De Ecclesia Christi

« Although by the lawgiving and antecedent will of God all men are called, as to salvation so to the knowledge of the truth and to the Church; yet for actual union with the Church the following conditions are necessary: 1°. integrity of faith together with the sacrament of faith, which is baptism; 2°. hierarchical obedience; 3°. the lasting right of ecclesiastical communion. Hence heretics are not members of the Church, nor in the Church; nor are catechumens; nor schismatics; nor the excommunicated. »

I. The Church is a world supernaturally transformed, the kingdom of truth, and as it were the incorporation (ἐνουσίωσις, embodiment) of the whole revealed religion (th. VI.). All who are called to faith and to the works of revealed truth, and through these to a transformation of salvation begun on the way and completed at the end (cf. 2 Cor. III. 18.), these are all called to the Church: the will of calling and the antecedent destination of God to salvation and to the Church coincide in extent. But our Savior God « wills all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth; for there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself a ransom for all » 1 Tim. II. 4. (see the treatise On God, th. XLIX.). Therefore all who have human nature, and in this nature God as Creator and Christ as Mediator, are called by the antecedent will of God to the Church of Jesus Christ, from the time when he instituted it. Hence also the command and institution of Christ in founding his Church, « Go, teach all nations, baptizing them » (Matt. XXVIII.), is stated in other words: « Go into the whole world and preach the gospel to every creature (πάσῃ τῇ κτίσει); he who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned » (Mark XVI.).

Paul states the universal and therefore antecedent will, both of the end « (wills all men to be saved), » and of the means « (and to come to the knowledge of the truth), » and joins a twofold reason for this universal will in God: namely, that God is the God of all men, and that Christ Jesus, the man of men, that is, of all whose nature he assumed, is the mediator « (for there is one God, one mediator also of God and of men, the man Christ Jesus). » In Mark, the mediator himself, present, who had given himself as ransom, commands the Apostles and their perpetual successors to carry out that universal will. As to the means, he includes the earlier ground of universality in the very term used, because they are God's creature, and sets forth the second ground, « because there is one mediator, » himself present in his own person: « preach the gospel to every creature; » but as to the end, which here is not a question of the antecedent will (which is indeed included in the command to preach universally) but of attainment in its actual effect, the Lord Christ distinguishes the will according to men's cooperation, and states the conditional consequent will: « he who believes and is baptized will be saved. »

All the human creatures of God, all men, are therefore called to the Church through the merits of Christ the mediator, by God's antecedent will, as much to eternal salvation as to the kingdom of truth and of faith; they ought to be members of the Church, and therefore by reason of this calling and office we may call them members of the Church by God's antecedent will. Hence those who, though they are not yet, will at some time be members of the Church in act, ought to be called members by the consequent eternal calling; and as long as they are not so in act, as Augustine is wont to say, members of the Church according to foreknowledge ¹. They belonged not in themselves but in this foreknowledge of God, not in act but in proximate potency, to the fold and to the people of Christ; of them he himself said: « I have other sheep that are not of this fold, and I must bring them also » Jn X. 16; and to Paul, when he first taught at Corinth: « for I have much people in this city » Acts XVIII. 10. In this same sense, even before Paul's preaching at Antioch of Pisidia, those were members of that Church of whom it is written: « as many as were ordained to life everlasting believed » ² Acts XIII. 48.

But this universal will, and also God's particular destination, considered in itself, contributes nothing to the proper notion of the visible Church. To illuminate its concept, the question before us is who all and only are actually members of the Church of Jesus Christ on earth, that is, of the visible Church, since no Church other than the visible one exists on earth (th. XIX.). To answer this question more fully, a twofold inquiry is needed. First, we shall show what conditions are such that without them no one can be, and be called simply, a member of the Church; or, what amounts to the same, which men simply do not belong to the Church. Second, we shall speak of the conditions that are not further required to constitute truly and simply a member of the Church. For both considerations are necessary to us, so that we may understand which men all and only are truly members of the Church.

Moreover, we cannot understand those necessary conditions without which no one simply belongs to the Church, unless we consider at least in general the nature of the Church itself, the kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth, as already declared in the preceding theses. From this it will appear that the conditions are three: the unity of faith with the sacrament of faith; the unity of legitimate subordination, which the Fathers are wont to call the unity of charity (social); and the unity of juridical or canonical communion; although the lack of each of these does not sever the bonds with the Church in equal degree, of which we shall speak in the following thesis.

