an ecclesiastical penalty or censure, whereby such persons as are guilty of any notorious crime or offence, are separated from the communion of the church, and deprived of all spiritual advantages.

Excommunication among the Jews, according to Elias, a German rabbin, was distinguished into three kinds: 1. Niddui, which was a separation of but a few days; 2. Cherem, a separation attended with execration and malédiction; and, 3. Shamma'ha, which was the last and greater excommunication. But Selden says, that niddui and shammatha are the same thing; and therefore that there were but two kinds of excommunication among the Jews, viz. the greater and the lesser. They made also another distinction in excommunication, into total or universal, by which a man was excommunicated with regard to all men; and partial, by which a man was excommunicated in one city, and with regard to certain persons, and not others.

It is observable, that not only the judges had the power of excommunicating, but that each particular person in conversation might excommunicate another, and himself likewise; and this excommunication, if well grounded, was of force; nay, if a man dreamed that he was excommunicated by himself or by another, he was considered as an excommunicated person, because this dream was supposed to be sent from God.

As to the effects of the Jewish excommunication, the lesser excluded the excommunicated person from the society of men; that is, he was not to come nearer them than four cubits, neither he, his wife, children, or domestics, according to Buxtorf. The greater absolutely sequestered the person from the conversation of others; and sometimes he was shut up in a small chamber or prison, where he lived alone. Baronius and Beza pretend, that the greater excommunication excluded men from the use of sacred things. Selden, on the contrary, affirms, that they were allowed to be present in the temple, and partake of the public worship. Buxtorf, who is of the same opinion, adds, that whereas others came into the temple at the right hand, and went out at the left, the excommunicated were obliged both to go in and out at the left.

Excommunication among the modern Jews, is attended with the most terrible consequences. The excommunicated person is refused all human assistance: if there be a corpse in his house; or a child to be circumcised, none must help him. He is cursed by the book of the law, by the curse of Joshua against Jericho, by that of Elisha against the children, by heaven and earth, earth, and God is besought that a whirlwind may dash him to pieces. He is pelted with stones if he appear in the streets; and if he obtains absolution, it is upon the most mortifying conditions; for he is publicly tied to a post and whipped, after which he lays himself down at the door of the synagogue, and all those who go out pass over him. This was the very case of the famous Jew Acotha.

In the ancient Christian church, the power of excommunication, as well as other acts of ecclesiastical discipline, was lodged in the hands of the clergy, who distinguished it into the greater and lesser. The lesser excommunication, simply called *aphorismos*, separation or suspension, consisted in excluding men from the participation of the eucharist, and the prayers of the faithful. But they were not expelled the church; for they had the privilege of being present at the reading of the scriptures, the sermons, and the prayers of the catechumens and penitents. This excommunication was inflicted for lesser crimes, such as neglecting to attend the service of the church, misbehaviour in it, and the like.

The greater excommunication, called *panteles aphorismos*, total separation and anathema, consisted in an absolute and entire exclusion from the church and the participation of all its rites. When any person was thus excommunicated, notice was given of it by circular letters to the most eminent churches all over the world, that they might all confirm this act of discipline, by refusing to admit the delinquent to their communion. The consequences of this latter excommunication was very terrible. The excommunicated person was avoided in civil commerce and outward conversation. No one was to receive him into his house, nor eat at the same table with him; and when dead, he was denied the solemn rites of burial. It has been a question, whether the ancient church used to add execration to her censures. Grotius thinks this was done, though very seldom, as in the case of Julian the apostate, for whose destruction the ancient Christians absolutely prayed to God. St Chrysostom was utterly against this practice, affirming that we ought not to pray against the sinner, but against his opinions or actions.

The Roman pontifical takes notice of three kinds of excommunication. 1. The minor, incurred by those who have any correspondence with an excommunicated person. 2. The major, which falls upon those who disobey the commands of the holy see, or refuse to submit to certain points of discipline; in consequence of which they are excluded from the church militant and triumphant, and delivered over to the devil and his angels. 3. Anathema, which is properly that pronounced by the pope against heretical princes and countries. In former ages, these papal fulminations were most terrible things; but at present, they are formidable to none but a few petty states of Italy.

Excommunication in the Greek church, cuts the offender off from all communion with the 318 fathers of the first council of Nice, and with the saints; confines him over to the devil, and the traitor Judas; and condemns his body to remain after death as hard as a flint or piece of steel, unless he humbles himself and makes atonement for his sins by a sincere repentance. The form abounds with dreadful imprecations; and the Greeks assert, that if a person dies excommunicated, the devil enters into the lifeless corpse; and therefore, in order to prevent it, the relations of the deceased cut his body in pieces, and boil them in wine. It is a custom for the patriarch of Jerusalem annually to excommunicate the pope and the church of Rome; on which occasion, together with a great deal of idle ceremony, he drives a nail into the ground with a hammer, as a mark of malediction.

The form of excommunication in the church of England anciently ran thus: "By the authority of God the Father Almighty, the Son and Holy Ghost, and of Mary the blessed mother of God, we excommunicate, anathematize, and sequester from the pale of holy mother church," &c. The causes of excommunication in England are, contempt of the bishop's court, hereby, neglect of public worship and the sacraments; incontinency, adultery, simony, &c. It is published in the church; and if the offender does not submit in forty days, the civil magistrate interposes, and the excommunicated person is imprisoned till he submits and obtains absolution. Excommunication disables a person from doing any judicial act, as suing in an action at law, being a witness, &c.

Excommunication, among the Pagans, excluded the person from the sacrifices and the temples, and delivered him over to the furies, which was called *exercare*, and *diris devovere*. When Marcus Crassus set out on his expedition against the Parthians, Atteius, tribune of the people, not being able to prevent him, ran to the gate of the city through which the general was to pass, and setting a chaffing-dish in the middle of the way with fire in it, when Crassus drew near, he threw some perfumes into the chaffing dish, and pronounced curses against Crassus with great exclamation, and thus excommunicated him.