ending his civil rights. In more than
one kingdom, a person who is not absolved from his excommunication in
a year's time is deemed a heretic; and we know the punishment dealt
out to such persons. Even in our own country, before the time of
Charles II., a heretic forfeited his life, and generally expiated his
guilt at the stake.

By law, an excommunicated person was not allowed to be interred
according to the ordinary form and rites of burial, but the body was
flung into a pit, or covered with a heap of stones called _imblocare
corpus_. There was a time when the people believed that the bodies of
excommunicated persons not absolved did not rot, but remained entire
for ages, a horrible spectacle to posterity. This is attested by
Matthew Paris and other writers. The Greeks, till recently,
entertained the same opinion.

In the Hebrew republic the punishment of excommunication was devised
by courts of justice, and inflicted by public sentence upon the
offenders. There were three degrees of excommunication among the Jews:
the first was a casting out of the synagogue, and implied a separation
from all commerce and society, either with man or woman, for the
distance of four cubits; also from eating or drinking with any one;
from shaving, washing, or the like, according to the pleasure of the
judge and the seriousness of the offence. It was in force for thirty
days, unless there was repentance expressed and forgiven.

If the sinner remained impenitent longer than thirty days, he was
sentenced to more severe punishment, with the addition of a solemn
curse. This is supposed to be the same as delivering over to Satan.
The offence was published in the synagogue, and, at the time of the
publication of the curse, candles were lighted, and when it was
extended they were extinguished, as a sign that the excommunicate was
deprived of the light of heaven. His goods were confiscated; his male
children were not permitted to be circumcised. If he died without
repentance, a stone, according to judicial sentence, was cast upon his
coffin or bier, to show that he deserved to be stoned. He was not
mourned for with solemn lamentation, nor followed to the grave, nor
buried with common burial.

The last degree of excommunication was anathematising, which was
inflicted when the offender had often refused to comply with the
sentence of court, and was followed by corporal punishment, and often
with banishment or death. Drusius gives a form of ex