II. The kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth is, by its essence and its fundamental element, the kingdom of revealed truth, to which divine faith corresponds. But this truth, since the kingdom is visible on earth, is not a revelation immediately in the minds of individuals; it is truth in the custody, preaching and explanation of a visible teaching authority, instituted by Christ for this end and with this authority, for all days until the consummation of the age. Hence also the corresponding divine faith in this kingdom is not a faith conceived only in the mind, apart from the instituted teaching authority, whether inspired or formed by a person from some other source and remaining independent of that same teaching authority. It is « obedience of faith, » and the profession of the one faith by individuals and by all, under the teaching authority of the guardians, heralds and teachers of the deposit. « For with the heart one believes unto justice, but with the mouth confession is made unto salvation... How then shall they call upon him in whom they have not believed? or how shall they believe him of whom they have not heard (πῶς δὲ πιστεύσουσιν, οὗ οὐκ ἤκουσαν)? And how shall they hear without a preacher? And how shall they preach unless they be sent (ἐὰν μὴ ἀποσταλῶσι)?.... So faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ » Rom. X. 10 sqq. Hence the objective rule of faith is the common and universal preaching of Christ's envoys: « preach the gospel to every creature; he who does not believe will be condemned. » Christ declares that this preaching, this gospel, to be taught by the envoys and believed and practised by the faithful, is « all things whatsoever he himself commanded, » or « all things the Apostles were taught by the Spirit of truth. » Moreover, so that this objective rule of faith may always remain uncorrupted, and the obligation of « obedience of faith » may always remain the same, toward the dispensers of the mysteries of God who are sent, in the Apostles as in their first roots, the assistance of Christ himself and the abiding of the Paraclete in and with the teaching envoys has been promised, « all days until the consummation of the age, » and to be « for ever. » This universal, perpetually living and infallible preaching of Christ's envoys is therefore « the faith once delivered to the saints, » and « the form of doctrine » into which the Church of Christ has been delivered unchangeably; and into which, therefore, each one who wishes to be and remain a member of that Church must be delivered and must obey: « but thanks be to God that you were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine into which you were delivered » ³ Mark XVI; Matt. XXVIII; Jn XIV. 16, 17, 26; Rom. VI. 17. From this « obedience of faith » arises the unity of faith in its universality, so that the faith of the whole Church is also the faith of its individual parts, whether the greater parts, such as the particular Churches, or the lesser, such as the individual members. Conversely, from the necessity of the unity of faith « (one God, one faith), » the inner necessity of « obedience of faith » is understood, instituted by Christ and by the Holy Spirit through the Apostles, in the very institution and declaration of the perpetual and infallible teaching authority. « We have received grace and apostleship to bring about the obedience of faith among all nations » (εἰς ὑπακοὴν πίστεως ἐν πᾶσι τοῖς ἔθνεσι). « According to the command of God, for the obedience of faith among all nations, the mystery having been made known » Rom. I. 5; XVI. 26. Therefore this very preaching of the living teaching authority is set up as the rule by which, and to which, one must yield in faith: « having hope that our faith may grow... according to our rule » (κατὰ τὸν κανόνα ἡμῶν); and so that « we may think the same and abide in the same rule » 2 Cor. X. 15; Phil. III. 16; Gal. VI. 16. Hence, just as « one faith » is necessary, so as long as one abides in the established rule of the obedience of faith, by that very fact one faith is preserved: not only the faith of the Romans, but also that of the Colossians and Thessalonians, and by the same reasoning that of all the particular Churches and all the members, which faith is in the whole world. Rom. I. 8, 12; Col. I. 6; 1 Thess. I. 7, 8. See above th. XI. and the treatise On Tradition, th. IV.

Just as faith belongs to the very essence of the Church, and the profession and preaching of faith is the first fundamental manifestation of the whole life of the Church, so the first property and condition, without which no one can be a member of this body or a citizen of this kingdom of Jesus Christ on earth, is « obedience of faith, » explicit, or at least the implicit profession of the whole faith proposed and preached by the Church ⁴.

III. Christ, however, also instituted the sacrament of faith, baptism, by which not only is the habit of faith infused and the objective real profession of faith contained, but an indelible character is also imprinted, as a consecration into the member of the body and the citizen of the kingdom of Jesus Christ (cf. On the Sacraments in general, th. XIII. n. II.). Hence faith is required first, but with it the sacrament of faith is always joined to form the members of the Church. « He who believes and is baptized will be saved; » « when they had believed him who preached the kingdom of God, men and women were baptized; » « what prevents me from being baptized?.... If you believe with your whole heart, it is allowed; » « hearing, they believed and were baptized » Mark XVI. 16; Acts VIII. 12, 36; XVIII. 8. Moreover, the sense of this union of faith and baptism is declared even more expressly: once faith is received, the sealing and union with the body of Christ, which is the Church, is completed through the sacrament. « In whom (Christ) you also, believing, were sealed (ἐσφραγίσθητε) with the Holy Spirit of promise » Eph. I. 13. ⁵ (cf. On the Sacraments, th. XII.) « One body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith, one baptism » ib. IV. 5. Namely, the one body, which is quickened by the Spirit and belongs to the Lord, holds its members consigned and inserted into itself not through one faith only, but equally necessarily through the one baptism of Christ. « Teach (μαθητεύσατε, make disciples), baptizing them » Matt. XXVIII. 19: « those who received his word (Peter's) were baptized, and (by this baptism) there were added (προσετέθησαν) on that day about three thousand souls » Acts II. 41. « In one Spirit we were all baptized into one body » 1 Cor. XII. 12, 13. ⁶

