Bellarmine · De Controversiis · On the Church Militant · The Church Spread Throughout the Whole World
Chapter 6: On the Excommunicated
Our translation, from the Latin of the Opera Omnia (Paris: Vivès, 1870–74), vol. II, De Ecclesia Militante, On the Church Militant (of the controversy On Councils and the Church). The Latin source text is public domain; this English rendering is released with the site. Scripture quotations follow Bellarmine's Vulgate citations, rendered in Douay-Rheims wording where he quotes exactly. Click “Show the Latin” for the original (raw OCR of the scan; scanning errors remain — the scan itself is the authority).
That the excommunicated are not in the Church is taught by the Roman Catechism in the explanation of the Creed; Thomas of Walden, volume 1, Book 2, chapter 9 of the Doctrine of the ancient faith; John of Torquemada, Book 1, chapter 3 of the Summa on the Church; John Driedo, Book 4, chapter 2, part 2, on Scripture and ecclesiastical dogmas; and some others. And it is proved first from that of Matthew 18: If he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican. Where the Lord speaks of the excommunicated according to the exposition of all. But the heathen are not of the Church. Likewise from that of 1 Corinthians 5: Why have you not rather mourned, that he might be taken away from among you, that hath done this deed? And below: Know you not that a little leaven corrupteth the whole lump? Likewise: Put away the evil one from among yourselves, etc. By all which words the Apostle describes what it is to be excommunicated. For he commands him to be excommunicated who had had his father's wife.
Secondly, it is proved from the canon law, Cause 11, question 3, canon Canonica: “Following the canonical institutes and the examples of the holy Fathers, we eliminate the violators of the Churches of God, by the authority of God and the judgment of the Holy Spirit, from the bosom of holy mother Church and from the fellowship of the whole of Christianity.”
Thirdly, from the Fathers. Eusebius, Book 5 of the History, chapter 24, narrating how Pope Victor had excommunicated all the Asians: “He sends letters,” he says, “by which he would segregate all together without distinction from the ecclesiastical bond.” And below: “Irenaeus,” he says, “reproves Victor, that he did not rightly to cut off from the unity of the body so many and so great Churches of God.” Epiphanius, heresy 42, which is that of Marcion, speaking of Marcion, who before he was a heretic was a professor of virginity, and yet corrupted a woman who also professed virginity, and therefore was excommunicated by his own father: “By his own father,” he says, “he is cast out of the Church. For his father was illustrious for excellent piety, and persevered living honorably in the ministry of the episcopate.”
Hilary, on chapter 18 of Matthew, on that: Let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican, says that God so dealt with the people of Israel as Christ warns is to be done. For first He rebuked the people between Himself and them alone, when He appeared to them with majesty on Mount Sinai. Secondly, He employed with Himself two witnesses, that is, the Law and the Prophets. Thirdly, He told the Church, that is, He sent Christ the supreme Prelate of the Church, who should chide the Jews. Lastly, when they would not hear the Prelate of the Church, He neglected and deserted them, as heathens and publicans. By which words he shows that to be made as the heathen and the publican, which is done by excommunication, is to be cast out of the people of God, and no longer to be governed by God with that peculiar providence by which the Church is governed.
Chrysostom and Theophylact on this place expound that to be cast out of the Church, which is here called to be made as the heathen and the publican. Jerome, on chapter 3 to Titus, says that other sinners are driven outside the Church by the excommunication of the bishops, whither heretics and schismatics go of themselves willingly. Augustine, book on the unity of the Church, last chapter, says that to be excommunicated is to be visibly cut off from the body of the Church. Likewise, book on correction and grace, chapter 15, he says that by excommunication the diseased sheep is separated from the healthy, lest the dire contagions creep through more. This sentence too is cited from Augustine, Cause 11, question 3, canon Omnis: “Every Christian who is excommunicated by the priests is delivered to Satan. How? because forsooth outside the Church is the Devil, as in the Church is Christ.” To whom Anselm subscribes, who on chapter 5 of 1 Corinthians says that to deliver a man to Satan is by excommunication to drive him out of the Church. Gregory, on the first verse of the fifth penitential Psalm, says: “By this Spirit the heretic does not live, the schismatic does not live, the excommunicated does not live, because they are not of the body.”
