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.)