequences were felt as a calamity
of the heaviest kind. All religious services ceased;
there was no regular burial, no ringing of the bells, &c., and
relics and crucifixes lost their supposed efficacy. Of such
excommunication or interdicts (as these are called when
issued against a whole country), the first was that which
Gregory V. pronounced against France, in the year 998,
because King Robert refused to put away his lawful wife;
and such were its consequences that the king was at last
compelled to yield. But still more memorable is that issued
against England by Innocent III., because King John
refused to pay the tribute called Peter's-pence, and to
acknowledge the Pope's right of nominating to the English
bishoprics. In the end, however, John was obliged to
yield, and received back his kingdom as a Papal fief. The
excommunication of Henry VIII., too, is famous in history.
No country has suffered so severely from interdicts as
Germany, revolutions having frequently been the conse-
quence of excommunications issued against the emperors.
The latest instance of the excommunication of a sovereign,
was that of Napoleon by Pius VII. in 1809. The Ro-
manists use the phrase fulminating an excommunication,
to signify the solemn denunciation after several admonitions;
and the excommunication thus pronounced is called anathe-
ma. The ceremonies attending these fulminations are of a
terrible character, and appear to have been first used in the
eleventh century. The less excommunication only excluded
from a participation in the sacraments and divine worship,
and this is the sense in which the term is commonly used.
This sentence is passed by judges ecclesiastical on such per-
sons as are guilty of obstinacy or disobedience in not ap-
pearing upon a citation, or not submitting to penance or
other injunctions of the court.
Excommunication, as a means of punishment, was intro-
duced at an early period into England; and the English
Church retains a form of excommunication in cases of
adultery, heresy, simony, neglect of public worship, &c.,
but the use of it is now almost obsolete. Blackstone remarks
that "heavy as the penalty of excommunication is, consi-
dered in a serious light, there are notwithstanding many
obstinate or profligate men who would despise the brutum
fulmen of mere ecclesiastical censures, especially when
pronounced by a petty surrogate in the country, for railing
or contumacious words, for non-payment of fees or costs,
or other trivial causes. The common law, therefore, com-
passionately steps in to the aid of the ecclesiastical juris-
diction, and kindly lends a supporting hand to an otherwise
tottering authority. This was done by the writ called de
excommunicato capiendo; but by act 53d Geo. III., cap. 127,
"no person who shall be pronounced or declared ex-
communicate (pursuant to the second clause of this statute)
shall incur any civil penalty or incapacity in consequence
of such excommunication, save such imprisonment, not
exceeding six months, as the court pronouncing or declar-
ing such person excommunicate shall direct." By the same
act, a writ de contumace capiendo, which in effect is the
same as the old writ de excommunicato capiendo, shall issue
in all cases in ecclesiastical courts when a person shall re-
fuse to appear, when cited by such court, or refuse to obey
its decree, except in certain cases, as spiritual censures for
offences of ecclesiastical cognizance.