used to deprive, suspend or limit membership in a religious community. The word means putting [someone] out of communion
. In some religions, excommunication includes spiritual condemnation
of the member or group. Excommunication may involve banishment
, shunning
, and shaming, depending on the religion, the offense that caused excommunication, or the rules or norms of the religious community.
The Biblical basis of excommunication is .
1054 Three Roman legates break relations between Western and Eastern Christian Churches through the act of placing an invalidly-issued Papal Bull of Excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia during Saturday afternoon divine liturgy. Historians frequently describe the event as the start of the East-West Schism.
1077 Walk to Canossa: The excommunication of Henry IV, Holy Roman Emperor is lifted.
1227 Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades.
1497 Pope Alexander VI excommunicates Girolamo Savonarola.
1520 Pope Leo X threatens to excommunicate Martin Luther in papal bull ''Exsurge Domine''.
1965 Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.
1979 Sonia Johnson is formally excommunicated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for her outspoken criticism of the church concerning the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.