The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1897-08-28
BAN OF THE CHURCH
POWER OF THE POPE OVER TIE
TWO ROYAL DUELIsTs.

II l. Reported That He viii Exec mmuni
cate the Count of Turin and Henry o
Orleans Because Of Their Recent BATH
Some Of the Terr0rs Of the Msjor Ex
Communication OF Former Days-Th'
Case Of King Robert of France and How
People Fled From Him-How the Ordsl
J has Been Modified.
New York, Aug, 27.-The formal ex
communication by the pope Of theCoun1
Of Turin and of Prince Henri Of Orleans
because of their participation in the re-
cent duel, which has challenged the at
tention of the civilized world, renews in
terest in one Of the great powers claimed
for the Papal see.
In its broadest sense accommodation
is an ecclesiastical censure by which a
Christian is separated from communion
Of the church. Catholic authorities hold
that it a power included in the power of
the keys, or of binding and loosening,
given by Christ to Peter and the Apos-
ties. They deduce it from our Savior's
words, "He that will not hear the church
let him be to thee as the heather and
the publican" Matt xviii, ID. For
to treat man as heather and publ
| lican is to repel him from the church and
all things sacred-that is, to excommuni-
| cate him.
The same authorities held that st. Paul
put into practice the power of excom-
municatio when ne said Of the inces-
tuous Corinthian, Il have already judg-
| ed him that hath SO done in the name
OF our Lord Jesus, to deliver such one
to Satan" q. Corinthians, V, 81
| st. Augustine comments thus upon this
passage:-"Because outside of the church
i is the devil, as within is Christ, and ac-
cordingly ne who is separated from the
communion Of the Church is. as it were,
| delivered to the devil"
MAJOR AND MINOR.
There are two forms of excOmmunica-
ton recognized by thechurch, the major
and the minor The minor is an eccles-
iastical censure by which the Christian
is deprived Of the right TO participate in
the sacraments. This is a religious dis
faults.
In former times the victim of major
accommodation was a pariah, an out
cast, from whose presence the faithful
fed shuddering. The sentence was pro-
nounced upon him with the most solemn
and awful Accomplishments. The church
was clothed in black, the priests donned
their most somber ha bits. The organ was
silenced. All the assistants held lighted
candles in their hands. The officiating
clergyman solemnly read from a book the
curses which were to follow the offender,
sleeping, waking or dying. When he was
through 4 bell rang. The assistants re-
versed their candles and crushed out the
light under foot, terrible symbol of the
fact that the spiritual light had been ex-
tinguished in the soul Of the condemned
one.
Hence the accommodation Is still
popularity known as accommodation by
bell, book and candle. =
If the victim were a sovereign and re-
fused to make submission, the Pope re-
leased his subjects from their vows of
allegiance, but made them in so for re-
services OF all sorts were suspended
throughout the whole country. No priest
could say mass, or celebrate marriage,
or hear confessions or grant absolution,
or give the sacraments to the new born
or the dying.
II the sovereign finally repented, his
reception back into the fold was equally
solemn. The Bishop, accompani by
twelve priests in surplices, met him at
the door Of the church. There the bish-
op questioned the penitent whether he
vas truely contrite. Satisfied of this he
and the assistant priests recited the sew
en- penitential psalms. interrupting them
selves from time to time TO fog the vic
tim with whip or staff. Then the for
mula of absolution was pronounced and
more prayers We're said, at the end Of
which the pentent was readmitted into |
the communion of the faithful.
FORMER EXCOMMUNICATIO |
The accommodation of Robert IL, |
King OF France, is perhaps the most IA |
nous instance of wholesale eXcommuni- |
cation Of this sort. II was pronounced |
by Roman council on the ground that |
his marriage to his fourth cousin Bertha |
was incestuous. Cardinal Saint-Pierre |
Damien, his contemporary, in a letter |
written 10 the Able du Mont-Cassin re- |
ports that 1.-The terror felt by the people |
ct this sacerdotal edict is 50 great that |
everybody has fled from the presence OF |
the King, and only two little slaves re- |
main in the palace to care for him. Even J
these look upon the vessels from which |
he drinks or eats as having been con-
taminated by his touch and they throw |
them away al once into the fire. Rob
ert. man OF gentle and pious character,
eventually yielded to the Pope's de-
mandS
RECENT EXAMPLES
Many other sovereigns have suffered
from the papal interdict with less and |
less inconvenience TO themselves as the
centuries succeeded one another. Nnpo-
icon I was naturally singled out the time
OF mis- divorce AMI remarriage. when he
not only defied Papal authority. bu, i'm
prisonei his Holiness. The excommuni-
cation. however, did not affect him In
the least He found quite enough COM
p.aisant clergy Of MS own creation not
mercy 10 perform lne marriage IN Ce-
fiance T The p pc. but alS0 - administer
the sacraments 10 himself and ID his
subjects. Napoleon III. was also ex-
c mmunicated at one time for having
q, the invasion OF the states
81 the church. Victor Emanuel. as the
a tive agent in the final invasion. was
OF course under the ban OF the church
until MS very desthbei. and King Hum
bert has succeeded = MS fathers eccle-
s. = Z, iitin,, LIarca Ia 49, !