It is proved lastly by reason. First, by excommunication men are deprived of all the spiritual commerce which the men of the Church have among themselves, as Tertullian teaches in the Apologetic, chapter 39; therefore they are no longer in the assembly of the Church. For what is it for a citizen to be deprived of the city, but to be deprived of all the commerce which is among the men of that city? Secondly, excommunication holds that place in the Church which the penalty of death held in the Old Testament, and which it holds in temporal commonwealths: but by death men are plainly separated from the whole commonwealth. Augustine, question 39 on Deuteronomy: “This,” he says, “excommunication now does in the Church, which slaying did then.” Where he compares what was said, Deuteronomy 24: Thou shalt take away the evil from the midst of thee, with what the Apostle says, 1 Corinthians 5: Put away the evil one from among yourselves. Thirdly, there is no penalty graver which the Church can inflict than excommunication, as blessed Augustine teaches, book on correction and grace, chapter 15; therefore by excommunication a man is cast out of the Church. For it is graver to be cast out of the Church than any penalty whatever which is taken upon those remaining in the Church. Fourthly, excommunication cannot be pronounced except on the contumacious, as blessed Augustine teaches, book on true religion, chapter 6. And the same all theologians deduce from that of Matthew 18: If he will not hear the Church, let him be to thee as the heathen and the publican. Therefore excommunication is a casting-out of the Church; for if excommunication were some penalty short of casting-out, it would sometimes be pronounced even on murderers, adulterers, and other criminals, though not contumacious. Add that when the excommunicated are absolved, it is said: “I restore thee to the unity of the Church and the participation of the members”; which is a clear sign that the excommunicated was separated from the unity of the Church.
But on the contrary they object. First, an excommunicated man can retain Baptism, the profession of faith, and subjection to the legitimate prelates, and so be a friend of God, if forsooth he be unjustly excommunicated; the justly excommunicated too can do penance and have those three things before he is absolved; therefore he will be in the Church, even while remaining excommunicated.
I answer that such a one is in the Church by mind or desire, which suffices him for salvation; yet he is not so by body or external communication, which properly makes a man to be of that visible Church which is on earth. Augustine, book on true religion, chapter 6: “Often too the divine providence permits even good men to be expelled from the Christian congregation. Which contumely, or injury to themselves, when they have borne most patiently for the peace of the Church, and have contrived no novelties of schism or heresy, they will teach men with how true affection and how great sincerity of charity God is to be served. Such the Father crowns in secret, seeing in secret.”
Secondly they object, because Augustine, book against the Donatists after the conference, chapter 20, says: “For we do not separate from the people of God those whom, either by degrading or by excommunicating, we reduce by penance to a humbler place.”
I answer: I suspect the passage is corrupt, and is to be read thus: “For we do not not separate from the people of God.” For immediately there follows: “And where, for the sake of the peace and tranquillity of the Church, we are not permitted to do this, we do not therefore neglect the Church, but tolerate what we would not, that we may attain what we would, using the caution of the Lord's precept, lest, when we wished to gather the cockle before the time, we root up the wheat together.” But if this passage be not corrupt, it can be answered that by "the people of God" in this place is understood not the Church militant alone, but absolutely the number of all who are to be saved, whether they be in the Church or can be. For the Pastors do not by excommunication intend to separate men from the number of those to be saved, but rather by that correction to help their salvation.
Thirdly, excommunication is a certain spiritual medicine instituted for the usefulness of those who are excommunicated. Whence the Apostle, 2 Thessalonians last chapter, says: “But if any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man, and do not keep company with him, that he may be ashamed: and do not esteem him as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother.”
I answer: Excommunication, although it cuts a man off from the Church, yet does not take away the potency, so that he who is cut off cannot again be grafted into the Church, if he will do penance. Therefore the Church by excommunication separates some from her body, but for their usefulness, because she desires them to be humbled by that confusion, and, humbled, to be received again into her body.
