Curses, Excommunication, and Anathemas--Dirae, the
Executioners of Vengeance--Curses and Anathemas not
confined to the Vulgar--Excommunication generally
accompanied by Anathema--Excommunicated Persons lost
their Civil Rights--Heretics forfeited their
Lives--Interment of Excommunicated
Persons--Excommunication among the Hebrews--Different
Degrees of Excommunication--Solemn Curses pronounced
against Impenitent Persons--Stone laid on an Accursed
Person's Coffin--Last Degree of Excommunication
sometimes followed by Banishment or Death--Form of
Excommunication used by Ezra and Nehemiah when they
cursed the Samaritans--Death upon the Cross, Sawing
asunder, and other Punishments--Mode of Punishment
among the Romans, Greeks, and Persians--The Greek
Church annually excommunicated Roman Catholics--The
Druids resorted to Excommunication--Whole Families
excommunicated with Horrible Ceremonies and Dreadful
Imprecations--Bishops excommunicating Rats, Mice,
Caterpillars, and other Insects and Vermin--The Pope's
Claim--Napoleon I. excommunicated--Victor Emmanuel
excommunicated--Effects of Excommunication--The
Inquisition and its Terrible Doings--The Pope's
Fearful Curse--Mr. Donald Cargill excommunicating the
King and Nobles--Indulgences, Pardons, and Penance.
Curses, excommunication, and anathemas have often been followed by sad
consequences; but whether arising directly or indirectly from the
denunciations, we do not say. Ancient nations had their goddesses
Dirae, who were supposed to be the executioners of vengeance. They were
called Furies on earth, and Eumenides in hell. These goddesses were
invoked with prayers and charms. Curses and anathemas were not in
former ages confined to the vulgar classes of persons, such as in the
present time. Imprecations were hurled out by the priest and prophet,
by the educated and uneducated, by professed Christian laymen, by the
heathen, by the wandering gipsies, and the croaking crones.
Excommunication is generally accompanied by anathema, or
ecclesiastical curse, and punishment, whereby a heretic is not only
cut off from the society of the faithful, but is consigned to Satan,
that condign punishment may follow. Sixty penalties have been reckoned
as accruing upon excommunication. Major excommunication separates or
cuts off the delinquent from all communion and fellowship with
society--disables him from defending his civil rights. In more than
one kingdom, a person who is not absolved from his excommunication in
a year's time is deemed a heretic; and we know the punishment dealt
out to such persons. Even in our own country, before the time of
Charles II., a heretic forfeited his life, and generally expiated his
guilt at the stake.
By law, an excommunicated person was not allowed to be interred
according to the ordinary form and rites of burial, but the body was
flung into a pit, or covered with a heap of stones called _imblocare
corpus_. There was a time when the people believed that the bodies of
excommunicated persons not absolved did not rot, but remained entire
for ages, a horrible spectacle to posterity. This is attested by
Matthew Paris and other writers. The Greeks, till recently,
entertained the same opinion.
In the Hebrew republic the punishment of excommunication was devised
by courts of justice, and inflicted by public sentence upon the
offenders. There were three degrees of excommunication among the Jews:
the first was a casting out of the synagogue, and implied a separation
from all commerce and society, either with man or woman, for the
distance of four cubits; also from eating or drinking with any one;
from shaving, washing, or the like, according to the pleasure of the
judge and the seriousness of the offence. It was in force for thirty
days, unless there was repentance expressed and forgiven.
If the sinner remained impenitent longer than thirty days, he was
sentenced to more severe punishment, with the addition of a solemn
curse. This is supposed to be the same as delivering over to Satan.
The offence was published in the synagogue, and, at the time of the
publication of the curse, candles were lighted, and when it was
extended they were extinguished, as a sign that the excommunicate was
deprived of the light of heaven. His goods were confiscated; his male
children were not permitted to be circumcised. If he died without
repentance, a stone, according to judicial sentence, was cast upon his
coffin or bier, to show that he deserved to be stoned. He was not
mourned for with solemn lamentation, nor followed to the grave, nor
buried with common burial.
