Interdict

(-dikt.) [From L. interdictio, a forbidding. ] (Eccl. Hist.) In the Roman Catholic Church, a form of ecclesiastical censure by which the performance of divine service in a state, prov., city, ., is inhibited. In the Middle Ages, an I. was a very onerous matter; it caused ali spiritual services to cease in the country against which it was promulgated: the churches were closed, no sacraments except baptism were administered, corpses were interred without funeral rites, and all the functions of a church ceased. In 998, Gregory V. compelled Robert, king of France,to di olve his marriage with his cousin Bertha; by an I. England was laid under a like ban during the inglorious reign of John. Lastly, it was attempted as an instrument of intimidation against Napoleon I., in 1809, when Pius VII. fulminated a powerle edict of this nature. [s. 488]