Therefore, just as faith is presupposed as the first conception in the womb of the Mother Church and the necessary preparation for birth, so birth itself, the insertion into the visible Church and real union with the body of Christ, is not completed except through the sacrament of faith. « The Spirit of God pours out the new man, stirred in the mother's womb (the catechumen) and received by the birth of the font, into the hands of the priest, yet with faith nonetheless serving as the bride's attendant » Pacian, serm. de baptism. n. 6. « Unless one is born again of water and the Holy Spirit he will not enter the kingdom of heaven. There are therefore certain beginnings of faith similar to conceptions; but it is necessary not only to be conceived but also to be born, so that one may come to eternal life » Aug. to Simplician, l. I, q. 2. « Whoever we read as belonging to the kingdom of heaven in the body of Christ, which is the Church, we must understand only as baptized » Id. to Seleucian, ep. 265, n. 4.

Catechumens are said to be « in the vestibule » (ἐν προθύροις), who must yet « enter into the hall itself » (εἴσω γενέσθαι σε δεῖ): Greg. Naz. or. 40, n. 16; Cyril of Jerusalem, Procatech. n. 1. They are still « to be inserted into the Church » Cyril, ibid. n. 17; Augustine, de peccat. merit. et remiss. n. 39; to Simplician, l. I, q. 2, n. 2. Assemanius, in the liturgical codex, vols. I and II, gathered prayers over catechumens who already believe and are soon to be baptized, from various Churches, Latin, Greek, Syriac, Chaldean, Armenian, Coptic, which all agree in one sense: « that they may be renewed by the font of baptism, and be numbered among the members of your Church; » « to you, in your Church, may they be reborn by the grace of baptism; » « add to the new Testament the offspring of a new progeny. » From the Sacramentaries of Gelasius and Gregory down to the most recent recension of Paul V (vol. I, pp. 3, 5, 20, 22, 74; vol. II, p. 21). « Those who are disposed for baptism, unite them (ἕνωσον αὐτοὺς τῇ ἁγίᾳ σου καθολικῇ ἐκκλησίᾳ) to your holy catholic Church; » « plant them (φύτευσον) in your holy catholic and apostolic Church; » « that they may be grafted into the root of the rich olive, which is the holy catholic and apostolic Church of God » (among Greeks, Copts and Syrians, vol. I, pp. 120, 163; vol. II, pp. 134, 162, 240, 285). « That they may be sheep of the true Shepherd, sealed with the seal of your Holy Spirit, and honorable members in the body of your holy Church; » « receive them into your fold » (among Syrians, Chaldeans, Copts, Maronites, vol. I, pp. 166, 183, 220, 223; vol. II, pp. 268, 330, 348). « That they may become the body and member of your Church » (among Armenians, vol. I, pp. 170, 172). Hence it is that catechumens, though their faith is already received, remain « without part in, and without initiation into, all the hierarchical sacraments⁷, because they have not yet received their subsistence from divine birth » Dionysius, Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, c. 7. For « baptism itself is the beginning of all the sacraments, in which we are planted into the likeness of the death of Christ » St. Bernard, serm. de coena Domini n. 2. Gathering all these together, Eugene IV declares: « The holy baptism holds the first place among all the sacraments, which is the gate of the spiritual life; for through it we are made members of Christ and of his body, the Church. » Decree for the Armenians.

IV. If in the Church one considers only the revealed truth that was handed down to it by Christ and the Apostles as a deposit to be guarded, then, besides the profession of the whole faith and the sacrament of faith, of which we have so far spoken, nothing else would seem to be required in order that someone, as a faithful and initiated citizen, belong to this « kingdom of truth. » But in truth, for the kingdom of God on earth, no less than the infallible teaching authority and the unity of profession that corresponds to it through « obedience of faith, » there is essential, by the institution of Christ, power of government, or sacred empire, in legitimate apostolic succession, and specifically, by reason of the monarchy (th. X.), in the successors of Peter. To this power there corresponds obedience, and through it the unity or communion of ecclesiastical intercourse; this unity is commonly called by the Fathers « the charity of peace » (Aug. de Baptism. l. III. n. 19, and often elsewhere), namely social charity. Indeed, this power of government or of jurisdiction is itself what, from the institution of Christ the founder of the Church, forms, binds and contains the whole visible Church, as the « glue » of unity, as Cyprian puts it. « On this rock I will build my Church, and I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven. » Christ himself gave Apostles, and afterwards, until the completion of the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ in his body, which is the Church, pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, to this end and effect: that the saints, namely the sons and members of the Church, may be perfected and intimately joined into one, and thus the body of Christ may be continually built up. « For the perfecting (πρὸς τὸν καταρτισμὸν) of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. » Matt. XVI; Eph. IV; Col. II. Therefore whoever does not wish to be founded upon the rock is not of the great house of the Church; whoever refuses to submit to the power of the keys is cut off from the kingdom of heaven, both proximately and immediately from that which is on earth, and consequently from that which is in heaven; whoever does not hold the Head through those bonds and connections by which the body of Christ is contained and built up (cf. th. XVI. n. II.) is himself not a member of the body.

