among ecclesiastical writers, imports whatever is set apart, separated, or divided; but is most usually meant to express the cutting off a person from the privileges of society and communion with the faithful. The anathema differs from excommunication in the circumstances of being attended with curses and execrations. It was practised in the primitive church against notorious offenders. Several councils also have pronounced anathemas against such as they thought corrupted the purity of the faith. There are two kinds of anathemas, the one judiciary and the other abjuratory. The former can only be denounced by a council, a pope, or a bishop; the latter makes a part of the ceremony of abjuration, the convert being obliged to anathematize the heresy he abjures.

in Heathen Antiquity, was an offering or present made to some deity, and hung up in the temple. Whenever a person left off his employment, it was usual to dedicate the tools to the patron deity of the trade. Persons, too, who had escaped from imminent danger, as shipwreck and the like, or had met with any other remarkable instance of good fortune, seldom failed to testify their gratitude by some present of this kind.