Then, in regard to the excommunication, by which the wicked separate the good from themselves, this should be said, that the wicked excommunicated Christ and the man born blind, as appears in John 9:22, 34. This kind of excommunication may be distinguished also from its opposite, which is communion in evil, of which it is said: "Have no communion with the unfruitful works of darkness," Eph. 5:11; and, "He that giveth him greeting communes in his evil works," II John 11; and, "What communication has a saint with a dog?" Ecclesiasticus 13, as if he had said, None! Therefore, every one being in grace in respect to present righteousness is excommunicated [out of communion with] from the wicked. And this is that holy excommunication by which the righteous is said to be excommunicate, that is, placed outside of communication or participation with wickedness. Hence, John says: "And I heard another voice from heaven saying, Come forth, my people, out of her, that ye have no participation with her sins and that ye receive not of her plagues, for her sins have reached even unto heaven," Rev. 18:4, 5. Let us ask the Lord that He may vouchsafe to preserve us in His communion and guard us against unlawful communion.
there more clearly, for example, 3, which there reads: "The injury to neighbors which might easily arise as a result of the excommunication as, for example, the deprivation of wholesome teaching and sacraments, for he who wrongly excommunicates sometimes is the cause of the perdition of many through the withholding from the excommunicate teaching by which he would be instructed most profitably in the law of Christ." And the fifth there reads: "That the neighbors may not sin by avoiding him, cursing him, and withholding from him the works of charity." Huss's treatment of the subject of excommunication in the de sex Erroribus is more clear and practical than his treatment in this chapter. There he introduces many pertinent quotations from the Fathers and especially from the Scriptures which are not given here, as, for example, Num. 23:8: "How shall I curse whom God hath not cursed?" On the other hand, he leaves out there the distinction between the major and minor excommunications and the prolonged explanations of communication and excommunication, The cases of Balaam and Ananias Huss uses often, e. g., Mon., 1: 362, 401.
