So What Does It Take To Get Excommunicated?
By RAY CAVANAUGH
He was neither the first nor the last to receive excommunication. But Martin Luther’s banishment from the Church, which took effect when Pope Leo X issued the papal bull Decet Romanum Pontificem on January 3, 1521, was probably the most notable.
Though excommunication is indeed a serious matter, it is largely meant as a warning by the Church, instead of a final judgment. The Catholic Encyclopedia relates that excommunication is “a medicinal rather than a vindictive penalty, being intended, not so much to punish the culprit, as to correct him and bring him back to the path of righteousness.”
Those with the authority to excommunicate have consisted of Popes, papal councils, papal legates, bishops, and prelates of religious orders. A regular priest cannot issue an excommunication. However, in cases where the excommunicated person is on the brink of death and willing to recant, a parish priest would have the authority to lift an excommunication.
Though so-called “automatic” excommunications have applied to numerous unnamed persons partaking in behavior condemned by the Church, the last two millennia have also seen a sizable number of cases in which a specific individual has been excommunicated.
Among those receiving excommunication in the first century AD were Simon Magus, whose name became the basis of the word “simony,” which relates to the practice of purchasing oneself a position in the Church hierarchy.
The second century AD saw several excommunications given to prominent members of heretical breakaway sects, such as Gnosticism. The situation was similar in the third century, which brought the expulsions of Sabellius (founder of the heretical sect “Sabellianism”) and Novatian (an antipope who sought to spread “Novatianism”).
Though the fourth century AD continued to see excommunications for breakaway sects, it also saw a new type of case — that of Theodosius I, Emperor of Rome, who received excommunication for ordering murderous violence in response to the alleged killing of an important Roman official. Having shown remorse (“Theodosius accepted his excommunication and even performed several months of public penance,” according to the website roman-emperors.org), the Emperor was ultimately able to return to good standing with the Church.
The Theodosius case is a significant early example of the fact that excommunication does not need to be a perpetual banishment. Even those who greatly offend the Church have an opportunity to return to the Church, just as those who greatly offend God can redeem themselves before Him.
In the fifth through ninth centuries, excommunications tended to involve persons involved with preaching heretical doctrines. The latter part of this period began to see incidences of posthumous excommunication, which is inherently problematic, considering that the excommunicated are supposed to have a chance to return to the Church.
The tenth century was not the most interesting for excommunications, but the eleventh century was a bonanza: A Polish king known as “Boleslaw II the Generous” (he was also known as “Boleslaw the Cruel” according to the Encyclopedia of the Middle Ages) was banished for murdering Bishop Stanislaus of Krakow (who later became Poland’s patron saint).
Around the same time in France, prominent landowners were excommunicated for confiscating monastic property. Other large-scale French landowners faced Church expulsion for persisting with violent vendettas against one another.
Then there was Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor. Four separate times in the eleventh century, excommunication was pronounced upon him and then rescinded. He was later excommunicated a fifth time in the twelfth century. This fifth issuance was lifted posthumously. But Henry IV retains the distinction of having incurred excommunication more times than anyone else in Church history.
The twelfth century saw the banishment of a number of monarchs for infractions ranging from illicit marriages to facilitating the robbery of religious pilgrims.
More monarchs received excommunication in the thirteenth century, but these cases tended to involve political disputes as opposed to personal misbehavior. The fourteenth century witnessed the expulsion of monarchs along with antipopes, bishops, and assorted noblemen.
The most famous excommunication of the fifteenth century belonged to that of Joan of Arc. Her banishment was rescinded 25 years after she was burned at the stake. Furthermore, the bishop deemed responsible for her persecution and death, Pierre Cauchon, was himself excommunicated.
Aside from Martin Luther’s January 3, 1521, excommunication, the sixteenth century saw the expulsion of other figures involved in the Protestant Reformation, such as Thomas Cranmer (archbishop of Canterbury of the Church of England) and the notorious Henry VIII.
The seventeenth century saw a Polish nobleman excommunicated for art theft, and the eighteenth century brought the expulsions of leading proponents of the heretical Jansenist movement.
The nineteenth century saw the excommunication of individuals involved with breakaway churches, such as the Polish National Catholic Church and the Philippine Independent Church. In events much closer to the Church’s epicenter, King Victor Emmanuel II of Italy was excommunicated for fighting with the Papal States, though he ultimately re-entered into communion with the Church on his deathbed. An even more notable deathbed redemption was that of Napoleon Bonaparte, a long-estranged Catholic who, in his ever-powerful heyday, had annexed Rome.
The twentieth century saw excommunications ranging from the very strange (a French cleric who insisted he was a Pope) to the large-scale (the Church excommunicated Argentine President Juan Perón for his having expelled all the nation’s bishops).
Reasons for twenty-first-century excommunications have included the unsanctioned ordination of female priests, the condoning of extramarital affairs, and, in at least one case, a priest’s refusal to acknowledge his current bishop or the current Pope during Mass.
In a world of ongoing conflict, one can assume the Church has not issued its final excommunication. However, it may never again have the chance to issue one as momentous as that inflicted on Martin Luther. The former Augustinian monk had no interest in recanting, and so 500 years since taking effect, his banishment remains.