INTERDICT. In Civil Law. The formula according to which the praetor ordered or forbade any thing to be done tu a cause cony corning true or quasi possession until it should be decided definitely who had a right to it. But in modern civil law it is an extraordi nary action, by which a summary decision is had in questions of possession or quasi pos session. Heineccius, Elem. Jur. Civ. 1287. Interdicts are either prohibitory, restorative, or exhibitory : the first being a prohibition, the second a decree for restoring possession lost by force, the third a decree for the ex hibiting of accounts, etc. Id. 1290. Inter dicts were decided by the printer without the intervention of a juclex, differing in this from actions (actiones).
The etymology of the word, according to Justinian, is quod inter duos dicitur; accord ing to Isidorus, quod interim dicitur. Yoe.
Jur. Utr.; Sand. Just. 589; Mackeldey, Civ. Law, 195, 230, 235. Like an injunction, the interdict was merely personal in its ef fects ; and it had also another similarity to it, by being temporary or perpetual. Dig. 43. 1.
I, 3, 4. See Story, Eq. Jur. 865 ; Halifax, Anal. ch. 6. See INJUNCTION.
In Ecclesiastical Law. An ecclesias tical censure, by which divine services are pro hibited either to particular persons or particu lar places. These tyrannical edicts, issued by ecclesiastical powers, have been abolished in England since the reformation, and were never known in the United States. See 2 Burn, Eccl. Law, 340, 341. Baptism was al lowed during an interdict ; but the holy eu charist was denied, except in the article of death, and burial in consecrated ground was denied, unless without divine offices.