The pressure is imposed by depriving the district of religious services. sacraments, or canonical burial. or a combination of these. A canon of Pope Innocent II described the interdict as cessatio a divinorum celebratione. Edward B. Krehbiel, an authority on the interdict, has written that...the purpose of the interdict is to secure compliance with demands made by the church on some offender against the welfare of society, church, or priesthood, or against the laws of faith and morals. It is compulsion by a form of passive resistance.