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At that time, the pope excommunicated even wholecities, provinces, and countries. An excommunicationwas the heaviest visitation winch a country could suffer.All religious services were forbidden ; there was no re-gular burial, no ringing of thebells,&c. Relicsand cru-cifixes, and all other things which had been full ofreligious comfort to the believer, lost their spiritualpower. Gregory V. first pronounced such an excom-munication against France in 998, because king Robertwould not separate himself frflm his lawful wife Bertha,who was related to him in the fourth degree. Robertwas at last obliged to yield. Still more important wasthe excommuncation issued against England by In-nocent III., because king John refused the paymentof the tribute called Peter-peuce, and the acknow-ledgment of a right in the pope to confer the investi-ture of the English bishopries. The king was obligedto yield, and received back his kingdom as a papalfief. No country, however, has suffered more fromexcommunications or interdicts, as these general ex-communications of a whole country were called, thanGermany. Many of the emperors were excommuni-cated, and many revolutions produced in consequence.

The latest excommunication of a sovereign wasthat of Napoleon, by Pius VII., in 1809. The lesserexcommunication has two effects, viz., exclusion fromthe sacraments and from ecclesiastical offices.

Excommunication cannot be said to have beenabolished by the Reformation. Luther says, for in-stance, that a person, not receiving the Lord’s Supperduring a whole year, should be separated from thefaithful ; nothing, however, of the severity of thegreater excommunication, and the anathema, is re-tained. In the states of Germany, however, excom-munication is no where practised at the present timeamong protestants. It would be thought an undueexercise of power by the clergy, especially as theprotestant sovereigns declare themselves to be thehead of the church in their respective countries, andwould consider the punishment of their subjects bythe clergy under them as an infringement of theirprerogatives. In the church of England, both theless and the greater excommunication exist. Theless excludes the party from participation in the sacra-ments, the greater from the company of all Christians.The sentence is attended also with the loss of manycivil rights. In the United States of America, immoralconduct among the members of protestant sects mayproduce exclusion from church privileges ; but thisexcommunication is not considered as affecting thespiritual welfare of the individual.

The catholics use the phrase “ fulminating an ex-communication,” to signify the solemn pronouncing ofan excommunication after several admonitions. Theceremonies attending such fulmination are terrille,and do not seem to have been used before the eleventhcentury. The excommunication pronounced in thiswav is generally called anathema.

Exe. The name of a considerable river whichrises among the wild eminences of Exmoor in thewestern part of Somersetshire, and, after uniting withthe Barle, enters Devon near Ex-Bridge. Afterpassing Bampton, it Hows through a richly woodedvale, in which it is joined by several smaller streams.Passing Exeter, the river proceeds through a rangeof meadows to Topsham, where it meets the tide,and suddenly widening to an extent of more than amile, becomes navigable for vessels of several hundredtons’ burden. The whole course of this river is rather

XECUTION.

more than sixty miles in length, and it falls into theBritish Channel near Exmouth.

In the annexed engraving a view is given of thisriver, where its course is impeded by a sand-bankcalled the Warren, about midway between Topshamand Exmouth.

Sr-as*

Execution, in criminal cases, the completion ofhuman punishment. In the early ages we find thatthe death ot a criminal was attended with every tor-ment which the ingenuity of man could devise. Butas religion and civilisation advanced, the life of manwas not so frequently demanded as an atonement forhis crimes, milder punishments were instituted in itsstead ; and when, as is the case even in the presentday, it is found necessary, for the benefit of example, totake the life of a convicted person, every unnecessaryaddition of pain to the criminal is avoided.

In this country, after the judge has passed the sen-tence of death, the recorder reports the case to theking and council, and, after receiving the royal assentthat the law must take its course, issues his warrant tothe sheriffs of the county, directing the execution totake place the day but one after the sentence ispassed. The sheriff' cannot alter the manner of theexecution by substituting one death for another,without being guilty of felony himself. It is heldalso, by sir Edward Coke and sir Matthew Hale, thateven the king cannot change the punishment of thelaw by altering the hanging into beheading. Al-though, when beheading is part of the sentence, theking may remit the rest. When a criminal is con-demned to be hung by the neck till he is dead, if heshould not be entirely killed, but afterwards revives,the sheriff must have him again executed. Evenwhile abjurations were in force, a criminal so revivingwas not allowed to take sanctuary and abjure the realm,but his “ fleeing to sanctuary” was held an escape inthe officer.

Passing from our own land, where, thanks to theimproved character of our criminal laws, capitalpunishments are now but of rare occurrence, we mayexamine some of the ordinary modes of punishmentresorted to by various nations in the olden time.Tearing asunder by wild horses was a frequent modeof executing criminals; and for fear that the agonisedvictim should not endure the full amount of tortureintended by the judges, the animals were generallystopped in mid-career, and then again lashed torenewed vigour.

Impaling is of eastern origin ; and such was thefiendish ingenuity displayed by some of the execu-tioners in this species of capital punishment, that thevictim has been known to exist for many days, sus-