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Privatio Comunionis

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(deprival of the Communion), one of the punishments inflicted on offending members of the clerical body during the earlier centuries. Those punishments included suspension, degradation, privatio communionis, or deprivation, corporal chastisement, and excommunication. Privatio was of two kinds, namely, a restriction to conmmunio peregrina, or to comnmunio laica. The former had reference to the mode in which strangers were treated who did not bring with them letters testimonial, by which they might be ascertained to be members of some Christian Church: they were looked upon with suspicion, and till they could clear themselves were not allowed to come to the Lord's table, nor to receive any temporal support from the Church funds. In this way delinquent clergymen were treated even in their own Church: they were deprived of means of support, and prevented from officiating or being present at the Lord's Supper. Communico laica was a punishment which required a clergyman to communicate as a layman, and among the lay members of the Church. (See COMMUNIO LAICA AND COMMUNIO PEREGRINA).