The last degree of excommunication was anathematising, which was
inflicted when the offender had often refused to comply with the
sentence of court, and was followed by corporal punishment, and often
with banishment or death. Drusius gives a form of excommunication
which, the Jews say, was used by Ezra and Nehemiah against the
Samaritans, in this manner:--The whole congregation was assembled in
the Temple, and there were brought three hundred priests, three
hundred boys, three hundred trumpets, and three hundred books of the
law, and the Levites, singing, cursed the Samaritans by all forms of
excommunication, particularly with the curse of the superior house of
judgment, and with the curse of the inferior house of judgment. At the
same time it was commanded that no Israelite should partake of a
Samaritan's food. Hence arose the saying in reference to the breaker
of this commandment: "He who eats a Samaritan's bread is as he who
eats swine's flesh." Moreover, it was decreed that the excommunicate
should have no part in the resurrection of the dead.
There were other punishments introduced among the Hebrews in later
times of their government, which were borrowed from other nations.
These were principally, death upon the cross, sawing asunder,
condemnation to fight with wild beasts, the wheel, drowning in the
sea, beating to death with cudgels, and boating. The first and third
punishments were properly Roman inflictions; the second was likewise
used by the Romans, but whether it was originally taken from them is
doubtful; the fourth and sixth were Grecian penalties; the fifth was,
in substance, in use among the Hebrews, Greeks, and Romans, but in the
manner of drowning they differed, for the Hebrews tied a mill-stone
about the culprit's neck; the last punishment was derived from the
Persians, and is thus described:--The condemned person was laid upon
his back in a boat, with his hands tied to the sides thereof; another
boat was put over him, covering all his body except the head. In this
posture the unhappy person was fed with milk and honey till the worms
ate his very bowels, and thereby ended his days in extreme pain.
Every year the Greek Church, at Constantinople, pronounces
excommunication against the Roman Catholic Church. Heathens as well as
Christians resorted to excommunication. The Druids made use of
excommunication against rebels, and interdicted the communication of
their mysteries to such as refused to submit to their judgments.
In the Christian Church, excommunication has been practised in all
ages, and ecclesiastics have had continual recourse to it as one of
their spiritual weapons. Not only have they excommunicated
individuals, but whole families and provinces have come under their
law, with horrible ceremonies and dreadful imprecations. Even kings
have not escaped the Church's maledictions. Fevret, writing of
excommunications in the Romish Church, says that lighted torches were
at times thrown on the ground, with curses and anathemas, and then
trampled out while bells were rung. This is somewhat similar to part
of the ceremony of excommunication by bell, book, and candle, to be
afterwards more particularly described.
There are instances of bishops excommunicating caterpillars and other
insects; and Fevret gives instances of excommunications going out
against rats and mice. It sometimes happened that popes and churches
excommunicated one another, each cutting off the other from the
communication of the faithful, and delivering over the anathematised
person or church to the devil. In 850 the synod of Pavia resolved that
all who refused to submit to the discipline of the Church should be
anathematised, and cut off from every Christian hope and consolation.
For fifteen centuries the Pope has claimed the power of disposing of
men's souls as seems best to him. Whom he blesses, he says, are
blessed; and whom he curses, he would make us believe, are cursed. He
arrogates to himself the authority of holding the keys of heaven and
hell.
In 1809 the Pope excommunicated Napoleon I., and in 1860 his Holiness
excommunicated Victor Emmanuel, king of Italy--sentences which implied
spiritual condemnation, and deprivation of earthly power. The subjects
of an excommunicated king were freed from allegiance to their
sovereign. It is supposed the Pope's power extends so far that he may
pronounce excommunication against the dead, even to the debarring of
deceased persons from being cleansed from their sins in purgatory, and
the consigning of them to the place of eternal punishment.
Terror and amazement followed the footsteps of the inquisitionists.
They proceeded with the greatest secrecy and silence. When a heretic
was seized, the world abandoned him; his nearest friends durst not say
a word in his defence. The heretical criminals were generally arrested
in the stillness of night, examined, tortured, and, unless they
recanted, condemned and executed without seeing or knowing who were
their accusers. Usually the accused persons were tortured until they
condemned themselves; and although witnesses were sometimes examined,
the form of procedure was a mockery of justice.
