A vitandus (Latin for "one to be avoided") was someone affected by a rare and grave form of excommunication, in which the Church ordered, as a remedial measure, that the faithful were not to associate with him "except in the case of husband and wife, parents, children, servants, subjects", and in general unless there was some reasonable excusing cause. It thus imposed a form of shunning somewhat similar to Jewish cherem. The distinction between a vitandus and a toleratus ("tolerated") excommunicate was introduced by Pope Martin V in 1418.