Eckhardt's Homiletisches Reallexikon, 1907–1917

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Ban. Essays. — N. 74, 57—64 and N. 75. The necessary caution and conscientiousness in the process of the ban. O. 79, 58—65. Four questions concerning the ban. Mit. 1904, 17—22. Is it permissible to excommunicate for disregard of a church order? •1—74. Must a ban imposed by one congregation be recognized by another congregation? Luth. 45, 105. "Put away from yourselves." Luth. 28, 130. On regarding excluded persons as banned. Luth. 6, 121. Luther on the ban. Luth. 35, 148. The right conduct toward the banned. Pastorale 338—354. Wis. 88, 14—24. Jo. 89, 61—65. Neb. 95, 25—27. Mit. 95, 71—75. Can. 89, 33—39. Luth. 55, 198. 39, 61. Minn. Synode. 1902, 44. 45. Abbreviations: Loch. — Lochner, Two Sermons on Church Discipline. R. Pi. — R. Pieper, Catechism, Vol. 3, Part 2, 96—115. Outline. What is the ban? § 2. Greater and lesser ban. § 3. The ban should be practiced. § 4. Who has the authority to excommunicate? § 5. Ban by representation. § 6. Unanimous. § 7. Protest. § 8. Whom to ban? § 9. For what sin? § 10 and 11. Putting oneself under the ban. § 12. Purpose. § 13. Manner. § 14. Advice. § 15. Public announcement. § 16. Effect. § 17. Omission of the ban. § 18. Does not belong to the essence of the church. § 18d. Hindrances. § 19. Objections. § 20. The false ban. § 21. Conduct toward the banned. § 22. The pastor and the banned. § 23. Examination of the ban process. § 24. Readmission of the banned. § 25. Government and the ban. § 26.

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1. From the general use of the binding key, its particular use, the ban, is to be distinguished. Note. The ban is a particular kind of application of the power of the keys.

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2. What is the ban? The ban is nothing other than a repetition, before men, of the judgment that God has long since pronounced upon the impenitent. Note a. The external ban is only a sign of the internal one, a public announcement of the internal separation. Note b. All the impenitent lie under a secret ban. Note c. People who were afflicted with leprosy were declared leprous by the priests.

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3. Greater and lesser ban. a. Luther and the Confessions understand by the greater ban of the pope a ban bound up with civil penalties, and by the lesser ban, exclusion from the Lord's Supper and from church fellowship — the ban in the proper sense. b. The later theologians understand by the lesser ban the suspension from the Lord's Supper. But that is not a ban in the proper sense. Note. It is best to speak simply of one ban, the ban in the proper sense. 1. The ban should be practiced. For this we have a. God's command. Matt. 18:15—17: Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican. 1 Cor. 5:13: Put away from yourselves that wicked person. 2 Thess. 3:6: That ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that walketh disorderly. V. 14: Have no company with him. Rom. 16:17: Avoid them. Hymn 6:2: Whoever loves sin does not belong here. Note a. We cannot prevent unchristian people from joining our Christian congregations, but once they become manifest, God's command applies. Note b. The exercise of the ban does not belong among the matters of indifference that a congregation may do or leave undone; b. Examples from Scripture. Cain. Gen. 4:14. Ham, and his being cursed by Noah. Gen. 9:25. The company of Korah. Ananias. Note. The ban among the Jews had various degrees: Niddui, Cherem, Shammata. c. Testimonies of the fathers. Confession: Those who live in open vices are to be banned and excluded. Kon. 165. Stubborn sinners should not be allowed to come to the Sacrament or to other fellowship of the church. 323. The Fifth Chief Part. Luther could not carry out the ban because of the circumstances of the times, though he wished to. There were enough people who should have been banned, but too few people capable of carrying out the ban. Note. Luther: What hinders the ban in our times? Luth. 39, 61. Syn. 79, 20.

