ARTICLE XXXIII.

Of excommunicate Persons, how they are to be avoided.

That person which by open denunciation of the Church is rightly cut off from the unity of the Church, and excommunicated, ought to be taken of the whole multitude of the faithful, as an Heathen and Publican, until he be openly reconciled by penance, and received into the Church by a Fudge that hath authority thereunto.

Be excommunicatis vitandis.

Qui per publicam Ecclesia denunciationem rite ab unitate Ecclesiæ præcisus est et excommunicatus, is ab universa fidelium multitudine (donec per pœnitentiam publice reconciliatus fuerit arbitrio judicis competentis) habendus est tanquam ethnicus et publicanus.

In this Article no question is raised as to the right of the Church to excommunicate her members. That right is taken for granted, and is, in fact, indispensable to the well ordering of the Church as a society. The Mosaic law conferred the power

of putting offending members "out of the synagogue" (see Exod. xii. 19; John ix. 34, etc.). Our Lord Himself enjoined His disciples that when a person obstinately refused to "hear the Church” he was to be "as a heathen and a publican,” ¿.e. excommunicated, or shut out from the Church's fellowship and common worship. St. Paul (1 Cor. v. 5) directs the Corinthian Church "to deliver unto Satan" the incestuous person, i.e. to excommunicate him, the object being the amendment of the sinner, "that the spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus." The same Apostle lays down directions on this subject in his pastoral Epistles. Thus he charges Titus, "A man that is a heretic, after a first and second admonition reject” (Tit. iii. 10). Compare also the case of Hymenæus and Alexander, whom St. Paul "delivered unto Satan, that they might learn not to blaspheme" (1 Tim. i. 20). See also 1 Cor. xvi. 22, “If any man loveth not the Lord Jesus Christ, let him be Anathema Maran-atha."

In the early ages of the Church, excommunication was a prominent feature of Church discipline. Two degrees of excommunication were recognized. (1) The lesser excommunication, cutting off from the participation of the Holy Communion. (2) The greater excommunication, or cutting off from all Church communion and privileges whatsoever. Though the practice of excommunication has

fallen from various reasons into disuse-chiefly owing to the abuse of it by the Popes-yet our Church recognizes the principle not only in this Article, but in the Canons, in the opening of the Commination Service, and in the Rubrics in the Communion Service and the Office for the Burial of the Dead. See what has been said with reference to "Penance," on Art. XXV.

ARTICLE XXXIV.

Of the Traditions of the Church.

It is not necessary that Traditions and Ceremonies be in all places one, and utterly like; for at all times they have been divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word. Whosoever through his private judgment, willingly and purposely, doth openly break the traditions and ceremonies of the Church, which be not repugnant to the Word of God, and be ordained and approved by common authority, ought to be rebuked openly (that others may fear to do the like), as he that offendeth against the common order of the Church, and hurteth the authority of the Magistrate, and woundeth the consciences of the weak brethren.

Every particular or national Church hath authority to ordain, change, and abolish, ceremonies or rites of the Church ordained only by man's authority, so that all things be done to edifying.

De traditionibus Ecclesiasticis.

Traditiones atque cæremonias easdem, non omnino necessarium est esse ubique, aut prorsus consimiles. Nam ut

varia semper fuerunt, et mutari possunt pro regionum, temporum, et morum diversitate, modo nihil contra verbum Dei instituatur.

Traditiones, et cæremonias ecclesiasticas, quæ cum verbo Dei non pugnant, et sunt auctoritate publica institutæ atque probatæ, quisquis privato consilio volens, et data opera, publice violaverit, is ut qui peccat in publicum ordinem Ecclesiæ, quique lædit auctoritatem Magistratus, et qui infirmorum fratrum conscientias vulnerat, publice, ut cæteri timeant, arguendus est.

Quælibet Ecclesia particularis, sive nationalis, auctoritatem habet instituendi, mutandi, aut abrogandi cæremonias, aut ritus ecclesiasticos, humana tantum auctoritate institutos, modo omnia ad ædificationem fiant.

THE traditions of the Church referred to in this Article are not traditions of doctrine; these are in all places one and alike, and must be clearly provable by the Word of God (see on Art. VI.); but traditions of ceremony which affect the order of the Church, and the decent celebration of public worship. These latter, the Article declares, have been at all times divers, and may be changed according to the diversities of countries, times, and men's manners, so that nothing be ordained against God's Word.

The general principle to be followed in such cases is the Apostolic principle, "Let all things be done unto edifying," "Let everything be done decently and in order;" and it is a matter of reason that, owing to the diversities of circumstances, what is edifying in one country or at one time would not