In ecclesiastical law. A spiritual punishment, consisting in withdraw-ing from a baptized person (whether be-longing to the clergy or the laity) a privilege which the church gives him, or in wholly ex-pelling him from the Christian communiou. The principal varieties of censures are ad-monition, degradation, deprivation, excom-munlcation, penance, sequestration, suspension. Phillim. Ecc. Law, 1367
