INTERDICT. It is the canonical penalty that deprives the faithful of sacred rites and renders them incapable of exercising certain spiritual rights, without, however, excluding them from communion with the Church. The *interdict* has a predominantly medicinal character and in the *Codex Iuris Canonici* is listed among the censures (can. 2268), but it may also be a vindictive penalty (cf. CENSURE, III, penal law medicinal). In case of doubt, it is presumed to be a medicinal penalty (can. 2255 § 2, 2291, nn. 1-2). It differs from excommunication and suspension in that it may be imposed not only on individuals but also on collectivities and moral bodies as such.
The *interdict* is distinguished into personal and local, depending on whether it applies directly to persons or corporations, or to places or territories. The personal *interdict* shares in the nature and effects of communion, has the character of personal law, and follows the person wherever they may be; the local *interdict*, on the other hand, has only territorial efficacy and, within the limits of the territory, affects all who are present, including foreigners and those exempt (can. 2269 § 2).
The local *interdict* is further subdivided into general and particular, depending on whether it affects an entire territorial district (parish, diocese, nation) or only a specific place (church, oratory, altar, chapel, cemetery, etc.). The personal *interdict* is distinguished into general and special, depending on whether it is imposed against a collectivity of persons (canonical chapter, religious order, pious association, etc.) or against a single individual.
The imposition of a general local *interdict* against dioceses, ecclesiastical provinces, nations, and other districts exceeding the territory of a diocese, as well as of a general personal *interdict* against moral bodies and collectivities outside the ordinary diocesan authority (monastic provinces, religious communities of pontifical right), is reserved exclusively to the Holy See. For lesser districts within the diocese (parishes), as well as for diocesan collectivities not exempt (chapters, religious communities of diocesan right), the bishop is also competent (can. 2269 § 1).
The local *interdict*, whether general or particular, forbids, in principle, all divine offices and sacred rites, including the administration and use of the sacraments (can. 2270 § 1). This principle, however, is subject to various exceptions and mitigations. Thus, the local *interdict*, whether general or particular, does not forbid the administration of the sacraments to the dying (though the Viaticum may be administered only in private), and it suspends its effects on the major solemnities of Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, and the Assumption, with the exception of the conferral of sacred Orders and the solemn nuptial blessing. Likewise, a general local *interdict* permits clerics to celebrate divine offices with closed doors, without chant or bell-ringing, and in cathedral and parish churches, or in the sole church of a place, it does not forbid the celebration of a single daily Mass, the reception and administration of the sacraments of Baptism, the Eucharist, and Matrimony (excluding the nuptial blessing), nor the celebration of funeral rites for the dead, the blessing of the baptismal font and the holy oils, and the preaching of the word of God, provided that all pomp and solemnity, sacred chant, and the use of instruments and bells are excluded (can. 2270-71).
In the case of a particular local *interdict* affecting a church, the two exceptions mentioned in can. 2271 apply exclusively to chapter and parish churches, and only if, for the purposes of worship, no other churches or oratories have been previously designated in substitution for those interdicted. With regard to other churches and places (altars, chapels, etc.), the principle remains that the particular local *interdict* entails the absolute prohibition of celebrating any divine office or sacred rite therein. The interdict of a cemetery, however, does not forbid the burial of the dead, but only prohibits that it be carried out with the prescribed ecclesiastical rite (can. 2272).
The general personal *interdict*, imposed on a community or college as such, entails the prohibition of exercising any spiritual right or function pertaining to them as moral bodies (e.g., the right of election, presentation, etc.).
INTERDICTIO AQUA ET IGNI — INTER DUAS LAUROS
The martyrs Genuinus and Maximus, whom William of Malmesbury calls Geminus.
As for the group of the Four Crowned Martyrs, the *Depositio Martyrum* records them as venerated in the 4th century in *Comitatuum*. Many archaeologists have identified this expression as a topographical indication of the locality *inter* or *ad duas lauros*, and thus as imperial property, identical to that of Subaugusta on the Via Labicana.
The cemetery of *inter duas lauros* is very extensive; it comprises an area above ground, in which the martyr Tiburtius was buried, whose sanctuary Stevenson believed he could identify; it also includes two underground levels, in which the various staircases indicate the different original nuclei or hypogea subsequently connected.
After the abandonment of the cemeteries, following the translation of the relics of the martyrs into the city, the cemetery of *inter duas lauros* also fell into oblivion. The first to venture into some of the underground galleries were Pomponio Leto and his companions, who left their names inscribed there around the middle of the 15th century. A. Bosio began his explorations there in 1594 and continued them for a long time, discovering many painted cubicles, including one with a 5th-century fresco in the vault depicting, in the lower field, the divine Lamb on the mountain from which flow the four rivers, surrounded by the martyrs Peter, Marcellinus, Tiburtius, and Gorgonius, identified by name. In the upper zone, the bearded Saviour, with long hair, a nimbus, and the letters A and Ω, is depicted between the apostles Peter and Paul.