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5. Who has the authority to excommunicate? a. Not the pastor. This is what Paul rebukes in Diotrephes. 3 John 9—10. Paul would not otherwise have been permitted to rebuke the congregation at Corinth either. 1 Cor. 5. Note a. Without a prior judgment of the congregation, no pastor can ban anyone. If he does so anyway, his ban is a sham ban. Note b. Nor can a congregation transfer this authority to the pastor upon issuing his call. Objection a. "I believe what the called servants of Christ transact with us." — Here only the public proclamation, the execution, is meant. Objection b. The Confession says that the jurisdiction to ban is to be restored to the pastors, to whom it belongs by Christ's command. Kon. 343, 342. — The meaning is: to the parishes, to the pastors together with their congregations. Counter-thesis. Grabau: Only the ministry has this authority. In support he appealed to Dieterich's Catechism, Question 527. b. Not the synod. A synod can at most give an opinion on the ban. Note. When a synod excludes an impenitent pastor from the synod, that is not the ban. The congregation itself must carry that out; c. not the consistory, as in the state church, nor the elders or the trustees; d. but the congregation, and specifically the local congregation. Matt. 18: If he neglect to hear the church... 1 Cor. 5:4: when ye are gathered together. 2 Cor. 2:6: punished of many. 1 Cor. 5:13: Put away from yourselves that wicked person. The whole congregation should not merely know how someone has deserved the ban and how he came to incur it, but should itself pronounce the ban. Note a. The congregation is the highest and final court. Mit. 1904, 70, 71, 9, 8. Note b. The pastor too belongs to the congregation. A ban carried out behind the pastor's back is invalid. Note c. The ban is a matter of conscience for every member of the congregation.

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6. A ban carried out by representatives of the congregation and in the name of the congregation is indeed legally valid, yet the following disadvantages are connected with it: a. The members of the congregation will often not know how they are to conduct themselves toward the excluded person, whereas they know exactly where they stand when they have had the process in their own hands. b. There is a real danger that one will consider someone under the ban merely because others do so. Here conscience is at stake. c. It does not make as great an impression on the sinner when only a few representatives rebuke him as when an entire congregation does so. d. There is a real danger that authority in the congregation will gradually pass entirely into the hands of individuals. Compare the papacy. Note. Therefore the exercise of the ban should always remain in the hands of the whole congregation.

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7. The ban must be unanimous. A ban carried out by a majority with the exclusion of the minority is invalid and antichristian. Note a. If the congregation cannot reach agreement, the ban is not to be carried out. Note b. In deliberating on cases of the ban, the presence of all members of the congregation would be desirable. Note c. The vote does not have the meaning that the ban would depend on a majority of votes; rather, one wishes thereby to learn whether all are now convinced of the rightness of the ban.

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8. Protest. A protest against the imposition of a ban is, figuratively speaking, a dispute at the church door: some want to put someone out, others want to leave him in. A protest must a. be well-founded, b. be examined before the ban is imposed. Note a. As long as anyone still protests, no exclusion can take place. Note b. If a woman who belongs to the congregation wishes to protest, she should make this known to the pastor or to the church council. Note c. If someone thinks he cannot recognize something as sin which nevertheless is sin, it must be examined whether this arises from Christian sincerity or from hypocrisy and malice. Note d. If someone protests because, from weakness of understanding, he does not perceive a sin, or is not convinced of a sinner's liability to the ban, then the ban may not proceed. Note e. If someone protests without cause, from sinful motives, then such a person must first be taken into discipline and excluded. For it is a mortal sin to refuse to give one's vote for the ban, despite every proof from God's Word that one must do so.

