THE excommunication, orbe excommunicated, means to expel and prohibit the faithful from continuing to attend any religious community. The excommunicated is prohibited from continuing his affiliation with the church, from participating in the rituals of your faith and to attend the religious community. At the medieval period, when the Catholic church wielded enormous powers, being excommunicated meant being banished from society.
The main objective of this text will be to demonstrate how the excommunication ceremonies were performed in the Middle Ages, that is, how the excommunication rituals were performed.
The excommunication ceremony had a logic to be followed: before the beginning of the ceremony, the Church was all prepared and the walls were all covered in black. After the preparation of the Church, the bells tolled (the sound of the bells) and the bishop and clergy, with torches in hand, read the sentence of excommunication in the presence of the faithful.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Once this was done, the bishop and the clergy pronounced the formula of anathema (of excommunication): “Let them all come the curses and plagues of Egypt, which came upon King Pharaoh and his people, because they did not obey the law of God. Be cursed in towns and country, wherever you are, and not eat and drink, and not watch, sleep, live, and die. The fruits of their lands are cursed and the animals they possess. Send them, God, hunger and pestilence to consume them. Let your enemies be reprimanded and all harassed. The devil be.” After the reading, the bishop and the priests extinguished the torches and the ritual was concluded. The excommunicated person was reduced to nothing and his social life was practically non-existent.
_____________________
[1]SANTOS, João Henrique dos. ‘Approaching the distant: The Edicts of Anathema and Christian and Jewish Excommunication in the 17th Century’. In: Revista Vértices, nº 10. São Paulo: USP, p. 7 and 8.
Leandro Carvalho
Master in History
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
OAK, Leandro. "Medieval Excommunication Ceremony"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/historiag/cerimonia-excomunhao-medieval.htm. Accessed on July 27, 2021.