OF A ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST UPON EXCOMMUNICATION I. It is incontestable that respect must be propor- tionate to authority, in accordance with the amount of good or evil, which result from the obedience to or violation of its dictates. Now, the authority from which ecclesiastical pains and penalties emanate is supernatural; its origin is directly Divine. Supernatural, because it is an attribute of the hierarchical jurisdiction, which constitutes the foundation and centre of the supernatural edifice of the Church; directly Divine, because it was conferred, not only upon Saint Peter, by the words of the Man God, "Whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound in Heaven" (St. Matthew, 16)—and again “Feed my sheep and my lambs" (St. John, 21), but also to the whole assemblage of Apostles, to whom it was said: |