WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -The purpose of excommunication is to exclude from the church those members who have behaviors or teachings contrary to the beliefs of a Christian community (heresy). It aims to protect members of the church from abuses and allow the offender to recognize their error and repent.

Detailed explanation-2: -An excommunication is a censure or penalty whereby a delinquent or obstinate person is excluded from the communion of the faithful, until after abandoning his contumacy he is absolved. That can be called formal which affects a man who is really delinquent and obstinate.

Detailed explanation-3: -Luther’s works were to be burned in public, and all Christians who owned, read, or published them faced automatic excommunication as well. Luther now had reason to fear for his life: the punishment for heresy was burning at the stake.

Detailed explanation-4: -Excommunication is an ecclesiastical penalty placed on a person to encourage the person to return to the communion of the church. An excommunicated person cannot receive any sacraments or exercise an office within the church until the excommunication is lifted by a valid authority in the church (usually a bishop).

Detailed explanation-5: -On July 16, 1054, Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius was excommunicated, starting the “Great Schism” that created the two largest denominations in Christianity-the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox faiths.