not stay in the
church during the mass, when were they?

It appears certain that the nuns and the young monk spoken of by St.
Gregory died in their sins, and without having received absolution
from them. St. Benedict, probably, was not a priest, and had not
absolved them as regards their guilt.

It may be said that the excommunication spoken of by St. Gregory was
not major, and in that case the holy abbot could absolve them; but
would this minor and regular excommunication deserve that they should
quit the church in so miraculous and public a manner? The persons
excommunicated by St. Gothard, and the gentleman mentioned at the
Council of Limoges, in 1031, had died unrepentant, and under sentence
of excommunication; consequently in mortal sin; and yet they are
granted peace and absolution after their death, at the simple entreaty
of their friends.

The young solitary spoken of in the _acta sanctorum_ of the Greeks,
who after having quitted his cell through incontinency and
disobedience, had incurred excommunication, could he receive the crown
of martyrdom in that state? And if he had received it, was he not at
the same time reconciled to the church? Did he not wash away his fault
with his blood? And if his excommunication was only regular and minor,
would he deserve after his martyrdom to be excluded from the presence
of the holy mysteries?

I see no other way of explaining these facts, if they are as they are
related, than by saying that the story has not preserved the
circumstances which might have deserved the absolution of these
persons, and we must presume that the saints--above all, the bishops
who absolved them--knew the rules of the church, and did nothing in
the matter but what was right and conformable to the canons.

But it results from all that we have just said, that as the bodies of
the wicked withdraw from the company of the holy through a principle
of veneration and a feeling of their own unworthiness, so also the
bodies of the holy separate themselves from the wicked, from opposite
motives, that they may not appear to have any connection with them,
even after death, or to approve of their bad life. In short, if what
is just related be true, the righteous and the saints feel deference
for one another, and honor each other ever in the other world; which
is probable enough.

We are about to see some instances which seem to render equivocal and
uncertain, as a proof of sanctity, the uncorrupted state