A pontiff (from Latin pontifex) was, in Roman antiquity, a member of the principal college of priests (Collegium Pontificum)."Pontifex". "Oxford English Dictionary", March 2007 The term was later applied to any high or chief priest and, in ecclesiastical usage, to a bishop, and more particularly to the Bishop of Rome, the Pope or "Roman Pontiff".

Etymology

The English term derives through Old French pontif from Latin pontifex, a word commonly held to come from the Latin root words pons (bridge) + facere (to do, to make), and so to have the literal meaning of "bridge-builder". This may be only a folk etymology,but it may also recall antique tasks and magic rites associated with bridges.

Ancient Rome

There were four chief colleges of priests in ancient Rome, the most illustrious of which was that of the pontifices. The others were those of the augures, the quindecimviri sacris faciundis, and the epulones. The same person could be a member of more than one of these groups. Including the pontifex maximus, who was president of the college, there were originally 3 or 5 pontifices, but the number increased over the centuries, finally becoming 16 under Julius Caesar. By the third century B.C., the pontiffs had assumed control of the state religious system.

Christianity

Although the word "pontiff" is now most often used of the Pope, in itself it refers to any bishop, so that the phrase "Roman Pontiff" is not tautological, but means "Bishop of Rome", as "Alexandrian Pontiff" means Bishop of Alexandria. In the same way, the adjective "pontifical" does not refer exclusively to the Pope: a Pontifical Mass is a Mass celebrated by a bishop, not necessarily by a pope. From the adjective have been formed the nouns "the Pontifical" (the liturgical book containing the prayers and ceremonies for rites used by a bishop) and "pontificals" (the insignia of his order that a bishop uses when celebrating Pontifical Mass, not papal insignia, such as the papal tiara).

Other religions

Inspiration for the Christian use of the name "pontiff" for bishops could be found in the use of the same word (pontifex in Latin) - not "pontifex maximus" - for the Jewish high priest in the Vulgate Latin translation of the Scriptures, where it appears 59 times. For example, in the Vulgate , "pontifices" (plural) is the Latin term used for "the chief priests", and in the Letter to the Hebrews "pontifex" (singular) is repeatedly used with reference to the Jewish high priest and analogously to Jesus as the high priest of Christians.

The word has been employed in English also for caliphs (Islam) and swamis (Hinduism).