Efficiently, therefore (efficiency of the ministerial kind), union with the Church, with the kingdom of God on earth, with the fraternity that is in the world, with the flock of Christ, with the disciples of Christ, with the body of Christ, proceeds from and depends on those to whom it was said by divine institution: « you are the rock; I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; strengthen your brethren; feed my sheep; teach them to observe all things, and behold, I am with you all days; take heed to yourselves and to the whole flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed you as bishops to rule the Church of God; pastors and teachers for the work of the ministry, for the building up of the body of Christ. » Matt. XVI, XXVIII; Luke XXII; Acts XX; Eph. IV; 1 Pet. V. To this power are subjected and united those to whom it was said by the same divine authority and institution: « and you yourselves, as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house; if he will not hear the Church (namely those to whom it was promised there, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven), let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector; obey your prelates and be subject to them, for they watch as those who must render an account for your souls » Matt. XVIII; Heb. XIII; 1 Pet. II.

Hence what the Fathers often repeat, that the Church is contained in the episcopate, holds indeed, first, of union and subjection toward the successor of Peter and toward the apostolic succession in general, and then of union and subjection toward the individual bishops, insofar as these, in subordination under the successor of Peter, and so in union with the whole apostolic succession, exercise legitimate power. « Where the bishop appears, let there be the multitude, just as where Christ Jesus is, there is the catholic Church » (either simply, if the universal bishop is regarded as representing Christ for the whole Church, or as a part of the catholic Church, if the individual particular bishops are regarded as remaining in union with the universal bishop) Ignatius, ad Smyrn. n. 8. « The Church is the people gathered to the priest, and the flock clinging to its shepherd. » « You must know that the bishop is in the Church, and the Church in the bishop; and if anyone is not with the bishop, he is not in the Church; and in vain do they flatter themselves who creep in without peace with God's priests, and believe that they communicate secretly with certain persons, when the Church, which is catholic, is not split or divided, but is everywhere connected and joined by the glue of priests cohering with one another » Cyprian, ep. 69 ad Florentium Pupianum. Now this glue, insofar as it is the visible glue of one visible Church, is by the institution of Christ Peter himself in each of his successors; this sufficiently appears from what was demonstrated above. « For to this Church, because of its more powerful principality, it is necessary for every Church to come, that is, the faithful from everywhere, in which the tradition which is from the Apostles has always been preserved by those who are everywhere » Iren. III, c. 3. « Our Lord... arranging the honour of the bishop and the order of his Church, speaks in the Gospel and says to Peter: you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church... From this, through the succession of times and of successors, the ordination of bishops and the order of the Church run on, so that the Church is established upon the bishops, and every act of the Church is governed through the same prelates » Cyprian, ep. 33 ad lapsos. Of this episcopate, thus cohering with Peter through the succession of generations, holds what Irenaeus bears witness to: « It is fitting to obey the presbyters who are in the Church, those who have succession from the Apostles, as we have shown, who with the succession of the episcopate have received the sure gift of truth according to the Father's good pleasure; but the rest, who stand apart from the principal succession, and gather in any place, are to be held suspect... From all such, therefore, one must stand aloof; but one must adhere to those who keep the teaching of the Apostles, as we said before, and who, together with the name of the presbyterate, offer sound speech and a blameless way of life » Iren. IV, c. 26.