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9. Whom should one place under the ban? The exercise of the binding key may not be arbitrary, but must be guided by God's Word. Only the following can be placed under the ban (Luth. 55, 198): a. The living. The pope also bans the dead, for example Wycliffe. — We do not know what divine grace may sometimes still work in the hour of death; b. Those of sound mind, not the insane, the feeble-minded, the confused, the mentally ill, or the possessed; c. The confirmed. Minor children are under the discipline of their parents. Note a. In the early church an eight-year-old child was once banned; Note b. special caution is necessary with the young; d. Fellow believers, members of the congregation. 1 Cor. 5:11—13: If any man that is called a brother... Matt. 18:15: If thy brother sin against thee... v. 23... Whoever is not a member of the congregation cannot be placed under the ban. Note a. A brother is anyone who communes with us at the Lord's Supper. Note b. Communion guests, persons who are traveling, delegates and pastors at synods belong under the discipline of their own congregation. Note c. If someone has already departed from us, one should not hurl a ban after him as well. Note d. Among brothers, however, no distinction should be made between the lowly and the eminent; compare John the Baptist and Herod; David and Nathan; Ambrose, who refused the Lord's Supper to the Emperor Theodosius when the latter had caused a massacre. Wis. 86, 31. 32. Note e. Yet one should not immediately accuse the pastor of partiality if he does not proceed rigorously against prominent members. Counter-thesis. The pope also places Lutherans under the ban. e. The impenitent, who despite all admonition persist in their sin. 2 Cor. 12:21: which have sinned already, and have not repented. The office of the keys. Note a. Only those are to be banned who have already excluded themselves from the invisible church. Note b. It is not the sin but the impenitence that is punished by the ban. Note c. But the impenitence must also be manifest. As long as the slightest doubt about the impenitence remains, as long as it is still possible to assume that faith has not yet been wholly extinguished, the matter must be committed to God. Note d. In matters of the ban, one may not act according to mere moral conviction. Note e. Therefore brotherly admonition must precede, so that every Christian can arrive at conviction as to whether someone is penitent or not; f. Individual persons, not entire congregations, among whom there will always be children of God.

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10. For what sins? No one is to be placed under the ban a. for defects and weaknesses that belong under the Lord's Prayer. See Sins of weakness. In such cases an admonition and a friendly reminder suffice. Note a. Deliberate sins do not belong among weaknesses. Note b. Slight sins can become grievous ones; b. for the mere transgression of man-made ordinances. The mere fact that I break a church ordinance may not be made a sin for me. Matters of indifference must be treated as matters of indifference and cannot bind the conscience. Note a. Examples of this would be if someone wanted to place under the ban a person who 1. does not pay such and such an amount in contributions, 2. does not immediately send his children to the parochial school, 3. despises church weddings, 4. does not agree with us on the observance (timing) of Easter — Bishop Victor, 5. has not removed his hat. Note b. Such a ban is no ban at all. To ban in this way is papistic. Note c. Man-made ordinances are to be kept only for the sake of love and peace. Note d. A synod may exclude those who will not keep synodical ordinances. Whoever will not take part should stay out. But that is not a ban. Note e. If someone transgresses church ordinances out of malice, contentiousness, factiousness, or other sinful habits, he is to be taken into discipline for the sake of this sin. Note f. If the process of the ban is initiated because of disregard of a man-made ordinance, it must be established precisely from the outset against which divine commandment sin has also been committed thereby. The man-made ordinance will recede more into the background. Note g. The transgression of man-made ordinances is often connected with great offense — for example, when someone will not send his child to the Christian parochial school.

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11. A person can be placed under the ban only a. for gross works of the flesh, for mortal sins, in which faith cannot subsist. 1 Cor. 5:11: fornicators, etc. 2 Cor. 12:21. The Ten Commandments. Wis. 86, 50. 32. 34. 35. 1901, 15.

