Jerome speaketh of the primitive times of the
church.

3. Though the execution of the discipline of excommunication and
absolution pertain to the consistory of the pastor and elders in every
church, yet this discipline is to be by them executed in name of the whole
church.(1098) Saravia is bold to affirm,(1099) that he who receiveth a
sinner, or casteth him out of the church, doeth this in the name and
authority of God alone. We have proven, by strong arguments, that the
authority of excommunication pertaineth to the whole church; which, though
he contradicteth, yet, in one place,(1100) forgetting himself, he
acknowledges that the authority of the church of Corinth was to intervene
in the excommunication of the incestuous man. Wherefore, as in the name of
God, so in the name and authority of the whole church, must one be cast
out or received.

4. To the right execution of this discipline the manifest consent of the
whole church is also necessary:(1101) the truth whereof, beside that it
appeareth from that which hath been said concerning the church's
authority, it is further confirmed, if we consider either the importance
of the thing, or the good of the person. Touching the importance of the
thing, _Gravissima_, &c.: "Most weighty matters in the church," saith
Gerhard,(1102) and the same saith Zanchius also,(1103) "ought not to be
undertaken without the consent of the whole ecclesiastical body;" and, as
Pope Leo writeth, "Such things as pertain unto all ought to be done with
the consent of all. But what can be more weighty, and what doth more
pertain to the body of the church, than to cut off some member from the
body?" And, touching the good of the person, Augustine showeth(1104) that
then only a sinner is both stricken with fear and healed with shame, when,
seeing himself anathematised by the whole church, he cannot find a fellow
multitude together wherewith he may rejoice in his sin and insult upon
good men. And that otherwise, if the tares grow so rank that they cannot
be pulled up, and if the same evil disease take hold of so very many that
the consent of the church cannot be had to the excommunication of a wicked
person, then good men must grieve and groan, and endure what they cannot
help. Therefore that excommunication may fruitfully succeed, the consent
of the people is necessary: _Frustra enim ejicitur ex ecclesia, et
consortio fidelium privatur, quem populus, abigere, et a quo abstinere
recuset._(1105) Howbe