Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/512

Rh ANATHEMA 456 ANATHEMA word in the latter sense. In the Epistle to the Ro- mans (be, 3) he says: "For I wished myself to be an anathema from Christ, for my brethren, who are my kinsmen according to the flesh", i. e. "I should wish to be separated and rejected of Christ, if by that means I would procure the salvation of my brethren." And again, using the word in the same sense, he says (Gal. i, 9): "If any one preach to you a gospel besides that which you have received, let Iiim be anathema." But he who is separated from God is united to the devil, which explains why St. Paul, instead of anathematizing, sometimes delivers a person over to Satan (I Tim., i, 20; I Cor., v, 5). Anathema signifies also to be overwhelmed with male- dictions, as in I Cor., xvi, 22: "If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema." At an early date the Church adopted the word anathema to signify the exclusion of a sinner from the society of the faithful; but the anathema was pronounced chiefly agaiast heretics. All the counciLs, from the Council of Nicuii to that of the Vatican, ha,e worded their dogmatic canons: "If any one says . . . let him be anathema". Nevertheless, although during the first centuries the anathema did not seem to differ from the sentence of excommunication, begin- ning with the sixth century a distinction was made between the two. A Council of Tours desires that after three warnings there be recited in chorus Psalm cviii against the usurper of the goods of the Church, that he may fall into the curse of Judas, and "that he may die not only excommunicated, but anathematized, and that he may be stricken by the sword of Heaven". This distinction was intro<iuced into the canons of the Church, as is proved by the letter of John VIII (872-82) found in the Decree of Gratian, (c. Ill, q. V, c. XII): "Know that Engel- trude is not only under the ban of excommimication, which separates her from the society of the brethren, but under the anathema, which separates from the body of Christ, which is the Church." This dis- tinction is found in the earliest Decretals, in the chapter Cion non ab homine. In the same chapter, the tenth of Decretals II, tit. i, Celestine III (1191- 98), speaking of the measures it is necessary to take in proceeding against a cleric guilty of theft, homi- cide, perjury, or other crimes, says: "If, after hav- ing been deposed from office, he is incorrigible, he should first be excommunicated; but if he perseveres in his contumacy he should be stricken with the sword of anathema; but if plunging to the depths of the abyss, he reaches the point where he despises these penalties, he should be given over to the .secu- lar arm." At a late period, Gregory IX (1227-41), bk. V, tit. xxxix, ch. lix, Si qucm, distinguishes minor excommunication, or that implying exclusion only from the sacraments, from major excommunication, implying exclusion from the society of the faithful. He declares that it is major excommunication which is meant in all texts in which mention is made of excommunication. Since that time there has been no difference between major excommunication and anathema, except the greater or less degree of cere- mony in pronouncing the sentence of excommunica- tion. Anathema remains a major excommunication which is to be promulgated with great solemnity. A formula for this ceremony was drawn up by Pope Zachary (741-52) in the chapter Debcnt duo- decim sacerdolcx, Cause xi, quest, lii. The Roman Pontifical reproduces it in the chapter Ordo excom- municandi el absohendi, distinguishing three sorts of excommunication: minor excomnmnication, for- merly incurred by a person holding communication with anyone under the ban of excommunication; niajor excommunication, pronounced by the Pope in reading a sentence; and anathenia, or the penalty incurred by crimes of the gravest order, and solemnly promulgated by the Pope. In passing this sentence, the pontiff is vested in amice, stole, and a violet cope, wearing his mitre, and assisted by twelve priests clad in their surplices and holding lighted candles. He takes liis seat in front of the altar or in some other suitable place, and pronounces the formula of anathema which ends with these words: "Wherefore in the name of God the All-powerful, Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, of the Blessed Peter, Prince of the Apostles, and of all the Saints, in virtue of the power which has been given us of binding and loosing in Heaven and on earth, we deprive N — himself and all his accomplices and all his abettors of the Communion of the Body and Blood of Our Lord, we separate him from the society of all Chris- tians, we exclude him from the bosom of our Holy Mother the Church in Heaven and on earth, we de- clare him excommunicated and anathematized and we judge him condemned to eternal fire with Satan and his angels and all the reprobate, so long as he will not burst the fetters of the demon, do penance and satisfy the Church; we deliver him to Satan to mortify his body, that his soul may be saved on the day of judgment." Whereupon i.ll the assist- ants respond: " Fiat, fiat, fiat. " The pontiff and the twelve priests then cast to the ground the lighted candles they have been carrying, and notice is sent in writing to the priests and neighbouring bishops of the name of the one who has been excommimi- cated and the cause of his excommunication, in order that they may have no communication with him. Although he is delivered to Satan and his angels, he can still, and is even boimd to repent. The Pontifical gives the form for absolving him and reconciling him with the Church. The promulgation of the anathema with such solemnity is well calcu- lated to strike terror to the criminal and bring him to a state of repentance, especially if the Church adds to it the ceremony of the Maranatha. At the end of the first Epistle to the Corinthians, xvi, 22, St. Paul says, "If any man love not our Lord Jesus Christ, let him be anathema, maranatha," which means, "The Lord is come. " But commenta- tors have regarded this expression as a formula of excommunication very severe among the Jews. This opinion, however, is not sustained by Vigouroux, "Diet, de la Bible" (s. v. Anathhne). In the Western Church, Maranatha has become a verj' solemn formula as anathema, by which the criminal is ex- communicated, abandoned to the judgment of God, and rejected from the bosom of the Church until the coming of the Lord. An example of such an anathema is found in these words of Pope Silverius (536-38): "If anyone henceforth deceives a bishop in such a manner, let him be anathema maranatha before God and his holy angels." Benedict XIV (1740-58 — De Synodo dicece-sana X, i) cites the anathema maranatha formulated by the Fathers of the Fourth Council of Toledo against those wlio were guilty of the crime of high treason: "He who dares to despise our decision, let him be stricken with anathema maranatha, i. e. may he be damned at the coming of the Lord, may he have his place with Judas Iseariot, he and his companions. Amen." There is frequent mention of tliis anathema maran- atha in the Bulls of erection for abbeys and other establishments. Still the anathema maranatha is a censure from which the criminal may be absolved; although he is delivered to Satan and his angels, the Church, in virtue of the Power of the Keys, can receive him once more into the communion of the faitliful. More than that, it is with this purpose in view that she takes such rigorous meiisures against him, in order that by the mortification of liis body his soul may be saed on the hist day. The Church, ani- mated by the spirit of God, does not wish the death of the sinner, but rather that he be converted and