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13. The purpose of the ban is a. with respect to God: God's honor. God's name would be blasphemed, the Gospel would fall into contempt, if manifestly ungodly people were tolerated in the church. "That is a fine religion, where cursers and thieves can be good Christians." b. with respect to the sinner: his recovery, the saving of his soul. 1 Cor. 5:5: that the spirit may be saved. 2 Thess. 3:14: that he may be ashamed. When a father, as a last resort, puts his rebellious son out of the family, he applies this means so that the son may return penitent. Note a. It is the last resort, a matter of life and death, when all other means bear no fruit. Note b. The church wounds in order to heal. Note c. One should win the sinner, not his purse. Note d. The purpose of the ban is not to get rid of a troublesome member, or merely to appear decent and honorable before the world. Note e. Won! A soul saved from death, James 5:19—20. O glorious work! Note f. The goal is often achieved. When the man guilty of incest in 1 Cor. 5 saw that the matter had become serious, he repented. It often weighs heavily on a banned person's conscience that he has no part in the church; c. with respect to the congregation: 1. cleansing from all complicity; a curse rests upon the congregation as long as the offense is not removed. Achan. 2. preserving the congregation from greater harm. The example of the ungodly has an evil influence. One rotten member infects another. The weeds gain the upper hand. The cancer eats its way further. The leaven leavens the whole lump. 1 Cor. 5:6. Better that the physician cut off a limb of the body than that the whole body perish. Note a. The ban is a warning to everyone to fear such sin and to depart from sin. 1 Tim. 5:20: that others also may fear. Acts 5:5: And great fear came upon all. 5:11. Note b. When the evil matter is expelled from the body, the body feels relieved. Augustine. d. with respect to the world: to prove to it by deed that we believe: only the penitent has grace. Note a. Even those who are outside should recognize that Christians mean it sincerely. Note b. It is a disgrace before the world when a congregation tolerates the ungodly in its midst. 14. The manner of conducting the ban process. Since the main purpose of the ban is the recovery of the neighbor, the process of the ban should proceed a. according to the stages of admonition prescribed by God. No one can be placed under the ban who has not first been rebuked by the congregation. See Brotherly rebuke. Note. Brotherly rebuke, when rightly practiced, makes many a ban unnecessary; b. not in a legalistic, but in an evangelical spirit. The Law is used only to bring the sinner to the knowledge of sin; c. in the right disposition. See Brotherly rebuke. 1. Love. If you are driven by envy, hatred, or malicious joy, then you had better refrain from rebuking; 2. Humility. We should remember that we ourselves are sinners. Note a. With what an example of winning sinners has Christ gone before us! Note b. God is pleased with a congregation that exercises church discipline in the right disposition. Rev. 2:12: that thou canst not bear them that are evil; c. not hastily. When one wants to win something, one spares no effort. "How often would I have gathered thy children." Note a. The purpose of the church is not to administer swift justice. Note b. Even secular trials often drag on at length. Nothing is omitted in order to establish guilt or innocence. How much more should this be done when an immortal soul is at stake. Note c. An overly hastened process of the ban arouses the suspicion that one does not have a just cause, or that one wishes to cut off contrary evidence. Objections to a slow procedure: 1. It creates the impression of indecision, a sign of weakness. 2. It gives the person to be banned the opportunity to gather followers and stir up trouble in the congregation. — Who is to prevent the banned person from doing this after the ban has been carried out anyway? 3. The sinner might be carried off by a sudden death. — In that case the congregation bears no responsibility. Note d. When the matter should be brought to a conclusion is often not so easy to decide.

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15. Advice. This is as follows: a. that, when announcing the congregational meeting, one states what it concerns, so that all members are aware of it, b. that one consults fellow pastors or visitors. Synodical Handbook, 105. This is especially advisable when it involves discipline in doctrine or discipline against the pastor. Note. This is not absolutely necessary, but it can sometimes preserve a congregation from a false ban; c. that one keeps an exact record of the proceedings. If the process of the ban is not clear from the minutes, it can happen that the congregation must later take up the matter anew; d. that one does not carry out the ban immediately at the first congregational meeting, so that everyone, including those absent, is given the opportunity to examine the matter properly; e. that after the ban has been carried out, the judgment is confirmed once more at the following meeting; f. that in new congregations one does not begin at once with the ban and church discipline. One must first sow, must first lay a foundation.

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16. The public announcement of the ban should take place: a. through the pastor, the servant of the congregation. The congregation is the jury; the pastor is the executive. The office of the keys; b. in the public worship service, so that all members of the congregation, and the world as well, may learn of it; c. not by means of a notice posted, so that no mischief is carried on. Note a. A form for this is found in Past. 349. Note b. Whether the sin should be named must be determined by the circumstances. It may be best to refrain from naming it. Note c. The announcement should also be made concerning those who have committed a mortal sin and fled from the discipline of the congregation, and who have thereby placed themselves under the ban.

