Excomme- ad ostinm trimicorum ipsius sint exposili : super 
250 
die ejus 
posteri.—Absorbeatur sicut Korah et cartus 
anima ejus ;/in- 
erepatio Domini occidal evm : rut Achitophel 
in consilio sno ; sicut lepra Gehazi sit lepra ipsius ; ne- 
que wlla sit resurrectio ruina: ojus ; in sepultura Israelis 
non sit sepultura ejus ; Alienis detur uror ipsius, et super 
cam prostranto se alii in morte ejus. In hoc anathemate 
sit Ploni filius Plont, et hac sit itas ipsius.” Lexic. 
Talmud, p. 829. The pronouncing of such sentences 
was —— accompanied with the lighting of ta- 
pers in the synagogue or court-room ; the ringing of 
bells and sounding of trumpets, &c. practices to which 
the church of Rome have since had recourse, in order 
to give greater solemnity and terrific effect to their ana- 
themas, Persons thus excommunicated were prohibi- 
ted from carrying on their ordin employments ; 
could not buy or sell any thing but what was absolute- 
ly necessary for the preservation of life ; and were not 
permitted to enter any place of instruction for the pur- 
pose of either teaching or being rag, No person 
‘was allowed to associate, or to eat or drink with them. 
They were incapacitated for acting either as judges or 
as witnesses ; for cireumcising their sons, and for as- 
sisting at the funeral obsequies, even of their nearest 
relations. The ordinary rites of burial were denied 
them; their friends were not suffered to mourn for 
them ; and a large stone was left on their graves, or the 
people, and sometimes the judges, heaped stones on the 
spot where they were interred, as over Achan and Ab- 
salom.—The ‘sentence of the lesser excommunication, 
when inflicted by a private person, might be removed 
by one public judge, or by three men chosen for the gra’ 
ec 
purpose ; but to the absolution of those who excommu- 
nicated themselves, the sentence of ten persons was ne- 
cessary. He who had been excommunicated in a dream, 
(as some imagined they might be) could be loosened 
from this sentence only by ten men learned in the law 
and the Talmud. Absolution from the excom- 
munication, might be obtained from a single judge, pro- 
vided he was a doctor of the law ; but, m other cases, 
only from the concurring authority of three judges. 
=k is somewhat doubtful whether, in any instance, ex- 
communication among the Jews, though jounced 
by ecclesiastical judges, involved in it exclusion from 
the to be as having 
Christian wra; but there can be no doubt whatever, 
that, subsequently to that period, it was so extended, 
and became in the strictest sense an ecclesiastical and 
spiritual malediction. 
were 
ood ww ket 
, and lamented as lost and dead ynto God, («ut 
perditos ue mortuos) ; but that on makin es- 
ceiyed back as restored to life. It was at the same 
; occasions, declared, by a papal by 
EXCOMMUNICATION. 
panied with any of those forms of 
delivering over to Satan, or of solemn execration, 
were usual among the Jews, and subsequently 
duced into them by the Romish church. The # 
and followers of heretical opinions which had 
parse by bene judg retain i 
were also su to ‘ 
times snflictet mes whole ow re 
were judged to have departed ith. 
latter case, however, the sentence seldom went 
than the interdiction of correspondence with 
churches, or of spiritual communication between their 
respective pastors. To the same exclusion from religious 
rivileges, those persons were doomed, who, 
S hethier frond seirpagns/ compulsion, had polluted 
13 
+ 
eel 
themselves, after their baptism, act of idolatrous 
worship: and the ce pe. tr such persons, 
before they could be d to communion, was often 
peculiarly severe. uences of excommuni- 
cation, even then, were of a temporal as well asa spi- 
ritual nature. The inst whom it was 
nounced, was denied all share in the oblations of his 
brethren; the ties both of reli and of private 
friendship were dissolved ; he found himself an. object 
of abhorrence to thosé whom he» most esteemed, and 
of mankind. 
It was not, however, till churchmen 
temporal wi “th: 
not less frequen’ y em loyed for 
less one si esis eed — 
just punishment of impenitent delinquents, 
heral edification of the faithful, But as soon as thi 
union werd wpa reaper i Se. 
in w the system rose to its i 
cance oval Gis civ Tighter wall'aa Wee i of 
men, the list of offences which rubjsted their perpetr- 
tors to excommunication, was multiplied; and the se- 
verity of its inflictions, with their penal effects, increa- 
sed in the same ratio. The slightest injury, or even 
insult, sustained by an ecclesiastic, was ‘a sufli- 
cient cause for the promulgation of an anathema. Whole 
families, and even i were ited from en- 
gaging in any religious exercise, and cursed with the 
most tremendous Wee es oe divine 
Nor were kings em secure against these 
thunders of the church ; their subj 
from allegiance to them; and all who should dare to 
em, menaced with a similar judgment. Nay, 
to such an extravagant length was this exercise of power 
carried, that instances are on record of bishops havi 
issued formal ereerantinisens ee mice, 
even a regular judicial process against 
them, in which they were Sllowed the benefit of an ad- 
vocate and proctor, to plead and defend their cause. 
The pronouncing of sentence was accompanied with 
the — meme enter mr se 
und, and trampled under { 
t time to solemn peals rung on lecthelianelioace 
