Article IX Excommunication

The greater excommunication, as the pope calls it, we regard only as a civil penalty, and it does not concern us ministers of the Church. But the lesser, truly Christian excommunication, is this: Open and hard-hearted sinners are not admitted to the Sacrament and other communion of the Church until they amend their lives and avoid sin [1 Corinthians 5]. Ministers should not mingle secular punishments with this punishment from the Church, or excommunication.