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17. The effect of the ban. a. When someone is lawfully banned, he is excluded 1. from the local congregation; 2. from all Christian rights, from church and Communion fellowship. Note. Herein consists the actual essence of the ban; 3. from all other Christian congregations. Whoever is banned in Chicago is also banned in New York. There is but one kingdom of Christ. Note. Therefore the ban should also be respected by all congregations. How sad it is when other congregations thoughtlessly and with great gladness receive those who are lawfully banned. See Reception; 4. from the invisible church. The banned person is cut off from the body of Christ like a withered branch from the vine; 5. from heaven and blessed fellowship with God. Note a. The matter of the ban is God's own matter. What men bind by the ban is bound by God. "Even in heaven, as though our dear Lord Christ himself were dealing with us." b. When someone is lawfully banned, 1. his sins are retained; 2. God's curse rests upon him. Cursed is his going out and his coming in, cursed his sitting and his standing. His prayer is an abomination. Isa. 1:15; 3. he is delivered unto Satan. 1 Cor. 5:5. 1 Tim. 1:20. (It is possible that Paul intended this to be understood not merely spiritually but also physically); 4. he goes to hell, if he does not repent; 5. he is a heathen and a publican, a reprobate person. Note a. What an entirely different thing the ban is from mere expulsion from a society. Note b. What solemn earnestness should therefore be poured out upon the congregation at the imposition of the ban. No one should deal with the ban lightly. Note c. Just as absolution is granted through the Word, so also the Word is the means by which heaven is closed to the banned person.

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18. Omission of the ban. Nowadays the ban is for the most part simply omitted — in the state church, and among sects with unionistic aims there is even open communion. Omission of the ban a. is most comfortable for the flesh; b. is a sin, like any other sin. Rev. 2:14—15: I have a few things against thee; c. confirms the sinner in his wickedness. "What the pastor says surely cannot be meant that seriously"; d. leads to the decay of the church. It can come to the point that the congregation becomes an undisciplined mob. Note a. If a pastor in a congregation cannot carry through the ban against a person who deserves it, he must at least institute suspension from the Lord's Supper. Whoever knowingly absolves a public, impenitent sinner travels with him to hell, if he does not repent. Note b. The ban does not belong to the essence or to the marks of the church, but only to its right condition. A crippled person is still a person. See Church discipline. Counter-thesis. Where the ban is not practiced, there is no Christian congregation. Schwenckfeld.