In this communion of ecclesiastical intercourse under the government of apostolic succession, it is manifest that there is included and contained the communication of the sacraments in the unity of the Church, under the priesthood united to that same Church and legitimately succeeding itself from Christ the institutor and from the Apostles, the first priests, down to the second coming of the great high priest (1 Cor. XI. 26). For true sacraments of Christ can be, and are, outside the unity of the Church, administered validly but illegitimately, and so sacrilegiously; but legitimate administration cannot be except in the unity of the Church, to which the sacraments themselves belong and for which they were instituted. This is not only generally on account of the state of sin, sacrileges of which kind, alas!, are committed even within the Church; but specifically because those men have withdrawn themselves from liturgical power, which constitutes a part of the power of government or jurisdiction, and by this very fact have separated themselves and been cut off from the unity of the Church, since the latter cannot exist without subjection to the power of government by which unity is maintained. Nor is it surprising that this union in the sacraments, no less than in social government, has been so urgently commended by the ancient Fathers from the Apostolic age onward as the proper character of the unity of the Church; for the sacraments are the most sacred bond of unity among the visible things. « For as the body is one and has many members..... so also is Christ. For in one Spirit (ἐν ἑνὶ πνεύματι) we were all baptized into one body... and all were given to drink of one Spirit (εἰς ἓν πνεῦμα). » « Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, all who partake of the one bread » (1 Cor. X. 17; XII. 13). Whence it is easily understood, as we have said, that division itself in the sacraments (since on the part of the schismatics it is a violation of the unity of the body of Christ), and not merely an unworthy participation, formally constitutes sacrilege. « Flee divisions as the beginning of evils⁸. All of you obey the bishop, as Jesus Christ obeys the Father; and the presbytery as the Apostles; and revere the deacons as the commandment of God. Let no one do anything of those things that pertain to the Church apart from the bishop. Let that Eucharist be considered valid which is celebrated under the bishop, or to which he himself has granted permission. Wherever the bishop appears, let there be the multitude, just as wherever Christ Jesus is, there is the catholic Church. It is not lawful without the bishop either to baptize or to hold an agape⁹; but whatever he approves, that also is pleasing to God, so that everything that is done may be firm and valid. » Ignatius, ep. ad Smyrn. n. 8. The same is said in Irenaeus of those « who gather in any place »; and in the same way, in Cyprian, those are declared outcasts « who believe that they communicate secretly with certain persons »; and whoever « dares to set up another altar, to make another prayer with unlawful words, » is said « to profane the truth of the Lord's victim by false sacrifices (sacrilegious on the part of the offerers). »

V. Through the stubborn denial of a doctrine of faith sufficiently proposed by the teaching authority of the Church, defection and withdrawal from the legitimate power of government, and separation from the liturgical power, by which Christ our Savior instituted his Church as a visible kingdom, defection from the Church is contained by the very nature of the thing. It is evident, moreover, that the Church, by its judicial and coercive power (th. XII. n. IV.), can, and it is certain that it has always been accustomed to, pronounce and declare such exclusion against rebels by its juridical sentence as well. Hence from the very beginning of the Church we see in Councils and in the decrees of the Popes heretics and schismatics condemned by anathema, both by law established and also, most often, by special and personal sentences. Now, from the very reason and nature of the Church, insofar as it is a visible society, and from the notion of the power of government, which, being legislative, is also judicial and coactive, it follows that exclusion from the Church can be decreed not only against heretics and schismatics, who by their very offense fall away from the kingdom of truth and unity, but also for other grave crimes. Such legitimate sentences of excommunication deprive, immediately and directly, of external communion in conversation with « the fraternity that is in the world, » in liturgy and in the sacraments, insofar as they exclude from the visible society. But by that very fact they also deprive of participation in those spiritual and invisible goods which are contained in these visible things, because they exclude from the supernatural society. They are held ratified by Christ, the author of the Church's goods, both according to the visible element and according to the invisible spiritual element, insofar as it coheres with the visible: « I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven. » Therefore (as Augustine concludes from this) « when the Church excommunicates, the excommunicated is bound in heaven, » just as conversely, by the power of loosing, « when he is reconciled by the Church, the reconciled is loosed in heaven » Aug. on Jn, tract. 50, n. 12. ¹⁰

Certainly, just as Christ in his Church, insofar as it is the kingdom of sanctification, instituted the power of the priesthood, which is at once judicial to remit and retain sins in the internal forum of conscience (Jn XX. 22, 23), and the retention of such sins by its very nature binds the conscience even for the use of the sacraments and of the visible sacred things in the Church; so in the same Church of his, insofar as it is the kingdom of truth and of sacred discipline or conversation (τῆς πολιτείας: of the commonwealth; cf. Eph. II. 12; Phil. III. 20), he instituted a judicial power of government, even immediately for the external forum, to loose and to bind whatever in the kingdom of God deserves loosing or requires binding (Matt. XVI, XVIII). These things, insofar as the power of binding is considered, are first of all not only those by which rebellion against the kingdom of truth and of unity in holy conversation is already present in itself, but also any others which are opposed to the good of the kingdom itself. Moreover, such bindings can reach as far as the interdiction of all the visible goods and institutions, the administration of which has been entrusted to the universal power of binding and loosing, and so as far as exclusion from the visible kingdom itself.

