Pontiff
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pontiff or Pontificate is a title of certain religious leaders, now used principally to refer to leaders such as the Pope of the Catholic Church and of the Coptic Orthodox Church.[1] Pontiff refers to the person in office, while Pontificate refers to the period in which the office is held by that singular person.
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[edit] Etymology
The term derives from the French word pontife, from the Latin pontifex, a title used for high priests of the Roman Republic. The word pontifex is commonly held to derive from the Latin root words pons, "bridge" + facere, "to do" or "to make", with a literal meaning of "bridge-builder". This, however, is disputed - it may be only a folk etymology [2]. See Pontifex for more details on the original Roman term.
[edit] Usage
Pontiffs were originally simply chiefs or high priests of any religion; thus writers from the 16th through to the 18th centuries referred equally to Christian pontiffs (bishops) and "Mahometan [Muslim] (caliphs) or Swami (Hindu). Over time, however, the term became associated with only the highest religious authorities in the Christian Churches — the Popes and Patriarchs. It was often modified by an adjective - for instance, "Alexandrian Pontiff",[1] "Sovereign Pontiff" or "Roman Pontiff" - to distinguish from different Bishops. [2]
In the modern era, the modifying adjective is usually dropped, with the term being used exclusively to refer to the Popes.
[edit] References
- ^ a b "An ecclesiastical history, ancient and modern, from the birth of Christ to the beginning of the eighteenth century". Page 191. [1] (Retrieved 21-07-2008)
- ^ a b "Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007
