‖ pontifex
(ˈpɒntɪfɛks)
Pl. pontifices (pɒnˈtɪfɪsiːz).
[L. pontifex, -icem a Roman high-priest: app. f. pons, pont-em bridge + -fic- from facĕre to make; but the first element was perh. Osc.-Umb. puntis propitiatory offering, assimilated to pons, pont-em.]
1. Rom. Antiq. A member of the principal college of priests in ancient Rome, the head of which was the Pontifex Maximus or chief priest. Also transf.
| 1579–80 North Plutarch (1595) 73 The first and chiefest of these bishops, which they call the great Pontifex. 1647 R. Stapylton Juvenal 63 There was in Rome a colledge of pontifices, which were exempted from the authority of any lay-court of judicature. 1777 P. Thicknesse Year's Journey II. xlii. 83 The consecration of the Roman Pontifex Maximus. 1794 Sullivan View Nat. I. 16 From the commencement to nearly the conclusion of the Roman empire, the king was always priest or pontifex. 1881 S. H. Hodgson Outcast Ess. 384 Long as the Pontifex and Silent Maid Shall go together up the Capitol. 1934 New Statesman 3 Nov. 614/2 Stalin has exiled Trotsky and become the Pontifex Maximus of the new Russo-Catholic Church of Communism. 1957 Oxf. Dict. Chr. Ch. 1089/2 Pontifex Maximus,..originally a pagan title of the chief priest at Rome, Tertullian used it satirically..of the Pope, and from the 5th cent. onwards it was a regular title of honour for the Popes, and occasionally used also of other bishops. |
2. Eccl. A bishop; spec. the pope: = pontiff 2.
| [1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xv. 42 Bisshopes..bereth many names, Presul and pontifex and metropolitanus, And other names an hepe, episcopus & pastor.] 1651 Hobbes Leviath. iv. xlv. (1839) 661 The bishop of Constantinople..pretended to be equal to the bishop of Rome; though at last, not without contention, the Pope carried it, and became the Pontifex Maximus. 1851 Hussey Papal Power v. 132 The Bishop of Rome, the Pontifex, is the spiritual sovereign of the world. |
† 3. = pontiff 3. Obs. rare.
| 1655 Fuller Ch. Hist. iii. vi. §35 In their spiritual government they [the Jews in England] were all under one Pontifex, or High Priest. |
4. With allusion to the reputed etymological meaning: = Bridge-maker.
| 1831 Carlyle Sart. Res. i. xi, Never perhaps since our first Bridge-builders, Sin and Death, built that stupendous Arch from Hell-gate to the Earth, did any Pontifex, or Pontiff, undertake such a task. 1851 Longfellow Gold. Leg. v. 7 Well has the name of Pontifex been given Unto the Church's head, as the chief builder And architect of the invisible bridge That leads from earth to heaven. |