Part 3 (1/2)
77
A TREATISE CONCERNING THE BAN
1520
JESUS
1 We have seen[1] that the sacran of the communion of all saints, therefore it becomes necessary to know also what the ban is which is employed in the Church by the power of the spiritual estate For its chief and peculiar function and power is to deprive guilty Christians of the holy sacrament and forbid it to them Therefore the one cannot be understood apart from the other, because the one is the opposite of the other; for the Latin word _conate the Holy Sacrament Its opposite is the word _excommunicatio_, which means exclusion from this fellowshi+p, and so the learned term the ban
2 There is a twofold fellowshi+p, corresponding to the two things in the sacranified, as was said in the treatise[2] The first is an inner, spiritual and invisible fellowshi+p of the heart, by which one is incorporated by true faith, hope and love in the fellowshi+p of Christ and of all the saints, signified and bestowed in the sacrament; and this is the effect and virtue of the sacraiven nor taken away by any one, be he bishop, pope, or angel or any creature God alone through His Holy Spirit must pour it into the heart of the one who believes in the sacrament, as was said in the treatise[3] This fellowshi+p no ban can touch or affect, but only the unbelief or sin of the person himself; by these he can excorace, the and salvation of the fellowshi+p This St
Paul proves in Rouish or need, or hunger or poverty, or danger or persecution, or shedding of blood? Nay, I aels nor principalities nor angelic hosts, neither things present nor things to coht nor depth nor any other creature can separate us from the love of God which is ours in Christ Jesus our Lord” [Rom 8:35, 38] And St Peter says: ”And who is he that will harood?” [1 Peter 3:13]
3 The second kind of fellowshi+p is an outward, bodily and visible fellowshi+p, by which one is admitted to the Holy Sacraether with others From this fellowshi+p or communion bishop and pope can exclude one, and forbid it to hi hiue of old, and is non as the lesser ban For the ban goes beyond this and forbids even burial, selling, trading, all association and fellowshi+p with men, finally, as they say, even fire and water[4], and this is known as the greater ban
Not satisfied with this, there are soainst those under the ban, to coerce them with sword, fire, and war[5] These, however, are new inventions, rather than the real s to the es, to princes, and to the rulers of this world, and by no means to the spiritual estate[6], whose sword is not to be of iron, but the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word and commandment of God, as St Paul says [Eph 6:17]
4 This external ban, both the lesser and the greater, was instituted by Christ when He said in Matthew xviii: ”If thy brother shall trespass against thee, go and tell him his fault between thee and hiained thy brother If he will not hear thee, then take with thee one or two more, that in the mouth of two or three witnesses every word or transaction may be established If he will not hear theation, the Church If he neglect to hear the Church, let him be unto thee a heathen man and a publican” [Matt 18:15 ff]
Likewise St Paul says in I Corinthians v: ”If anyyou be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolator, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner, with such an one keep not coain he says in II Thessalonians iii: ”If any man obey not our word by this epistle, note that man and have no coain, John says in his second Epistle: ”If any one co not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed, and he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds” [2 John 10]
Fros we learn how the ban is to be used First, we should seek neither vengeance nor our own profit, as is at present the disgraceful practice everywhere, but only the correction of our neighbor Second, the penalty should stop short of his death or destruction; or St Paul lihbor, that he be put to shame when no one associates with him, and he adds in 11 Thessalonians iii: ”Count him not as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother” [2 Thess 3:15] But now the ruthless tyrants deal with h they would cast them down to hell, and do not in any wise seek their correction
5 It may often happen that a person under the ban is deprived of the holy sacrament, and also of burial, and is nevertheless inwardly[7]
secure and blessed in the fellowshi+p of Christ and of all saints, signified in the sacrament On the other hand, there are many who are not under the outward ban and who freely partake of the sacraed and excoh they be buried under the high altar in a golden pall withof bells
Therefore, no one is to be judged, even if he be under the ban, especially if he has not been put under the ban for heresy or sin, but for the purpose of correction For to put men under the ban for the sake of money or other temporal considerations is a new invention, of which the apostles and Christ knew nothing
6 To put under the ban is not, as some think, to deliver a soul to Satan and deprive it of the intercession and of all the good works[8]
of the Church For where the true faith and love of God remain in the heart, there remains a real participation in all the possessions and intercessions of the Church, together with all the benefits of the sacra else than exclusion from the external sacrament or from association with men If I were cast into prison I would, of course, be deprived of the outward companionshi+p of my friends, and yet not be deprived of their favor and friendshi+p; so he that is put under the ban must relinquish the sacrament and association with men, but is not on that account cut off froood works
7 It is true that the ban, when it is rightly and deservedly applied, is a sign, an admonition and a chastisenize that he hiression and sin, and has deprived himself of the fellowshi+p of all the saints and of Christ For by the penalty of the ban our mother, the holy Church, would show her dear son the awful consequences of sin and thereby bring him back from the devil to God