As a convincing proof of how dreadful the Romish Church's anathemas
are, we give the Pope's fearful curse, taken from a form of
excommunication copied from the "Leger Book" of the church of
Rochester, long in the custody of the dean and chapter there:--
"By the authority of God Almighty, the Father, Son,
and Holy Ghost, and of the holy canons, and of the
undefiled Virgin Mary, the mother and patroness of our
Saviour, and of all the celestial virtues, angels,
archangels, thrones, dominions, powers, cherubims and
seraphims, and of the holy patriarchs, prophets, and
of all the apostles and evangelists, and of the holy
innocents who in the sight of the Holy Lamb are found
worthy to sing the new song, of the holy martyrs and
holy confessors, and of the holy virgins, and of all
the saints, and together with all the holy and elect
of God: we excommunicate and anathematise him or them,
malefactor or malefactors, and from the threshold of
the holy church of God Almighty we sequester them,
that he or they may be tormented, disposed and
delivered over with Dathan and Abiram, with those who
say to the Lord God, Depart from us, we desire not Thy
ways. And as fire is quenched with water, so let the
light of him or them be put out for evermore, unless
it shall repent him or them, and they make
satisfaction. Amen. May the Father who created man,
curse him or them. May the Son, who suffered for us,
curse him or them. May the Holy Ghost, who was given
to us in baptism, curse him or them. May the holy
cross of Christ, for our salvation triumphing over his
enemies, ascend and curse him or them. May the eternal
and holy Virgin Mary, mother of God, curse him or
them. May St. Michael, the advocate of holy souls,
curse him or them. May all the angels and archangels,
principalities and powers, and all the heavenly host,
curse him or them. May the laudable number of
patriarchs and prophets curse him or them. May St.
John, the chief forerunner and baptist of Christ,
curse him or them. May St. Peter and St. Paul, and St.
Andrew, and all other Christ's apostles, together with
the rest of his disciples and evangelists, who by
their preaching converted the universal world, curse
him or them. May the holy and wonderful company of
martyrs and confessors, who by their holy works are
found pleasing to God Almighty, curse him or them. May
the holy choir of the holy virgins, who for the honour
of Christ have despised the things of this world,
curse him or them. May all the saints, who from the
beginning of the world to everlasting ages are found
to be the beloved of God, curse him or them. May the
heavens and the earth, and all the holy things
remaining thereon, curse him or them. May he or they
be cursed wherever he or they be, whether in their
house, or in their field, or in the highway, or in the
path, or in the wood, or in the water, or in the
church. May he or they be cursed in living, in dying,
in eating, in drinking, in being hungry, in being
thirsty, in fasting, in sleeping, in slumbering, in
waking, in walking, in standing, in sitting, in lying,
in working, in resting, in * * * * in * * * * and in
blood-letting. May he or they be cursed in all the
faculties of their body. May he or they be cursed
inwardly and outwardly. May he or they be cursed in
the hair of his or their head. May he or they be
cursed in his or their brain. May he or they be cursed
in the top of his or their head, in their temples, in
their foreheads, in their ears, in their eyebrows, in
their cheeks, in their jaw-bones, in their nostrils,
in their teeth or grinders, in their lips, in their
throat, in their shoulders, in their wrists, in their
arms, in their hands, in their fingers, in their
breast, in their heart, and in the interior parts to
the very stomach, in their veins, in their groin, in
their thighs, in their genitals, in the hips, in the
knees, in the legs, in the feet, in the joints, and in
the nails. May he or they be cursed in all their
joints, from the top of the head to the sole of the
foot. May there not be any soundness in him or them.
May the Son of the Living God, with all the glory of
His Majesty, curse him or them; and may heaven, with
all the powers which move therein, rise against him or
them, to damn him or them, unless he or they shall
repent, or that he or they shall make satisfaction.
Amen, Amen. So be it."
The superstition connected with excommunication was not confined to
the churches and nations already mentioned. It extended to the
Reformed Churches, and indeed this form of superstition lingers among
them still. A most enthusiastic Reformer (the Rev. Donald Cargill),
eminent in his day for piety and learning, who suffered martyrdom in
1681, scrupled not, a year before his death, to excommunicate at
Torwood, Stirlingshire, several of the most notable and violent
persecutors of the time--the King, the Dukes of York, Monmouth,
Lauderdale, and Rothes, Sir George Mackenzie, and Sir Thomas Dalzell.