Certainly in Matt. XVIII the Lord Christ speaks first of « a brother » belonging to the religious society of the Church, as is manifest from the penalty to be inflicted, of which we shall speak presently, and from the following context: « where they are gathered together in my name... there am I in the midst of them. » Moreover, the offense presupposed is obstinate injury against another, and the resulting disobedience, and in no way a spontaneous separation from the Church. Moreover, the power of judging about either offense is conferred upon the Church itself; and this judging Church, with an independent power and without appeal to any other external tribunal, is designated in the Apostles. « Tell the Church; but if he will not hear the Church... Amen I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound also in heaven. » Finally, the penalty to be inflicted by this judicial power the Lord states in these words: « let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. » This, indeed, from the very force of the words in the context, where it is a question of a brother of the religious society which is the Church, and of the judgment of the Church itself, certainly cannot be understood as anything other than exclusion from the Church, just as Gentiles are excluded from it by the very nature of the thing, and tax collectors by a sentence of the synagogue, confirmed by the Lord through that conjunction and equation with Gentiles ¹¹. This sense of the ecclesiastical penalty designated by Christ himself, expressed by the formula « let him be as a Gentile and a tax collector, » can be confirmed from other places, in which the Apostles exercise judgment and pronounce sentence against those who were most certainly and were declared to be separated from the Church. « They have made shipwreck concerning the faith... whom I have delivered to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme. » « If anyone preaches to you a gospel beside what you have received, let him be anathema. » « Whoever does not confess that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh, this is the deceiver and the antichrist... If anyone comes to you and does not bring this doctrine, do not receive him into your house, nor say hail to him ¹²; for whoever says hail to him shares in his evil works » 1 Tim. I. 20; Gal. I. 9; 2 Jn 10.

A famous example of the exercise of that power of binding, instituted by Christ, extending to exclusion from the Church for crimes which do not of their own nature induce separation, is given by Paul, 1 Cor. V. The offense to be judged and punished is the incest of one of the faithful, v. 1. Indeed, other sins are also named, which, if they occur among the faithful, are to be punished with a similar penalty according to their gravity, v. 11. Therefore Christ (Matt. XVIII) does not restrict the sentence to the one thing expressly named there, the obstinate offense of a brother; this is in any case clear from the universality of the power conferred: « whatever you bind on earth. » Moreover Paul exercises a true judgment and pronounces a juridical sentence by the power received from Christ, an ecclesiastical power of the kind that can be exercised only over the baptized. « For what have I to do with judging those who are outside? Do you not judge those who are within? (τοὺς ἔξω κρίνειν.... τοὺς ἔσω κρίνετε). For God will judge those who are outside » v. 12. For those to whom it was said, « baptizing them... teaching them to observe all things, » are indeed judges; and conversely, « obey your prelates and be subject to them, for they watch as those who must render an account for your souls » (Heb. XIII. 17). Therefore it is not a question of a judging and punishing power that is extraordinary and given to the Apostles alone, but altogether of an ordinary power instituted by Christ. For he says that it could have been, and ought long since to have been, exercised by the Church of the Corinthians itself ¹³, namely by those who are designated by Christ (Matt. XVIII) under the name of the Church, and who are both the Apostles and those holding the power derived from them: « the presidents of the Church, » as the context of the Gospel demonstrates and as Chrysostom with the other Fathers explains. The juridical form of the sentence pronounced by Paul is most grave: « I have already judged, as present, him who has done this, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, you being gathered together, and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ » v. 3, 4. Let us now consider the penalty itself decreed, for it is chiefly of this that we now speak. It is expressed in these words: « let him be taken away from among you (ἐξαρθῇ ἐκ μέσου ὑμῶν), he who has done this; » « take away the evil man from among yourselves » (ἐξάρατε τὸν πονηρὸν ἐξ ὑμῶν αὐτῶν); with some further statement of the manner: « do not keep company with them; » « with such a one not even to take food; » not common food, much less, therefore, the Lord's food (cf. XI. 32–34) ¹⁴. In similar formulas, as we saw above, the exclusion of heretics is declared by Paul and by John. Finally, the penalty, either joined with the sentence of excommunication or following it, is « to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, » which 1 Tim. I. 20 pronounces against heretics. But because for a faithful sinner the penalty is chiefly medicinal, there is added, to raise hope: « that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ; » but for the heresiarchs the threat is more severe: « that they may learn not to blaspheme. » For in them there is both a fuller excision from the Church and less hope of return.

From the institution of Christ, then, and from the doctrine and practice of the Apostles, the power of binding in the Church exists in such a way that a sinner, though as far as the sin itself is considered he still remains in the Church, may by the sentence of that power be taken from the midst of the Church, delivered to Satan, and excluded from communion and intercourse with the faithful; first in ecclesiastical matters, and then, by reason of the end of this penalty, also in civil matters, so that he is outside the Church just as the Gentiles, tax collectors and heretics are outside it (though by other reasons and modes).

The Catholic understanding and the explanations of the Fathers clearly show that Christ's institution and the Apostolic doctrine are to be received in this sense which we have stated.

