Canon V.
If
any one shall teach that the
house of God and the assemblies held therein are to be despised, let
him be anathema.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon V.
Whoso styles the house of God contemptible, let him be
anathema.
This canon is found in the
Corpus Juris Canonici
,
Gratian’s
Decretum
, Pars I., Dist. xxx., c. x. The
commentators find nothing to say upon the canon, and in fact the
despising of the worship of God’s true church is and always has
been so common a sin, that it hardly calls for comment; no one will
forget that the Prophet Malachi complains how in his days there were
those who deemed “the table of the Lord contemptible” and
said of his worship “what a weariness is it.”
(
Mal. i., 7 and 13
.)