What was the medieval institution of “interdict” used to do?

The story behind the answer

An interdict was a powerful church censure that imposed a blanket ban on most sacraments and public liturgy across a region. Churches shuttered, bells fell silent, marriages couldn’t be solemnized, and burials often proceeded without full rites—sometimes only baptisms and last rites were allowed. Unlike excommunication, it targeted a community rather than specific individuals, leaving the faithful technically within the Church but deprived of communal worship.

Popes and bishops used it as political leverage, pressuring rulers by stirring popular discontent. A famous case was Pope Innocent III’s interdict on England (1208–1213) to force King John to accept Stephen Langton as archbishop. The social strain of halted rites put intense moral and political pressure on secular authorities to negotiate with the Church.