Show the Latin (Vives edition, OCR)
CAPUT VI. De excommunicatis. • De Excommunicatis, quod in Ecclesia non sint, docent, Catechismus Romanus in ex- plication. Symboli; ThomasWaldensisto. I, lib. II, cap. 9. doctr. fid. antiquae ; Joannes de Turrecremata lib. I , cap. 3. Summae de Ecclesia; Joannes Driedo lib. IV, cap. 2, part. 2. de Scriptura et dogmatibus Eccle¬ siasticis, et alii nonnulli. Et probatur primo ex illo Matth. XVIII : Si Ecclesiam non au¬ diant, sit tibi sicut Ethnicus et Publicanus (i). Ubi Dominus de excommunicatis loquitur secundum omnium expositionem. At Ethnici non sunt de Ecclesia. Item ex illo I. Cor. V : Cur non magis luctum habuistis , ut tollatur de medio vestri , qui hoc opus fecit ? Et infra : Nes¬ citis, quia modicum fermentum totam massam corrumpit ? Item : Auferte malum ex vobis- metipsis , etc. (2). Quibus omnibus verbis de¬ scribit Apostolus, quid sit excommunicari . Jubet enim excommunicari eum, qui uxorem patris sui habuerat. Secundo, probatur ex Jure canonico, XI, q. 3. can. Canonica : « Canonica instituta, et sanctorum Patrum exempla sequentes, Ecclesiarum Dei violatores , auctoritate Dei et judicio sancti Spiritus , a gremio sanctae matris Ecclesiae, et a consortio totius Chris¬ tianitatis eliminamus. » Tertio, ex Patribus, Eusebius lib. V hist. cap. 24. narrans , quemadmodum Victor Papa excommunicaverat omnes Asianos : « Litteras, inquit, mittit , quibus omnes si¬ mul absque discretione ab Ecclesiastico foe¬ dere segregaret. » Et infra : « Ireneeus , in¬ quit, Victorem arguit, quod non recte fece¬ rit, abscindere a corporis unitate tot et tan¬ tas Ecclesias Dei. » Epiphanius hseres. 42. quae est Marcionis, loquens deMarcione, qui antequam esset hsereticus , virginitatis pro¬ fessor erat, et tamen corrupit mulierem, quse virginitatem quoque profitebatur, et ideo a patre suo excommunieatus fuit : « A proprio, inquit, patre ab Ecclesia ejicitur. Erat enim pater ipsius propter excellentem pietatem illustris, et in Episcopatus ministe¬ rio honeste vivens perseverabat. » Hilarius in cap. Matth. XVIII in illud : Sit tibi sicut Ethnicus et Publicanus (3), dicit Deum sic egisse cum populo Israel, ut Chris¬ tus monet agendum. Primo enim corripuit populum inter se et ipsum solum, quando apparuit illis cum majestate in monte Sinai. Secundo, adhibuit secum duos testes, id est, Legem et Prophetas. Tertio, dixit Ecclesias, id est, misit Christum summum Praesulem Ecclesiae , qui Judaeos objurgaret. Ultimo, cum illi Ecclesiae Praesulem non audirent, neglexit eos ac deseruit , ut Ethnicos et Pu¬ blicanos. Quibus verbis ostendit , fieri sicut Ethnicum et Publicanum , quod fit per ex¬ communicationem, esse, ejici de populo Dei, et non amplius a Deo gubernari peculiari illa providentia , quae gubernatur Ecclesia. Chrysostomus et Theophylacfcus in hunc locum, exponi^nt, ejici de Ecclesia, quae hic dicitur, fieri ut Ethnicum et Publicanum, Hieronymus in cap. III ad Tit. dicit, alios peccatores per Episcoporum excommunica¬ tionem propelli extra Ecclesiam, quo per se- ipsos sponte eunt haeretici et schismatici. Augustinus lib. de unit. Ecclesiae, cap. ult. dicit, excommunicariVesse visibiliter praecidi a corpore Ecclesiae. Item lib. de correptione et gratia cap. 15. dicit, per excommunica¬ tionem separari ab ovibus sanis morbidam, ne per plures serpant dira contagia. Citatur etiam ex Augustino haEC sententia, XI. q. 3. can. Omnis : « Omnis Christianus, quia Sa¬ cerdotibus excommunicatur, Satanae tradi¬ tur. Quomodo? quia scilicet extra Ecclesiam Diabolus est, sicut in Ecclesia Christus. » Cui subscribit Anselmus , qui in cap. V, 1. ad Cor. dicit, tradere hominem Satanae, esse per excommunicationem eum de Ecclesia pellere. Gregorius in primum versum Psal. V pcenitentialis inquit : a De hoc Spiritu non (1) Matth. XVIII, 17. — (2) I. Cor. V, 2, 6 et 12. — (3) Matlh. XVIII, 17. CAPUT VI. vivit haereticus, non vivit schismaticus , non vivit excommunicatus, quia non sunt de cor¬ pore. » Probatur ultimo ratione. Primo , per ex¬ communicationem privantur homines omni commercio spirituali, quod habent homines Ecclesiae inter se, ut docet Tertullian. in Apologetic. cap. 39. igitur non sunt amplius in coetu Ecclesiae. Quid enim est, civem ali¬ quem privari civitate, nisi privari omni com¬ mercio, quod