In the first half of the 18th century, M. Boldetti removed many inscriptions from this cemetery. In 1779, Fr. G. M. Partenio erected a marble altar in a crypt of a region near the mausoleum of St. Helena. G. B. De Rossi discovered a 4th-century region and reported it in his Bullettino di archeologia cristiana. Systematic studies on the so-called "cimitero di i due lauri" were initiated by E. STEVENSON, JOSEPH (v.), to whom we owe the discovery of the region where the martyrs Marcellinus and Peter were buried, placed there by a pious woman named Lucilla in two simple loculi in a gallery on the first level of the cemetery; later, the opposite wall of the gallery was cut through and a small apse-ended sanctuary was built, leaving the tombs of the two martyrs intact. These were decorated by Damasus (366–84), who composed a poem in their honor; the text was preserved in the *Passio*; a fragment of it was found at the Santi Quattro Coronati on the Caelian Hill. On the plastered walls of the sanctuary and the adjacent galleries, numerous pilgrims wrote their names or invocations, such as “Marcelline Petre petite.” Pope Adrian I (772–95) built a special staircase to access the two venerated tombs.
The martyr Gorgonius was buried in another region, probably on the lower level, as indicated by the phrase “in inferiore antro” in the *Notitia ecclesiarum*; however, his tomb has not yet been found. Likewise, the location of the tombs of the thirty martyrs listed in the *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* and the forty martyrs mentioned in the *Notitia ecclesiarum* in the “inferiore spalanca” remains unknown. Among these are Genuinus or Geminus and Maximus, about whom nothing further is known from other sources.
The tomb of the Four Crowned Martyrs was identified in a region partially explored earlier by Bosio and then by Wilpert, and excavated between 1911 and 1912. A staircase leads from ground level down to a gallery about 40 meters long on the second level of the cemetery; off this gallery opened other corridors and cubicula, which were later walled up to allow pilgrims access to two historical crypts. In the second crypt, a roughly hewn sarcophagus was placed in an arcosolium; on the plastered wall, A. Bevingnani read the invocation “SCE CLE(mens),” the first of the Four Crowned Martyrs mentioned in the *Depositio Martyrum*. Among the other graffiti are also the names of Leo, which appear in many shrines of Roman martyrs.
It is known that H. Delehaye, L. Duchesne, and P. Franchi de’ Cavalieri believed the Four Crowned Martyrs were to be identified with the marble-workers martyred at Sirmium. H. Delehaye, L. Duchesne, and P. Styger, however, correctly identified them as being venerated “in comitatum” near that city. The *Martyrologium Hieronymianum* indicates that the Four Crowned Martyrs were venerated at least until the 6th century not in the “cimitero di i due lauri” but in the urban church on the Caelian Hill, “Caelio monte.”
The roughly hewn sarcophagus, its placement in a previously decorated arcosolium, and the funerary character
**Inter duas lauros**, cemetery of — Plan of the gallery leading to two historical crypts, one of which (no. 13) is probably that of the SS. Quattro Coronati.
BIBL.:
C. Cecchelli, E. Persico, *SS. Marcellino e Pietro, la chiesa e la catacomba* (Le chiese di Roma, 36), Roma 1938;
J. De Witt, *Spätromische Bildnismalerei*, Berlin 1938;
H. Leclercq, *Catacombe des Sts-Pierre et Marcellin*, in DACL, XIV, 1, cols. 981–1018 (the inscription “Clementinus fossor mansionarius” [col. 1016] of the 5th region does not exist in this cemetery but in that of *Catacumbas*);
E. Josi, *Terre di vasa lauros — Interesse delle scoperte nel cimitero dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino*, ibid. 6 (1900), pp. 85–97;
id., *Affreschi inediti del cimitero «ad duas lauros»*, ibid., 4 (1898), pp. 117–21;
id., *Pitture*, pp. 508–12;
R. Kanzler, *L'ultima scoperta di Augusto Bevignani. Graffiti storici nel cimitero del SS. Marcellino e Pietro*, in *Studi romani* 1 (1913), pp. 189–96;
id., *Scoperte nel cimitero dei SS. Marcellino e Pietro sulla Via Labicana*, in *Nuovo bull. di arch. crist.* 20 (1914), pp. 65–77;
O. Marucchi, *Osservazioni sulla critica storica recentemente scoperte nel cimitero dei SS. Marcellino e Pietro sulla Via Labicana*, ibid., 21 (1915), pp. 5–11;
E. Josi, *Scoperte nel cimitero dei SS. Marcellino e Pietro*, ibid., 26 (1920), pp. 77–87;
F. Fornari, *Relazione sul lavoro eseguito nel cimitero dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino «ad duas lauros»*, in *Riv. di arch. crist.* 3 (1926), pp. 31–39;
I. P. Kirsch, *Die Märtyrer der Katakombe ad duas lauros in Rom*, in *Die Ehrengabe der deutschen Wissenschaft*, Freiburg im Br. 1920;
id., *Pitture inedite di un arcosolio del cimitero dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino*, in *Riv. di arch. crist.* 7 (1930), pp. 31, 46;
id., *Un gruppo di pitture inedite di un arcosolio del cimitero dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino*, ibid., pp. 203–234;
id., *Cubicoli dipinti del cimitero dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino sulla Via Labicana*, ibid., 9 (1932), pp. 17–36;
id., *Un cubicolo con pitture profane inedite nella catacomba dei SS. Pietro e Marcellino*, ibid., 10 (1933), pp. 263–85;