INTERDICT

(Lat.) In Ecclesiastical History, a spiritual weapon by which the Popes used in former times to reduce individuals or whole states to the most abject submi ion to their power. In the middle ages it was the most terrible blow which could be inflicted on the people or the prince. When an interdict was laid on a kingdom all spiritual services ceased; the churches were shut up; the sacraments were no longer administered; no corpses were buried with funeral rites; and all the ministry of the church which was then believed to be the only channel of salvation was forbidden to be exercised. The first memorable occasjon on which this method of warfare was adopted was the marriage of King Robert of France with Bertha bis cousin, when Gregory V. in2 Q998 i ued interdicts against the whole country, and compelled the sovereign to di olve [s. 623]