{{Short description|High-ranking member of a religious office}} {{redirect|Pontifex}}
[[File:Statue_of_Augustus_as_Pontifex_Maximus,_last_decade_of_1st_cent._BCE;_Palazzo_Massimo_alle_Terme,_Rome_(2).jpg | thumb | right | Statue of Augustus as Pontifex Maximus]] In Roman antiquity, a '''pontiff''' ({{ety|la|pontifex}}) was a member of the most illustrious of the colleges of priests of the Roman religion, the College of Pontiffs.<ref name=OED>"Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007</ref><ref name=Smith>[https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/secondary/SMIGRA*/Pontifex.html William Smith, A Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities, article ''Pontifex'', pp. 939-942]</ref> The term ''pontiff'' was later applied to any high or chief priest and, in Catholic ecclesiastical usage, to bishops, especially the Pope, who is sometimes referred to as the Roman Pontiff or the Supreme Pontiff.<ref name=Heritage>{{Cite web|title=Pontiff | Dictionary.com|url=https://www.dictionary.com/browse/pontiff|access-date=2023-02-17|website=www.dictionary.com|language=en}}</ref> {{wikitionary|pontiff}}
==Etymology== The English term derives through Old French ''pontif''<ref name=Heritage/><ref>In modern French the corresponding term is ''pontife''</ref> from Latin ''pontifex'', a word commonly held to come from the Latin root words ''pons'', ''pont-'' (bridge) + ''facere'' (to do, to make), and so to have the literal meaning of "bridge-builder", presumably between mankind and the deity/deities. Uncertainty prevailing, this may be only a folk etymology,<ref name=OED/> but it may also recall ancient tasks and magic rites associated with bridges.<ref name=Britannica>{{Cite web|title=Roman religion|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Roman-religion|access-date=2023-02-17|website=Encyclopædia Britannica|language=en}}</ref> The term may also be an allusion to Ancient Roman Religious rituals for placating the gods and spirits associated with the Tiber River, for instance.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/ancient/7Cnuma.asp |title=Internet History Sourcebooks |website=fordham.edu}}</ref> Also, Varro cites this position as meaning "able to do".<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xQd82l39KX4C&pg=PA195|title=Religions of Rome: Volume 2, A Sourcebook |first1=Mary |last1=Beard |first2=John |last2=North |first3=Simon|last3=Price |date=June 28, 1998 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=9780521456463 |via=Google Books}}</ref>
==Ancient Rome== {{main|College of Pontiffs}} There were four chief colleges of priests in ancient Rome, the most illustrious of which was that of the ''pontifices''.<ref name=Smith/> The others were those of the ''augures'', the ''quindecimviri sacris faciundis'', and the ''epulones''.<ref name=Britannica/> The same person could be a member of more than one of these groups.<ref name=Smith/> Including the ''pontifex maximus'', who was president of the college, there were originally three<ref name=Britannica/> or five<ref name=Smith/> ''pontifices'', but the number increased over the centuries, finally becoming 16 under Julius Caesar.<ref name=Smith/><ref name=Britannica/> By the third century BC the pontiffs had assumed control of the state religious system.<ref name=Britannica/>
== Biblical usage == Inspiration for the Catholic use of the name ''pontiff'' for a bishop comes from the use of the same word for the Jewish High Priest in the original Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, where it appears 59 times. For example at {{bibleverse||Mark|15:11}}, "pontifices" (plural) is the Latin term used for "The Chief Priests".<ref>{{Cite web|title=Marcus 15:11|url=https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Marcus%252015%253A11&version=VULGATE|access-date=2023-02-17|website=Bible Gateway|language=en}}</ref> And in the Vulgate version of the Letter to the Hebrews, "pontifex" (singular) is repeatedly used with reference to the then still extant High Priesthood in Judaism, and analogously suggesting Jesus Christ as the ultimate high priest.
==Catholicism== {{see also|Pontificate}} The word "pontiff", though now most often used in relation to a pope, technically refers to any Catholic bishop. The phrase "Roman pontiff" is therefore not tautological, but means "Bishop of Rome".<ref name=OED/> In the same way, a Pontifical Mass is a mass celebrated by a bishop, not necessarily a pope. Note also the ''Roman Pontifical'' (the liturgical book containing the prayers and ceremonies for rites used by a bishop)<ref>The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 {{ISBN|978-0-19-280290-3}}), article ''Pontifical''</ref> and "pontificals", the insignia of his order that a bishop uses when celebrating Pontifical Mass.<ref>The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church (Oxford University Press 2005 {{ISBN|978-0-19-280290-3}}), article ''pontificals''</ref> While the pontificals primarily belong to bishops, they have also been granted by papal favour or legally established Church custom to certain presbyters (e.g., abbots).{{cn|date=January 2023}}
==Other religions== <!--Vyasatirtha links here.--> The word has been employed in English also for caliphs (Islam) and swamis and jagadgurus (Hinduism).<ref name="OED" />
== See also == * Papal titles * Shaman
== References == {{Reflist}}
Category:Ancient Roman titles Category:Religious leadership roles Category:Christian terminology Category:Catholic ecclesiastical titles Category:Papal titles