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the lesser punishments like suspension (for clerics) and interdicts. The excommunicated person does not, however, cease to be a Christian, since his baptism can never be effaced. Still, he is to be treated like an exile or a stranger by the community.

The textual authorities for excommunication are principally the following.

When Jesus asked the question of His disciples as to who He was, Simon Peter answered and said, "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered and said unto him, "Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. ... I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven" (Matt. xvi. 13-19).

"And if thy brother sin against thee, go, show him his fault, between thee and him alone. If he hear thee, thou hast gained thy brother, but if he hear thee not, take with thee one or two more, that at the mouth of two witnesses or three every word may be established. And if he refuse to hear them, tell it unto the Church and if he refuse to hear the Church also, let him be unto thee as the Gentile and the publican” (Matt. xviii. 15-18).

Jesus said to His disciples after His resurrection: "Whosesoever sins ye forgive, they are forgiven unto them; whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained" (John xx. 23).

In the first few centuries of the Christian era, excommunication was not supposed to be only cutting off of relations. It did not merely sever the bond which holds the individual to his place in the Church. The sentence pronounced on