The following comes from:
William Palmer, A Treatise on the Church of Christ:
Designed Chiefly for the Use of Students in Theology, 2 vols. (3d ed.;
London: J. G. F. & J. Rivington, 1842), 1:65-67
It may be collected from these
passages, that when any professing Christian is guilty of heresy, idolatry, or
other crimes, it is the duty of believers to separate themselves from him at
once, even before the cause has been brought to the ordinary tribunals of the
church ; and this appears to be a general rule, applicable even in cases where
bishops or other ecclesiastical superiors are guilty of crime.
Of this rule of catholic
communion we find innumerable examples in the history of the church. Thus St.
Cyprian, in many places, condemns bishops and other members of the church, who
received to communion without any canonical penance, those who had fallen away
in the time of persecution, and had performed acts of idolatry; [1] assuming
throughout, that such offenders had been at once, by their own acts, and
without any sentence, separated from communion ; these lapsed, according to
him, had ceased to be members of the church. " A number of lapsed,"
he says, " cannot be called a church, since it is written, 'God is not the
God of the dead, but of the living, [2] He commends the clergy of Carthage for
refusing communion to Gaius and another, who " by communicating with
the lapsed, and offering their oblations, were discovered to be in their
wicked errors. [3] When a bishop who had committed idolatrous actions attempted
to resume his ministry in the church, Cyprian declared that " those who
have committed grievous sins, that is, who have offered sacrilegious sacrifice
in sacrificing to idols, cannot assume to themselves to be priests of God, nor
make any prayer before Him for the brethren ;" and that " no oblation
can be sanctified where the Holy Spirit is not, nor can any blessing from the
Lord come through the prayers and supplications of one who hath injured the
Lord." [4] The synod of African bishops, with Cyprian, in an epistle to
the clergy and people of Leon and Merida, in Spain, whose bishops had committed
idolatry, declared, that under such circumstances, " the people should not
flatter themselves that they could be free from the contagion of guilt when
in communion with a wicked bishop, and consenting to his unrighteous and
unlawful rule." [5] A people obedient to the Lord's commands, and fearing
God, ought to separate itself from a bishop that is a sinner, and not partake
in the sacrifices of a sacrilegious priest." [6] The synod afterwards
exhorts them " not to be united in sacrilegious communion with profane and
defiled bishops.” [7]
This rule applied even in the
case of the bishops of the principal sees. Thus Antonianus, a bishop of
Numidia, would not hold communion with Cornelius, bishop of Rome, who had been
accused of communicating with the lapsed, and restoring a lapsed bishop to his
office, until St. Cyprian showed him the injustice of those accusations. [8]
St. Jerome refers with approbation to the acts of the monks and many of the
brethren who separated from the communion of John, bishop of Jerusalem, because
he would not clear himself from the errors of Origen, with which he was
strongly charged. [9] The monks of Cappadocia separated themselves from the
communion of the elder Gregory, bishop of Nazianzum, because he had subscribed
the creed of Ariminum, and was suspected of Arianism. [10] From all these cases
it is plain, that in the primitive ages it was considered right to separate
from the communion even of bishops, however, eminent in station and dignity,
when they were guilty of heresy or idolatry.
Notes for the
Above:
[1] Cyprian, Epist. x. xxvii. Lxiv.
&c. ed. Pamelii.
[2] "Absit enim, nec Domini
mise- ricordia, et potestas ejus invicta patiatur, ut Ecclesia esse dicatur lapsorum
numerus; cum scriptum sit, Deus non est mortuorum, sed vivorum."-Epist.
xxvii. p. 55, ed. Pamelii.
[3] "Integrè et cum
disciplinâ fecistis ... quod consilio collegarum meorum qui præsentes erant,
Gaio Diddensi presbytero et diacono ejus censuistis non communicandum : qui
communicando cum lapsis, et offerendo oblationes eorum in pravis erroribus suis
frequenter deprehensi," &c .- Epist. xxviii. p. 56.
[4] Epist. lxiv. Ad Epictetum et
plebem Assuritanorum.
[5] "Nec sibi plebs
blandiatur ; quasi immunis esse à contagio delicti possit, cum sacerdote
peccatore communicans, et ad injustnm atque illicitum præpositi sui episcopatum
consensum suum commodans."–Epist. Ixviii. p. 165.
[6] "Propter quod plebs
obsequens præceptis Dominicis, et Deum me- tuens, à peccatore præposito sepa-
rare se debet, nec se ad sacrilegi sacerdotis sacrificia miscere.”--Ibid.
p. 166.
[7] "Quantum possumus
adhorta- mur litteris nostris, ne vos cum profanis et maculatis sacerdotibus
communicatione sacrilega misceatis."–Ibid. p. 166.
[8] Cypr. Epist. lii. ad Antonianum.
[9] Hieron. Epist. xxviii. Col.
308.
[10] Vita Gregorii Naz. a
Gregorio presbytero, tom. i. Oper. Naz .; Orat. xii. De Pace, p. 191, &c.
