Minor excommunication is separation on account of mortal sin from participation in spiritual benefits by which a man makes himself unworthy through criminal offence to continue to participate in grace, and this excommunication no one may impose upon a man who persists in God's grace. Major excommunication is the separation which the prelates of the church announce against a man as an open sinner, and by which they set him off from intercourse with Christians and from participation in the sacraments.
By this excommunication they now designate me in processes and denunciations, shutting me out from all human communion. But blessed be God, who did not give such force to this [kind of] excommunication as to make it possible for it to take away from a good man virtue or righteousness, when he endures in humility, nor is it able to impose upon him sin [when he refuses to obey it]. Nay, rather when he has patiently continued to endure it helps to purify him as tools iron, and fire gold, and it helps to increase his reward of beatitude, as the Lord said: "Blessed are ye when men shall persecute you, and separate you from their company, and reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of man's sake. Rejoice in that day and leap for joy, for behold, great is your reward in heaven, for in the same manner did their fathers do unto the prophets," Luke 6:22, 23.
But this [major] excommunication ought to be medicinal, that is, a remedy to heal a man in his soul and to lead him
him,' then he is bound not merely by the minor excommunication which separates from participation in the sacraments, but also by the major excommunication which separates from the communion of the faithful." This distinction is usually resolved into a difference in the solemnities attending the announcement. Since Martin V's decree, 1418, a distinction has been made between excommunicated persons to be tolerated and avoided—tolerati et vitandi. In case one of the latter is present at any meeting, the priest must interrupt the service. With those who are to be avoided are forbidden all passing of words, prayer, greetings, intercourse and fellowship at the table. See Hergenröther, 567 sqq.; Friedberg, K.-recht, pp. 293 sqq. Wyclif, de Eccles., 153 sqq. and de dom. civ., 300 sq., gives the conditions justifying excommunication and refers to the distinction between minor and major excommunication and the solemn extinguishing of candles in the latter.
