details are given with regard to the reasons why this monk was supposed to have incurred a major excommunication, and this, the gravest of all censures, is the only ban which excludes from participation in the sacred Mysteries. It is true, perhaps, that if a Religious broke his vows, left his monastery, abandoned his habit, and disregarding the commands of the Church betook himself to some populous city where he proceeded to live, as a secular, a life that was far from careful, such a person would presumably give great scandal and by his actions he might indeed incur the major excommunication, but we are not told that in the case of the Coenobite anything of this sort happneed, we are not informed of aggravating circumstances, and further it must be borne in mind that at the period these events were said to take place the hermits of the desert were not, as are Religious to-day, bound by vows of stability[41] and of obedience to their Superiors, who had not the right to pronounce a sentence of Major excommunication.
It should perhaps be explained that until recently excommunication was of two kinds, Major and Minor. Sabetti thus concisely explains:[42] “Excommunicatio est censura, per quam quis priuatur communione Ecclesiæ; seu censura, qua Christianus bonis spiritualibus Ecclesiæ communibus, quorum distributio ad ipsam pertinet, uel omninio uel ex parte priuatur. Separat igitur excommunicatum a societate seu communione uisibili fidelium et bonis quæ eam, ut talis est, consequuntur.
Distinguitur excommunicatio in maiorem, quæ priuat omnibus bonis Ecclesiæ communibus, et minorem, quæ bonis aliquibus tantum priuat. Maior in iure nonnunquam anathema uocatur; atque tunc præsertim, quando propter hæresim uel hæresis suspicionem infligitur, aut peculiaribus quibusdam adhibitis cærimoniis solemnius denuntiatur.—Insuper excommunicati excommunicatione maiori, alii dicuntur tolerati, quos fideles non tenentur uitare; alii non tolerati seu uitandi, quos uitare debent.” Briefly this is to say that minor excommunication is a prohibition from receiving the sacraments, what we call in theology the passive use of the sacraments. Major excommunication is that which we have already defined, and which now practically remains in force, whilst the technical anathema does not differ essentially from excommunication but is emphasized with special
