interdict

interdict , ecclesiastical censure notably used in the Roman Catholic Church, especially in the Middle Ages. When a parish, state, or nation is placed under the interdict no public church ceremony may take place, only certain sacraments, especially baptism, may be administered, and the dead may not receive Christian burial. The interdict is used to sway public opinion and to force action. A famous example was the interdict placed upon England during the reign of King John by Innocent III in 1208.

interdict in the Roman Catholic Church, a sentence debarring a person, or especially a place, from ecclesiastical functions and privileges; in English history, referring particularly to the papal interdict laid on England in 1208.

interdict is a papal prohibition which operated at various levels. A general interdict could be imposed only by the pope. Pope Alexander III placed Scotland under an interdict when William ‘the Lion’ rejected the papal nominee to the see of St Andrews in 1178, and Innocent III issued an interdict against England when John in 1206 refused to accept Stephen Langton as archbishop of Canterbury. The Scottish interdict ended in compromise after ten years, when the royal nominee died and the pope's candidate accepted the see of Dunkeld instead. Innocent's interdict forbade all ceremonies save baptism of infants and confessions for the dying: it operated from 1208 and John was excommunicated in 1209. John resisted strongly but in 1213, beset by baronial opposition, he surrendered completely, agreeing to hold his kingdom as the pope's vassal. The interdict was lifted in 1214.

J. A. Cannon