est inter homines illius civita¬ tis ? Secundo , excommunicatio eum locum habet in Ecclesia, quem poena mortis habe¬ bat in Testamento veteri , et quem habet in temporalibus Rebuspublicis : at per mortem separantur homines plane a tota Republica. Augustinus q. 39. in Deuter. : « Hoc, inquit, nunc agit in Ecclesia excommunicatio, quod agebat tunc interfectio. » Ubi confert, quod dicebatur Deuter. XXIV : Auferes malum de medio tui , cum eo , quod dicit Apostolus I. Corinth. V : Auferte malum ex vobisipsis [i). Tertio, nulla est poena gravior, quain Eccle¬ sia infligere possit, excommunicatione, ut B. Augustinus docet lib. de correptione et gratia c. 13. ergo per excommunicationem ejicitur homo de Ecclesia. Nam gravius est projici de Ecclesia, quam quaslibet poena, quae de manentibus in Ecclesia sumitur. Quarto, excommunicatio non potest ferri, nisi in contumaces , ut B. Augustinus docet lib. de vera relig. c. 6- Et idem etiam om- hbs Theologi deducunt ex illo Matth. XVIII : Si Ecclesiam non audierit , sit tibi velut Ethni¬ cus et Publicanus (2). Igitur excommunicatio est ejectio de Ecclesia; si enim excommuni¬ catio esset poena aliqua infra ejectionem, ferretur etiam quandoque in homicidas, adulteros, et alios facinorosos, licet non con¬ tumaces. Adde , quod cum absolvuntur ex- communicati , dicitur : Restituo te unitati Ecclesiae, et membrorum participationi. » Quod signum est perspicuum , excommuni- catum separatum fuisse ab Ecclesiae unitate. At contra objiciunt. Primo , potest homo excommunicatus retinere Baptismum , fidei professionem, et subjectionem Praelatis legi¬ timis, atque adeo esse amicus Dei , si nimi¬ rum sit injuste excommunicatus ; potest etiam juste excommunicatus poenitentiam agere, et habere illa tria antequam absolva¬ tur; igitur in Ecclesia erit, etiam manens ex¬ communicatus. ‘m Respondeo, talem esse in Ecclesia animo, sive desiderio, quod sufficit illi ad salutem, non tamen esse corpore, sive externa com-- municatione, quae proprie facit hominem esse de Ecclesia ista visibili , quae est in ter¬ ris. Augustinus lib. de vera religione c. 6 : « Saepe etiam sinit divina providentia ex¬ pelli de congregatione Christiana etiam bo¬ nos viros. Quam contumeliam , vel injuriam suam cum patientissime pro Ecclesiae pace tulerint, neque ullas novitates, vel schisma¬ tis, vel haeresis moliti fuerint, docebunt ho¬ mines quam vero affectu , et quanta sinceri¬ tate charitatis Deo serviendum sit. Hos co¬ ronat in occulto Pater in occulto videns. » Secundo objiciunt , quia Augustinus lib . contra Donatistas, post collationem cap. 20. dicit : « Neque enim a populo Dei separa¬ mus, quos vel degradando, vel excommuni¬ cando ad humiliorem poenitendo locum re¬ digimus. » Respondeo, suspicor locum esse corrup¬ tum, et sic legendum esse : Neque enim a populo Dei non separamus. Nam statim se¬ quitur : « Et ubi hoc facere , pacis et tran¬ quillitatis Ecclesiae gratia non permittimur, non tamen ideo Ecclesiam negligimus , sed toleramus quae nolumus, ut perveniamus quo volumus, utentes cautela praecepti Dominici, ne cum voluerimus ante tempus colligere zizania, simul eradicemus et triticum. » Quod si locus hic non sit corruptus, respon- deifi potest, per populum Dei hoc loco non intelligi solam Ecclesiam militantem, sed absolute numerum omnium salvandoram, sive sint in Ecclesia, sive esse possint. Non enim per excommunicationem intendunt Pas¬ tores separare homines a numero salvando¬ rum, sed potius ea correptione juvare eorum salutem. Tertio, excommunicatio est medicina quae¬ dam spiritualis instituta inutilitatem eorum, qui excommunicantur. Unde Apostolus II ad Thessal. ult. ait : « Quod si quis non obedit verbo nostro per epistolam , hunc notate, et ne commisceamini cum illo, ut confundatur, et nolite quasi inimicum existimare, sed cor¬ ripite, ut fratrem. » Respondeo, excommunicatio etiam si ab¬ scindit hominem ab Ecclesia, tamen non au¬ fert potentiam, ut non possit iterum inseri in Ecclesiam is, qui prsecisus est, si poeni¬ tentiam agere velit. Idcirco Ecclesia per ex- (1) Deut. XXIV, 7; I. Cor. V, 12. — (2) Matth. XVIII, 17. 326 LIBER III. communicationem separat quosdam a suo corpore, sed in utilitatem eorum, quia cupit eos illa confusione humiliari, et humiliatos iterum in suum corpus recipere.