Hilary, explaining both passages of the Apostle (1 Cor. V; 1 Tim. I.), writes: « although the Apostle delivers (to Satan), he knows that he himself delivers both in the power of Christ and in his own spirit (power received from Christ)... for those who are cast out from the body of the Church, which is the body of Christ, are delivered as strangers and aliens from the body of God to the dominion of the devil » Hilary, on Ps. 118, letter 16 (Ain), n. 5.

In the same sense, but to forestall the heresy of the Novatians, showing the hope of reconciliation, Ambrose speaks. « The Apostle came with a rod, because he removed the convicted man from holy communion; and he is rightly said to be delivered to Satan, who is separated from the body of Christ. He came also in charity and in the spirit of gentleness, either because he so delivered him that his spirit might be saved, or because the man whom he had earlier set apart he afterwards restored to the sacraments (2 Cor. II. sqq.) » Ambrose, de paenit. l. I, c. 15, n. 78.

Likewise Jerome: « The Apostle speaks of those whom I delivered to Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme; and in another place, whom I delivered, he says, to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. We ought not, therefore, if perhaps for some sin we are cast out of the congregation of the brethren and the house of God, to struggle, but to bear calmly the sentence passed upon us, and to say with the prophet (Mic. VII. 9): I will bear the wrath of the Lord, for I have sinned against him, until he judges my cause » Jerome, on Ezech. XVII. 19 (book V, at the end).

Augustine, where he distinguishes a threefold class of sins: « Unless some were so grave, he says, that they are to be punished even by excommunication, the Apostle would not say, when you are gathered together and in my spirit, to deliver such a one to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus » Aug. de fide et operib. c. 26, n. 48.

What excommunication means, which Augustine recalls, even where the question concerns not heresy or schism but other sins of the faithful, Cyprian had already declared gravely in this same Africa (not to mention Tertullian, who scattered his Montanist errors through the description of this censure). He writes that Bishop Pomponius acted « deliberately and with vigour » in abstaining a deacon for the sin of incontinence; and so too, that incontinent virgins are « to be cast out with a heavier censure, and such not easily received again into the Church afterwards. » Nevertheless, against the heretical rigour of the Montanists ¹⁵, even such an « adulteress of Christ, » if she has done penance, is « after a just time has been estimated, exomologesis having afterwards been made, to return to the Church. » But if they persist in sin, « let them know that with this shameless obstinacy of theirs they can never be admitted by us into the Church, lest they begin to make an example for others of ruin by their sins. » Therefore, by the very sentence by which they are abstained and cast out, they are truly outside. Wherefore, comparing the old law and the new dispensation, he concludes thus: « God commanded that those who did not obey his priests, and did not obey the judges appointed by him for a time, be slain. And then indeed they were killed by the sword, while carnal circumcision still remained; but now, since spiritual circumcision has begun among the faithful servants of God, the proud and the contumacious are slain by a spiritual sword, while they are cast out of the Church ¹⁶; for they cannot live outside, since the house of God is one, and salvation can be for no one except in the Church. » Cyprian, ep. 62 ad Pomponium.

The Greek Fathers speak, as the Latins do, in the same sense about separation from the Church as declared and exercised by the Apostles according to the institution of Christ. « Hear finally the Apostle himself, saying of the one who had sinned: I have delivered such a man to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. You see, therefore, that God delivered offenders into the hands of enemies not only through his Apostles but also through those who preside over the Church and have the power not only of loosing but also of binding. Sinners are delivered to the destruction of the flesh when for their sins they are separated from the body of Christ... when their offense becomes manifest to the Church, and they are driven out of the Church by the priests, so that, marked by all, they may blush; and that for the one who is converted there may come to him what follows, that the spirit may be saved in the day of our Lord Jesus Christ » Origen, on Judges, hom. 2, n. 5 (vol. II).

