ABSTRACT
The expression ecclesiastical discipline refers to a group of laws, rules, and statutes that concern the organization and the activities of churches* and religious communities. It has an exact meaning in Protestant churches, but it also has its own sense in the Catholic Church, where there is a canonical law made of canons grouped in a code or in corpus. In canon law*, the expression ecclesiastical discipline refers to the part of law (sometimes called penal law) in which the exercise of the coercive power of the church over followers is organized, with excommunication as the ultimate realization. The churches of the Reformation, however, have strong reservations with regard to excommunication, although it appears in the founding texts.