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19. The obstacles to carrying out the ban are: a. Lack of knowledge. Many, both in Germany and here, have never heard anything about the ban. b. Lack of concern for one's own soul. One might rather want to throw their own sin back in their face. c. A spirit of union between faith and unbelief. 20. Objections. 1. It is better to keep the sinner within the congregation, so that he does not fall away from the congregation altogether. 2. It harms the congregation. — On the contrary. After Ananias had gone out, more and more were added. Acts 5:14. 3. It is unloving. — If it were true love to let a person run straight into his ruin without warning him, then Cain too loved his brother. 4. No one at all has taken offense at his sin. — All the worse! It is enough that offense can occur. 5. The congregation is not yet ready to practice the ban. — If the congregation wants to excuse itself from God's command in Matt. 18 by such talk, why not also from the Seventh Commandment? 6. Christ associated most willingly with sinners. — With the penitent. Over the impenitent he cries one woe after another. 7. Let both grow together. Matt. 13:30. Harms. — In the field of the world. We are not to burn the godless the way the pope burned heretics. 8. Some congregation members who impose the ban are themselves un-Christian. — Perhaps so. But that does not make the ban invalid. Unconverted members act only in the name of the children of God within the congregation. 9. There are hypocrites in the church too. — That we cannot help. But that there are gross sinners in it who are not hypocrites — that we can help. 10. Too much unrest arises in the congregation. "Those who cannot be separated out without unrest are not to be placed under the ban." Hartmann. One should rather tolerate unrighteous church officers as weeds than stir up unrest in the congregation. Augustine. 11. The world is not made better by the ban. 12. It is not in keeping with the Spirit of Christ. — To say that is just as foolish as saying it is not Christian for a father to discipline his child. 13. Preach the Gospel to every creature. — The ban forbids no one to hear the Gospel. 14. It is legalistic. — The disposition that lets evil go unchecked is thoroughly legalistic. 15. A congregation can err. — It does not follow from this that it may not impose a ban at all. 16. It is popish. 17. The ban only ruins the sinner all the more. — Its aim is rather to win him back. 18. Better to let him go his way. If he is impenitent, he will be lost anyway. 19. Instead of the word "ban," one should rather use the milder term: exclusion. 21. The false ban. The ban is false when it a. is imposed on a child of God; b. is imposed because of an act that is not a sin; c. is imposed when the brother has not in fact done what is laid to his charge. Note. These are errors at the beginning. If the first figure in a calculation is wrong, the whole product is wrong. d. when the impenitence of the one to be banned has not been established beyond all doubt. — An error in the middle. e. when the ban has not gone forth unanimously from the whole congregation. — An error at the end. Note a. Examples of a false ban are: 1. Biblical examples: John 16:2: They will put you under the ban. John 9:22: Whoever would confess Christ was to be put out of the synagogue. 3 John 10: Diotrephes. 2. The pope's ban. How he has abused the ban! Rev. 13:13: He makes fire fall from heaven before men — lightning from a barber's basin. His ban against the German Emperor. His bull against Luther. Luther's judgment on such a ban. R. Pi. 104–102. Woe, if Luther had not already come to the right understanding of the doctrine of the church beforehand! 3. Grabau. He alone excommunicated — and indeed such people as did not keep his commands and did not even belong to his congregation, and even whole congregations. Note b. If a child of God is placed under the ban, then such a ban is 1. an abuse of the power of the keys; 2. a curse upon the one who imposes it; 3. a ban without validity or effect. The one banned is indeed deprived of the outward fellowship of the visible church, but not of the inward fellowship with the invisible church; 4. a blessed cross for the one who suffers it, a great merit before God. Note c. Those wrongly excommunicated should be received back into the congregation. Note d. Since the ban, unlike missions and educational institutions, is not a joint work of the whole church, Christians are not in every case responsible when a false ban is carried out somewhere in another congregation.

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22. Conduct toward the excommunicated. A. Ordinary civil dealings are not abolished by the ban. One may greet the excommunicated and deal with them as with any worldly person. It does not say: Come out from the world, whoever is wicked. Note a. "Not to eat with him" refers to the Lord's Supper. Note b. Likewise, a son's honor and obedience toward an excommunicated father are not abolished. Note c. Civil penalties — forbidding him the marketplace so that he cannot buy or sell, not supporting him in his business, and so forth — are simply none of our concern. Note d. Yet even ordinary social dealing with an excommunicated person will no longer be as cordial as before. One is to have only as much to do with him as love and decency require. — How sad when congregation members act as though nothing had happened, or even treat the excommunicated person as an innocent martyr and give him their backing! Such people share the blame if the ban bears no fruit. Counter-position. The pope denies an excommunicated person all fellowship whatever. b. All churchly fellowship — fellowship in the sacrament and in prayer — is to cease. 2 John 9–10: do not receive him into your house. 1 Cor. 5:5: have nothing to do with him. 2 Thess. 3:15: withdraw yourselves. Matt. 18: hold him as a heathen and a tax collector. — One is therefore not to 1. admit him to the Lord's Supper — not give the sanctuary to the dogs, 2. absolve him, 3. take him as a godparent — see Godparents, 4. pray together with him, 5. marry him, unless the other party is a Christian, 6. greet him as a brother, 7. admonish him — the admonition has now been exhausted, 8. offer public intercession for him in sickness, death, and so on, 9. bury him. Acts 1:25: he went to his own place. — No lodge would bury an outcast. See Burial. In sum: he is to be excluded from all rights of church membership. Note a. All brotherly, familiar association that would amount to making light of his sin, or to denying it, is likewise to be avoided. How often the excommunicated are treated as brothers! Note b. Thus each individual member should take a stand against the excommunicated person. "Let him be to you as a heathen and a tax collector." Note c. The first Christians mourned the excommunicated as dead. Note d. The church remains open to him. All that can still work upon his soul is the preaching of the Word of God. Note e. One should pray diligently for him. Note f. If signs of repentance appear in the excommunicated person, one should meet him kindly and report this to the pastor, who is perhaps best able to deal with such souls.