Gregory of Nyssa has an oration against those who take ecclesiastical penalties hard, and he speaks in particular of a man who, « although he has been cut off from the Church » (κἂν τῆς ἐκκλησίας ἀποκλεισθῇ), shows himself obstinate. As other Fathers do, he appeals to the Gospel and to the Apostle, from which he demonstrates the power of the Church and the value of the penalty even in heaven, and so for the other life. « Through Peter he gave to the bishops the key of penalties, which avail in heaven (τὴν κλεῖδα τῶν ἐπουρανίων τιμῶν). Recognize that, being loosed, you are loosed; and being bound, you are bound with invisible chains. If you had eyes reaching to the substance of the soul, I would show you, the excommunicated (σοι τῷ ἀφωρισμένῳ), the image of a condemned man, weighed down in the neck by the heaviest chains, having no member free or loosed. And would that the punishment ended with life; but now, if anything human happens and death suddenly comes, like a thief in the night, know that the things there are closed to you. The keepers of that kingdom are diligent and not playful: they see the soul bearing the marks of separation (τὴν ψυχὴν τὰ τοῦ ἀφορισμοῦ φέρουσαν σύμβολα); as if marked by a stench and filth of a prison, they drive it from the path that leads to good things, and do not let it behold the companies of the just and the angelic joy... Do not think that excommunication is introduced by the bishop's arbitrary will; it is a paternal law, an ancient rule of the Church, which takes its origin from the law and holds in grace. Consider St. Paul, who by letter pronounces sentences of excommunication (τὰς ἀποφάσεις τοῦ ἀφορισμοῦ) against the guilty, and heals the young Corinthian with such a remedy » Gregory of Nyssa, l. c. (vol. II, pp. 746, 747). Chrysostom agrees with the other Fathers in explaining 1 Cor. V (collated with 1 Tim. I), and so do Theodoret, Oecumenius and Theophylact, who usually reduce his interpretations to a summary. « Hear how he delivered (him to Satan). Assembled, he says, you and my spirit, with the power of our Lord Jesus Christ, deliver such a one to Satan. He was therefore at once cast out of the common assembly, he was cut off from the flock; he was left desolate and naked, and delivered to the wolf. For as a cloud marked the camp of the Hebrews, so the Spirit marked the Church ¹⁷. If anyone was then cast outside, he was burned (spiritually under the new law, bodily under the old). But he was cast out by the judgment of the Apostles » ¹⁸ Chrysostom, in 1 Tim., hom. 5, n. 2.

As to the thing itself, the somewhat more recent « formulas of excommunication, » which, to set the gravity of the penalty before the eyes, used to be clothed in various ceremonial solemnities, not always and everywhere the same ¹⁹, contain no other doctrine than what has been set forth so far from Scripture and the Fathers. In all such formulas the substance of the matter comes down to roughly this sentence: « Following the canonical institutions 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 all Christendom, until they come to their senses and make satisfaction to the Church of God » (in Baluze, Capitularies, vol. II, p. 670). Thus St. Gregory VII, of Stephen the simoniac: « we have excommunicated him, he says, and separated him from the bosom of the holy Church; » of the excommunicated Venetians: « you have been made outside the fellowship of the members of Christ and of the Church; » of the Ravennese, who dared to adhere to the deposed bishop: « them, as putrid members, we cut off and cast away from the whole body of Christ, which is the catholic Church, with the sword of anathema » ²⁰; of him who has obstructed the efforts to restore peace among the sons of Raymond: « we take away the grace of St. Peter, and as a member of the devil and a destroyer of the Christian religion we shall hasten to cut him off from the communion of Christian society; » of the count of Flanders, if within forty days he were unwilling to withdraw from the defense of Lambert, the invader of the church of Thérouanne: « let him be separated and excommunicated from the body and communion of the holy Church, by the authority of God and the judgment of the Holy Spirit; » of Lambert himself, the invader: « the holy universal Church has cursed and anathematized him as irrecoverably deposed, and has judged him wholly an outcast from the communion of the whole Church. » Harduin, Concilia, vol. VI, part I, pp. 1361, 1367, 1371, 1402, 1408, 1506, 1508. Hence Gregory himself is accustomed to say of those who are absolved from excommunication: « to be called back to the bosom of the common mother Church; » « to be received by the authority of blessed Peter and brought back to the bosom of our mother the Church; » « the bond of anathema being relaxed, to be received into the grace of communion and the bosom of the holy mother Church » Ibid. pp. 1343, 1344, 1356, 1384, 1508. In the same sense Innocent III speaks of those « who, separated from the Church for their excesses, have not been ashamed to remain long in excommunication; » and the excommunicated Count Celano is said to be « expelled from the Church, to wander outside it. » But of penitent excommunicates (he is speaking of Philip of Swabia), « returning to the bosom of the Church, » he says, « we are unwilling to deny the way of pardon » Innocent III, Works (ed. Migne), vol. II, p. 1032; vol. III, p. 1095.

From what has been demonstrated, it is established that the profession of the whole faith together with the sacrament of faith, hierarchical subjection to the visible head of the Church and to the legitimate pastors proper to each, and finally juridical communion, are the conditions necessary to establish the union of the individual members with the Church; so that not only those who lack all these bonds of union, but also those who lack any single one of them, cannot simply be said to be members of the Church or to be in the Church. Therefore not only are infidels entirely outside, as is manifest of itself without ambiguity; but neither heretics, nor catechumens, nor schismatics, nor those excommunicated for any other offenses, can simply be judged members of the Church and in the Church, although in a certain respect all of them cohere with the Church, and some of them can be called members of the Church in some sense, a distinction which remains for us to discuss. Meanwhile let it be noted that among the recalled conditions and bonds of unity there are degrees, so that integrity of faith is the foundation on which both hierarchical subjection and juridical communion rest; and hence it is that heresy involves both schism and excommunication, schism involves excommunication but not in itself heresy, and excommunication involves neither schism nor heresy ²¹.