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PONTIFEX

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 66 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PONTIFEX . The collegium of the Pontifices was the most important priesthood of See also:

ancient See also:Rome, being specially charged with the See also:administration of the See also:jus divinum, i.e. that See also:part of the See also:PONTIVY See also:civil See also:law which regulated the relations of the community with the deities recognized by the See also:state officially, together with a See also:general superintendence of the See also:worship of gens and See also:family. The name is clearly derived from pons and facere, but whether this should be taken as indicating any See also:special connexion with the sacred See also:bridge over the See also:Tiber (Pons Sublicius) , or what the See also:original meaning may have been, cannot now be determined. The See also:college existed under the See also:monarchy, when its members were probably three in number; they may safely be considered as legal advisers of the rex in all matters of See also:religion. Under the See also:republic they emerge into prominence under a pontifex See also:maximus, who took over the See also:king's duties as See also:chief See also:administrator of religious law, just as his chief sacrificial duties were taken by the rex sacrorum; his dwelling was the regia, " the See also:house of the king." During the republican See also:period the number of pontifices increased, probably by multiples of three, until after See also:Sulla (82 B.C.) we find them fifteen; for the See also:year 57 B.C. we have a See also:complete See also:list of them in See also:Cicero (Harusp. See also:resp. 6, 12). Included in the collegium were also the rex sacrorum, the flamines, three assistant pontifices (minores), and the vestal virgins, who were all chosen by the pontifex maximus. Vacancies in the See also:body of pontifices were originally filled by co-optation; but from the second Punic See also:War onwards the pontifex maximus was chosen by a See also:peculiar See also:form of popular See also:election, and in the last See also:age of the republic this held See also:good for all the members. They all held See also:office for See also:life. The immense authority of the college centred in the pontifex maximus, the other pontifices forming his consilium or advising body. His functions were partly sacrificial or ritualistic, but these were the least important; the real See also:power See also:lay in the administration of the jus divinum, the chief departments of which may briefly be described as follows: (1) the regulation of all expiatory ceremonials needed as the result of pestilence, See also:lightning, &c.; (2) the See also:consecration of all temples and other sacred places and See also:objects dedicated to the gods by the state through its magistrates; (3) the regulation of the See also:calendar both astronomically and in detailed application to the public life of the state; (4) the administration of the law See also:relating to burials and burying-places, and the worship of the See also:Manes, or dead ancestors; (5) thesuperintendence of all marriages by confarreatio, i.e. originally of all legal patrician marriages; (6) the administration of the law of See also:adoption and of testamentary See also:succession. They had also the care of the state archives, of the lists of magistrates, and kept records of their own decisions (See also:commentarii) and of the chief events of each year (annales).

It is obvious that a priesthood having such functions as these, and holding office for life, must have been a See also:

great power in the state, and for the first three centuries of the republic it is probable that the pontifex maximus was in fact its most powerful member. The office might be combined with a magistracy, and, though its See also:powers were declaratory rather than executive, it may fairly be described as quasi-magisterial. Under the later republic it was coveted chiefly for the great dignity of the position; See also:Julius See also:Caesar held it for the last twenty years of his life, and See also:Augustus took it after the'See also:death of See also:Lepidus in 12 B.C., after which it became inseparable from the office of the reigning See also:emperor. With the decay of the See also:empire the See also:title very naturally See also:fell to the popes, whose functions as administrators of religious law closely resembled those of the ancient See also:Roman priesthood, hence the See also:modern use of " pontiff " and " pontifical." For further details consult See also:Marquardt, Staatsverwaltung, iii. 235 seq. ; Wissowa, Religion and Kultus der Romer, 43o seq. ; Bouche-Leclercq, See also:Les Pontifes, passim. (W. W. F.

End of Article: PONTIFEX

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