If Mr. Cargill did not curse others whom he thought had done him and
the cause of truth wrong, he predicted that evil would befall them;
and what he foretold came to pass. He told James Irvine of Bonshaw,
who apprehended him shortly before his execution, that his persecutor
would not long escape a just judgment, not far from the place the
arrest was made. This prediction was verified; for soon after Irvine
had received 5000 merks as a reward for apprehending Mr. Cargill, he
was killed in a duel near Lanark. One John Nesbet mockingly said one
day to Mr. Cargill, "Will you not give us a word?" The reverend divine
looked on the man with concern, while he said, "Wicked, poor man, mock
not; ere you die you shall desire one word, but shall not have it."
Soon after, this man was struck dumb, and died in great terror. When
Rothes, one of those whom Mr. Cargill excommunicated, threatened him
with torture and a violent death, he said, "Forbear to threaten me;
for, die what death I may, your eyes shall not see it." This prophecy
also came to pass. Rothes died, as is well known, a few hours before
the condemned divine and his fellow-martyrs suffered the last penalty
of man's law--death temporal.
One can easily imagine the terror into which a weak-minded person
would be cast by having the Pope's dire curses pronounced against him,
were it not known that he who is authorised to fulminate the
ecclesiastical censure and bans, may, for a moderate pecuniary
consideration, or by a mortification of the flesh, or good works, have
the woes pronounced against him mitigated, if not entirely removed.
Indulgences have been purchasable since the early centuries for this
world, and for the remission of suffering in purgatory as well. Those
most acquainted with the holy places in Rome are best able to make
known the facilities with which indulgences are obtained. There is
scarcely a church or a station, a convent or a holy place, neither is
there hardly a service or a ceremony, which has not its own peculiar
indulgences. Indulgences for hundreds of years may be secured by the
exercises of a single day. The holy stairs, wherever they are
situated, said to have belonged to the palace of Pontius Pilate,
consisting of twenty-eight steps, possess peculiar virtue. Leo IV.
conceded nine years' indulgence for each step ascended by a devotee on
his bare knees. Thus, he who reaches the highest step secures an
indulgence of two hundred and fifty-two years, whether he remains
here, or finds himself in purgatory. Whoever kisses a cross at one end
of the Colosseum of Rome, acquires an indulgence of one year and forty
days; and there is a wooden cross in the centre of the arena, which
secures an indulgence of two hundred days to every one who kisses it.
Leo XII. conceded for ever an indulgence of forty years and one
thousand six hundred days, applicable also to the dead, for every time
a faithful believer visits, during Lent, the churches where there are
prescribed stations. He also conceded a plenary indulgence to all who
have made such visits three times in three distinct days. For the
information of all good Catholics, a carefully prepared index has been
drawn up, showing the churches and stations which should be visited,
together with the most effectual times of repairing thither. In
conclusion, we give the following examples, to illustrate the system
of procuring indulgences by pilgrimage to sacred places:--
Thus a visit "on January 1 to a station at S. Marie,
in Transtevere, secures an indulgence of 30 years and
1200 days."
"On Ash Wednesday, to S. Tabina, an indulgence of 15
years and 600 days.
"On the following Thursday, to S. Georgio, in Velabro,
an indulgence of 10 years and 400 days.
"On the fourth Sunday in Lent, to S. Croce, an
indulgence of 15 years and 600 days.
"On Palm Sunday, to S. Giovanni, in the Laterno, an
indulgence of 25 years and 1000 days.
"On holy Thursday, to S. Giovanni, a plenary
indulgence.
"On holy Friday, to S. Croce, an indulgence of 30
years and 1200 days.
"On Easter Sunday, to S. Marie Maggiore, a plenary
indulgence.
"On Easter Monday, to S. Pietro, in Vaticano, an
indulgence of 30 years and 1200 days.
"On Thursday, Ascension-day, to S. Pietro, a plenary
indulgence.
"On Wednesday, to Pietro Vaticano, an indulgence of 30
years and 1200 days."