Excommunication & Penitential Discipline
The hardest mercy: shutting a member out of communion in the hope of winning them back
Excommunication is the corrective exclusion of a baptized member from communion and fellowship, grounded in passages like Matthew 18 and 1 Corinthians 5, with the early church ordering stages of penance for readmission. It was meant to heal, not merely punish. All traditions retain some form of this discipline, but they differ in scope and procedure; the Reformed reframed it as "the ban" or the fencing of the Lord's table.
How it traveled
- On Modesty.— · 220explains
- The Canonical Epistle, with the Commentaries of Theodore Balsamon and John Zonaras.— · 220applies
- The Epistle of Pope Urban First.— · 220explains
- The Epistles of Cyprian.Carthage · 258applies
- The First Ecumenical Council: The First Council of NiceNicaea · 325explains
- The Church History of EusebiusCaesarea · 339explains
- The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods— · 360explains
- The LettersCaesarea (Cappadocia) · 379applies
- Homilies on First CorinthiansConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407explains
- The Homilies of St. John Chrysostom on Timothy, Titus, and PhilemonConstantinople (Istanbul) · 407applies
- The Letters of St. JeromeBethlehem · 420applies
- Letters of St. AugustinHippo Regius · 430applies
- The Third Ecumenical Council: The Council of EphesusEphesus · 431applies
- The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates ScholasticusConstantinople (Istanbul) · 439explains
- The Ecclesiastical History of SozomenConstantinople (Istanbul) · 450applies
- The Fourth Ecumenical Council. The Council of ChalcedonChalcedon · 451applies
- The Ecclesiastical History, Dialogues, and Letters of TheodoretCyrrhus · 458explains
- The Letters and Sermons of Leo the GreatRome · 461applies
- The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the GreatRome · 604explains
- Selected Epistles of Gregory the GreatRome · 604applies
- The Canons of the Council in Trullo; Often Called The Quinisext CouncilConstantinople (Istanbul) · 692applies
- The Canons of the Synods of Sardica, Carthage, Constantinople, and Carthage Under St. Cyprian, Which Canons Were Received by the Council in Trullo and Ratified by II. NiceConstantinople (Istanbul) · 692explains
- The Seventh Ecumenical Council. The Second Council of NiceNicaea · 787applies
- Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic ChurchGeneva · 1564explains
- Seven Sermons. On Important SubjectsNorthampton, Massachusetts · 1758explains
Key passages(20)
Seven Sermons. On Important Subjects · Jonathan Edwards
I. I shall say something of the nature of excommunication. It is a punishment executed in the name and according to the will of Christ, whereby a person who hath heretofore enjoyed the privileges of a
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Seven Sermons. On Important Subjects · Jonathan Edwards
1. A being delivered over to the calamities to which they are subject, who belong to the visible kingdom of the devil. As they who are excommunicated are thrust out from among the visible people of Go
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The Ecclesiastical History of Socrates Scholasticus · Socrates Scholasticus
Chapter VI.—Division begins in the Church from this Controversy; and Alexander Bishop of Alexandria excommunicates Arius and his Adherents. Having drawn this inference from his novel train of reasoni
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A Treatise on Rebuke and Grace · Augustine of Hippo
Chapter 46 [XV.]—Rebuke Must Be Varied According to the Variety of Faults. There is No Punishment in the Church Greater Than Excommunication. Therefore, let brethren who are subject be rebuked by tho
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
2. The other passage, in which binding and loosing are mentioned, is in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew, where Christ says, “If he shall neglect to hear them, tell it unto the Church: but if he negl
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
5. But, on the other hand, it will be proper to see what was anciently the true use of ecclesiastical discipline, and how great the abuses which crept in, that we may know what of ancient practice is
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
OF THE DISCIPLINE OF THE CHURCH, AND ITS PRINCIPAL USE IN CENSURES AND EXCOMMUNICATION. This chapter consists of two parts:—I. The first part of ecclesiastical discipline, which respects the people,
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
2. The first foundation of discipline is to provide for private admonition; that is, if any one does not do his duty spontaneously, or behaves insolently, or lives not quite honestly, or commits somet
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
5. There are three ends to which the Church has respect in thus correcting and excommunicating. The first is, that God may not be insulted by the name of Christians being given to those who lead shame
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Book Fourth. of the Holy Catholic Church · John Calvin
8. It ought not, however, to be omitted, that the Church, in exercising severity, ought to accompany it with the spirit of meekness. For, as Paul enjoins, we must always take care that he on whom disc
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Letters of St. Augustin · Augustine of Hippo
Letter CCL. To His Beloved Lord and Venerable Brother and Partner in the Priestly Office, Auxilius,Augustin Sends Greeting in the Lord. Probably the Bishop of Nurco, named Auxilius, who was present
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Seven Sermons. On Important Subjects · Jonathan Edwards
Much love and complacency is due to those whom we are obliged in charity to receive as saints, because they are visible Christians. But this complacency excommunicated persons forfeit. We should still
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Seven Sermons. On Important Subjects · Jonathan Edwards
2. On the other hand, as to what relates to the love of complacence, they ought to be treated with greater displacency and disrespect than the heathen. This is plain by the text and context. For the a
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Seven Sermons. On Important Subjects · Jonathan Edwards
1. That the church may be kept pure, and the ordinances of God not be defiled. This end is mentioned in the context, verse 6,. &c. “Know ye not that a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump? Purge out
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The Book of Pastoral Rule, and Selected Epistles, of Gregory the Great · Pope Gregory the Great
It has come to my knowledge that some of you, deceived by ignorance or under compulsion, have communicated with those who, their fault as you know requiring it, have been deprived of communion by the
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The Canons of the Councils of Ancyra, Gangra, Neocæsarea, Antioch and Laodicea, which Canons were Accepted and Received by the Ecumenical Synods · The Ecumenical Councils
This canon, together with the preceding was read from the Code of Canons at the Council of Chalcedon, at the Fourth Session in connexion with the case of Carosus and Dorothœus, and of other monks who
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The Canons of the Synods of Sardica, Carthage, Constantinople, and Carthage Under St. Cyprian, Which Canons Were Received by the Council in Trullo and Ratified by II. Nice · The Ecumenical Councils
Concerning a bishop who removes a man from communion who says he has confessed to the bishop alone his crime. It also seemed good that if on any occasion a bishop said that someone had confessed to h
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The Canons of the Synods of Sardica, Carthage, Constantinople, and Carthage Under St. Cyprian, Which Canons Were Received by the Council in Trullo and Ratified by II. Nice · The Ecumenical Councils
Augustine the bishop, the legate of the Numidian province, said: Deign to enact that if any perchance have been rightly on account of their crimes cast forth from the Church, and shall have been recei
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The Epistles of Cyprian. · Cyprian
Epistle XXXVII. To Caldonius, Herculanus, and Others, About the Excommunication of Felicissimus. Argument.—Felicissimus, Together with His Companions in Sedition, is to Be Restrained from the Commun
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The First Ecumenical Council: The First Council of Nice · The Ecumenical Councils
Canon V. Concerning those, whether of the clergy or of the laity, who have been excommunicated in the several provinces, let the provision of the canon be observed by the bishops which provides that
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