WHO IS THE BEAST OF REVELATION 13? THE INTERDICT

An interdict is a censure, or prohibition, excluding the faithful from participation in certain holy things. These holy things are all those pertaining to Christian worship, and are divided into three classes:

• the Divine offices, in other words the Liturgy, and in general all acts performed by clerics as such, and having reference to worship
• the sacraments, excepting private administrations of those that are of necessity;
• ecclesiastical burial, including all funeral services.

This prohibition varies in degree, according to the different kinds of interdicts to be enumerated:

First, interdicts are either local or personal; the former affect territories or sacred buildings directly, and persons indirectly; the latter directly affect persons. Canonical authors add a third kind, the mixed interdict, which affects directly and immediately both persons and places; if, for instance, the interdict is issued against a town and its inhabitants, the latter are subject to it, even when they are outside of the town (arg. cap. xvi, “De sent. excomm.” in VI). Local interdicts, like personal interdicts, may be general or particular. A general local interdict is one affecting a whole territory, district, town, etc., and this was the ordinary interdict of the Middle Ages; a particular local interdict is one affecting, for example, a particular church. A general personal interdict is one falling on a given body or group of people as a class, e.g. on a chapter, the clergy or people of a town, of a community; a particular personal interdict is one affecting certain individuals as such, for instance, a given bishop, a given cleric. Finally, the interdict is total if the prohibition extends to all the sacred things mentioned above; otherwise it is called partial. A special kind of partial interdict is that which forbids one to enter a church, interdictum ab ingressu ecclesiae mentioned by certain texts. Omitting the mixed interdict, which does not form a distinct class, we have therefore:

• the general local interdicts;
• particular local interdicts;
• general personal interdicts;
• particular personal interdicts;
• prohibitions against entering a church. We may add
• the prohibition obliging the clergy to abstain from celebrating the Divine offices, cessatio a divinis, a measure somewhat akin to a particular local interdict, only that it is not imposed on account of any crime on the part of those whom it affects.  Interdict. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1910.

The Papal Interdict of 1208 was an interdict laid on ENGLAND AND WALES by Pope Innocent III which generally enforced the closure of the churches, forbade the administration of the Catholic sacraments, and prohibited the use of churchyards for burials. Issued on 23 March 1208, the interdict lasted for more than six years until it was lifted on 2 July 1214.

Pope Innocent III placed the Kingdom of England under an interdict after King John refused to accept the pope’s appointee, Stephen Langton, as Archbishop of Canterbury.

Norway

Pope Innocent III placed the Kingdom of Norway under interdict in October 1198. Although King Sverre forged letters to show the interdict had been lifted, he and his subjects technically remained under interdict until Sverre’s death in 1202.

Scotland

Following the rejection by Robert the Bruce (crowned King of Scotland in 1306) of papal mediation between England and Scotland, Pope John XXII placed Scotland under interdict in 1317 or 1318 because of continuing Scots raids into England; in 1328 the same Pope lifted the interdict in the light of the Treaty of Edinburgh–Northampton.

Hungary

The town of Buda was placed under interdict by papal legate Niccolò Boccasini in 1303, who was sent there to build support for Charles of Anjou, Pope Boniface VIII‘s favoured candidate for the Hungarian Crown. The burghers of Buda retaliated by excommunicating the Pope and all his loyal bishops and priests.

Italy

• Rome itself was placed under interdict by Pope Adrian IV in 1155 a result of a rebellion led by the preacher, Arnold of Brescia.
• Pope Gregory XI placed the city of Florence under interdict in March 1376 during the War of the Eight Saints.
• Pope Sixtus IV decreed an interdict against the Republic of Florence in 1478 in response to the hanging of Bishop Francesco Salviati in response to his involvement in the Pazzi conspiracy.
• On 23 June 1482, Pope Sixtus IV decreed an interdict against the Republic of Venice, unless it abandoned within 15 days its siege of Ferrara. The Venetians managed to evade it by an appeal to a future council.^[19]
• On 27 April 1509, as he entered the War of the League of Cambrai, aiming to recover papal control of the Romagna, where Venice had seized several cities in 1503, Pope Julius II placed Venice under interdict until it accepted peace terms on 14 February 1510, when it was lifted.
• The Venetian Interdict of 1606–1607 is a better-known and more lengthy case. Pope Paul V placed the Republic of Venice under interdict in 1606 after the civil authorities jailed two priests.
• In 1909, the town of Adria in Italy was placed under interdict for 15 days after a local campaign against the move of a bishop. WIKIPEDIA: Interdict

During the Middle Ages (Dark Ages), the Roman Catholic Church was not only a religious body. It operated as an ecclesiastical empire and ruled the civilized world. Accordingly, the Interdict, like modern-day economic sanctions, was used with devastating effects and rulers either toed the line of the Papacy or suffered the consequences of having their kingdom placed under an interdict. At that time, since the bible was not universally available to all. Primarily because it had not been translated from Latin into the local vernacular. People were ignorant of the teachings of scripture and believed that the Pope was either God or His personal vice regent. This state of ignorance and superstition continued for many centuries.