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Pontifex (1)

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Pontifex Maximus

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a priest among the ancient Romans. The pontifices were formed into a college, and all matters of religion were placed under its exclusive superintendence. Their functions and duties were minutely detailed in the pontifical books, which were drawn up in the reign of Numa Pompilius, and contained the names of the gods and the various regulations for their worship, as well as a detailed description of the functions, rights, and privileges of the priests. The pontifices were not priests of any particular divinity, but of the worship of the gods generally. Their duties embraced the regulation of all the religious rites and ceremonies (both public and private) of a state— e.g. how the gods should be worshipped, how burials should be conducted, how the souls of the dead (manes) should be appeased. To them was entrusted the care of the calendar, the proclamation of festival darts, etc. They also saw that every religious and every judicial act took place on the right day. "As they thus had," says Dr. Mommsen, "an especial supervision of all religious observances. it was to them in case of need (as on occasion of marriage, testament, or arrogatio) that the preliminary question was addressed, whether the matter proposed did not, in any respect, offend against divine law." In matters of religion they were the supreme authorities; from their decisions there was no appeal, and they themselves were responsible neither to the senate nor the people; further, they had power to inflict punishment on such priests as dared to disobey their injunctions and deviate into schismatical courses. The words of Festus are: "Rerum quae ad sacra et religiones pertinent, judices et vindices." The head of the college was called Pontifex Maximus. The pontiffs, according to Roman tradition, were instituted by Numa-a mythical person, to whom the origin of nearly all the religious institutions of Rome is ascribed. But as they appear in all the Latin communities, they are regarded by Mommsen as a "thoroughly national Italian institution." and probably found a place in the earliest religious organization of the Latin race. Their number was originally four, or, including the pontifex maximus, five, all of whom were taken from the patricians. In B.C. 300, the Ogulnian Law raised the number to nine, four of whom were to be plebeians. The first plebeian, however, who attained the dignity of pontifex maximus was Tü b. Coruncanius, B.C. 254. Sulla, in B.C. 81, again increased the number to fifteen, and Julius Caesar to sixteen. During the empire, the functions of pontifex maximus were generally discharged by the emperors themselves; and when at length the emperors dropped the name, it was picked up by the Christian bishops of Rome; and now this title, borrowed from a pagan cult, forms one of the sacred designations of his holiness the pope.