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Objection 1: It would seem that sentence of excommunication can be
passed on a body of men. Because it is possible for a number of people
to be united together in wickedness. Now when a man is obstinate in
his wickedness he should be excommunicated. Therefore a body of men
can be excommunicated.
Objection 2: Further, the most grievous effect of an
excommunication is privation of the sacraments of the Church. But
sometimes a whole country is laid under an interdict. Therefore a body
of people can be excommunicated.
On the contrary, A gloss of Augustine [Ep. ccl] on Mt. 12
asserts that the sovereign and a body of people cannot be
excommunicated.
I answer that, No man should be excommunicated except for a mortal
sin. Now sin consists in an act: and acts do not belong to
communities, but, generally speaking, to individuals. Wherefore
individual members of a community can be excommunicated, but not the
community itself. And although sometimes an act belongs to a whole
multitude, as when many draw a boat, which none of them could draw by
himself, yet it is not probable that a community would so wholly
consent to evil that there would be no dissentients. Now God, Who
judges all the earth, does not condemn the just with the wicked (Gn.
18:25). Therefore the Church, who should imitate the judgments
of God, prudently decided that a community should not be
excommunicated, lest the wheat be uprooted together with the tares and
cockle.
The Reply to the First Objection is evident from what has been
said.
Reply to Objection 2: Suspension is not so great a punishment as
excommunication, since those who are suspended are not deprived of the
prayers of the Church, as the excommunicated are. Wherefore a man
can be suspended without having committed a sin himself, just as a
whole kingdom is laid under an interdict on account of the king's
crime. Hence there is no comparison between excommunication and
suspension.
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