The case had been brought by a retired canon law professor, Hartmut Zapp, who filed a lawsuit in 2007 protesting that the church could not
excommunicate him for avoiding paying the tax.
Innocent insisted that all kings submit to the church and threatened to
excommunicate any who disobeyed him.
"We are saddened by the decision of the Church to
excommunicate a citizen.
In lieu of excommunicating the sundry criminal syndicates that specialize in robbing banks and jacking cars, and murdering those that get in their way-for all their heinousness, they are nothing like the Mafia-why not
excommunicate the egregiously corrupt in our midst?
Now a website has been set up down South allowing people to sign a Declaration Of Defection, or, you might say,
excommunicate themselves.
ITALIAN dictator Mussolini asked the Pope to
excommunicate Hitler - just days before signing a pact with the Nazi leader.
1521: Martin Luther, founder of Protestantism, was excommunicated:The decision to
excommunicate Martin Luther from the Roman Catholic church proved one of the major events in the history of the Christian church such was the influence of this great theologian.
Horseman" because she died
excommunicate, her neighbors buried her under the communion table as a way of reinforcing their sense of Christian charity and right conduct while tacitly reprimanding a church which was becoming more quick to take offense and increasingly prone to abuse its power of excommunication.
"I did not
excommunicate anyone, just remembered the church's law which says they are automatically excommunicated."