When an earthly ive himan or to the wolves, nor make a knave of him, but she restrains hier of the hangman, and thus keeps him at home in his father's house In the same hen the spiritual power puts any one under the ban, it should be in this spirit: ”Behold, thou has done this or that, whereby thou hast delivered thy soul unto the devil, deserved God's wrath, and deprived thyself of all Christian fellowshi+p; thou art fallen under the inward spiritual ban in the sight of God and art unwilling to cease or to return So then, I put thee also outwardly under the ban in the sight of men, and to thy shame I deprive thee of the sacrament and of fellowshi+p withback thy soul”
8 Let every bishop, provost or official[9], who uses the ban for any other purpose, take heed lest he put hi ban from which neither God nor any creature shall deliver hierous than those who apply it, even though it be laid quite justly and only on account of wrongdoing, for the reason that they seldoo about it without fear and do not consider how perchance they theht of God, as the Gospel records of the servant ed his Lord ten thousand pounds and yet would not have patience with his fellow servant ed him a hundred pence What will become of these ht things to such a pass with their bans, often violently and unjustly imposed, that Turks and heathen have an easier life than Christians? It is very evident that ht of God, and are deprived of the blessing of the sacrah they do nothing day and night but cite others to appear, harass them and put them under the ban, and deprive of the external sacrament those who are a thousandfold better inwardly and in the sight of God and are living in the spiritual fellowshi+p of the sacrament O miserable business! O terrible existence maintained by this abominable trade! I am not sure whether such publicans and officials olves before beco wolves; their work is certainly wolves' work
9 From this there follows the truth that the ban of itself ruins, condemns or harms no one, but seeks and finds the ruined and conde it back For all chastisement is for the correction of sin; the ban is simply a chastisement and motherly correction; therefore it makes no one worse or more sinful, but is ordained solely to restore the inward spiritual fellowshi+p when justly laid, or to deepen it when unjustly imposed This is proved by St
Paul when he says in II Corinthians xiii: This I write to you according to the pohich the Lord hath given me, to edification and not to destruction,” [2 Cor 13:10] And thus, when he rebukes him who had taken his step-ether with you deliver him unto the devil for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved at the last day” [1 Cor 5:5]
Thus also in the passage quoted above he said: ”We should not count him who is under the ban as an enemy, but admonish him as a brother, in order that he may be put to shame and not be lost” [2 Thess 3:15]
Nay, even Christ Hile soul to the devil, as He says in John vi: ”Him that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out, and this is the will of My Father Who sent Me, that I should not destroy or lose what He giveth Me” [John 6:37, 39] Again He says: ”The Son of Man is not come to destroy, but to save men's souls” [Luke 9:56] If Christ Himself and all the apostles had no other power than to help souls, and have let behind them no other power in the Church, how dare the blind tyrants presume and boast in their presumption that they have power to curse, to condemn and to destroy, which power is even denied them by their own canon law; for in the Liber sextus[10], which treats of the sentence of excommunication, we read: ”Since the ban is a medicine and not a poison, only a discipline, not a destructive uprooting, in so far as the one subjected to it does not despise it: therefore let every spiritual judge give diligence to prove hiht but to correct and to cure”
10 Froe it is evident that the ban, when it is not despised, is wholesome and harmless, and not fatal to the soul, as certain tieous abuses of soh in apostolic times it was able to deliver the body to the devil and to death[11], as indeed it es would wield the ban, not in the abuse of power, but in huhbor It follows further that the ban brings greater danger and terror to those who apply it and are not careful to seek only the correction and salvation of those under the ban, according to the words of the above passage[12] For the ban can be nothing else than a kind, e applied to the body and temporal possessions, by which no one is cast into hell, but rather drawn out of it, and freed from condemnation unto salvation Therefore we should not only endure it without impatience, but receive it with all joy and reverence But for the tyrants, who seek therein nothing else than power, awe and gain for themselves, the ban must be a terrible injury, because they pervert it and its purpose, turn the medicine into a poison, and seek only to becohtened people; of correction they never think For this they will have to give an awful reckoning--woe unto the, to wit: ”Our banthey insolently comfort themselves, swell their chests and puff themselves up like adders, and almost dare to defy heaven and to threaten the whole world; with this bugaboo they havethat there is more in these words than there really is Therefore ould explain them more fully and prick this bladder, which with its three peas htful noise
Now, it is true, the ban must be feared and not be despised, whether it be just or unjust But why apply this only to the ban, which is a reater penalties and tribulations as well? For what great thing have you done or the ban by saying it must be feared? Must we not also fear e are sick, poor, slandered, despised, or deprived of goods, income or justice, nay, when the Turk and other enemies attack or afflict us?