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23. The pastor and the excommunicated person. The pastor is no longer obligated to visit the excommunicated pastorally. The matter is simply no longer his concern. Yet it can happen a. that the pastor meets the excommunicated person by chance. Then the pastor may ask him whether he recognizes his sin, and may set before him the grief he has caused his brothers, b. that the excommunicated person calls for the pastor while in good health. Then it must be left to the pastor's own wisdom what he should do. The excommunicated person may also come to the pastor. c. that the excommunicated person calls the pastor to himself in case of illness. Then the pastor should follow this call. Such a call may fairly be taken as a sign of a change of heart. If, however, no trace of a change of heart can be detected, the pastor should declare that he will have nothing to do with him unless he repents. This should be accompanied by an earnest call to repentance.

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24. Examination of excommunication proceedings by another congregation. The congregation that has imposed the ban is obligated to demonstrate the lawfulness of the ban to other congregations, if this is requested. If it is unwilling to do so, it lays itself open to the suspicion that its case is not good. If it cannot do so, it must let the ban fall. Syn. Kon. 1906, 38. Note a. The congregation should likewise not refuse to have the ban examined by synodical officials. Synodal-Handbuch 148, 145. Note b. Other congregations have the right to subject excommunication proceedings to examination, since even a whole congregation can err. Christians accept nothing merely on hearsay as binding. Objection. We take the ban upon our own conscience. — Answer. Every congregation must indeed do so each time, but it should not want to take a false ban upon its conscience and cry out: "His blood be upon us and on our children." Note c. If a congregation wishes to examine another's excommunication proceedings, there must be sufficient cause for doing so. One should extend to the excommunicating congregation the trust that its action is lawful. Note d. Cause for examination could be: 1. when great agitation is caused in a district by excommunication proceedings, 2. when various conflicting reports about it are put into circulation, 3. when the excommunicated person himself turns to another congregation and complains that wrong has been done to him. Note e. In examining a ban, one should be cautious, and not set form above substance, nor wording above the matter itself. Note f. Refusal to recognize a ban may not take place merely because of a formal defect, as in secular courts, but only 1. when it can be clearly demonstrated that a false cause for the ban was assumed, 2. when the impenitence was not proved beyond all doubt, 3. when one simply cannot make sense of the minutes and the whole proceeding. Note g. Refusing to recognize a ban is not an encroachment on the rights of the other congregation. The examining congregation does not thereby declare the ban lifted, but can at most admonish the excommunicating congregation to lift the ban. 25. Restoration of an excommunicated person, once he is penitent. The penitent are to be received back as a prize of God's grace, a joy to the angels, and we are not to be ashamed of them. David, Peter, Mary Magdalene. 2 Cor. 2. The man guilty of incest. Note a. The world mocks: "This man receives sinners." It excludes forever — no improvement or repentance helps there. The Pharisees say: What is that to us? See to it yourself. Note b. We should 1. not make it too difficult for the penitent to be received back. An apology is necessary — see Apology for how differently the manner of apologizing can vary; 2. not meet him with suspicion. Some, even after Augustine had already become a bishop, still eyed him with suspicion and would have wiped their garments had they had to sit next to Mary Magdalene. Note c. We should impose no penitential exercises, as, for example, was done 1. by Pope Gregory VII, who made Emperor Henry stand barefoot for days, 2. by the Christians of the first centuries. It took years before someone was received back again. The various stages were: the weeping, the mourners, the hearers, the kneelers, the standers. By such strictness they sought a guarantee of sincerity.