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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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.
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.
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