Note 37 — The Pardo Controversy

The interdict was not only an ecclesiastical censure, but a penalty, entailing usually privation of certain sacraments (save in cases of strict necessity), of all the divine offices, and of church burial. All solemnities and public festivals were suspended, except on the five great feasts of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, the Assumption of our Lady, and Corpus Christi. The churches remained closed, the crucifix and statues veiled, the bells and organ mute. This penalty might be general, over the whole city, kingdom, or country; or merely particular, indicted on a named corporation, see, church, or the like; again, it might be either local or personal as to its effects. It might be imposed not only by a pope, but by any competent church prelate, even by a bishop; and could apply to any secular or ecclesiastical ruler (except of course the pope), to a university or college, or to any body of clergy, regular or secular. The earliest mention of a church interdict apparently is Ferraris’s allusion to one in the fourth century, of which, however, no details are available. In Frankish chronicles, interdicts date from the sixth century, the first of these being at Rouen, in 588; Bishop Prætextatus having been murdered, by order of Queen Fredegonda, while officiating in his own church, the senior suffragan of that province, Leudovald of Bayeux, after consultation with his fellow-bishops, laid all the churches of Rouen under interdict until the assassin of the bishop should be discovered. But prior to the eleventh century general interdicts are but rarely mentioned in church history. It does not appear that there was any ritual for either general or particular interdicts, apart from the usually concomitant sentence of excommunication—which in former ages itself entailed also interdict on the persons or places named in the decree of penalty. The interdict was usually laid under conditions that amendment, reparation, or restitution should atone for the wrong done, at which the interdict would be lifted. According to present church law, bishops are empowered, as delegates of the Holy See, to put under interdict particular churches, and the like. See Moroni’s Dizionario (Venezia, 1845), xxxvi, p. 49; Ferraris’s Bibliotheca (Paris, 1853), article “Interdictum;” Guerin, Les Petits Bollandistes (Paris, 1878), iv, pp. 378–382; and Addis and Arnold’s Catholic Dictionary, article “Interdict.”—Rev. T. C. Middleton, O.S.A.