PONTIFICAL 



PONTUS 



309 



and cultivating religious knowledge; the other was 

 the college of Augurs. The name seems obviously 

 to be derived from pans, ' bridge,' and the root of 

 facto, 'I make;' but in what way the pontifices 

 were connected with bridge-making is obscure. It is 

 natural to suggest that it was in some way through 

 the sacred bridge across the Tiber, the pans sub- 

 licius. It is customary to speak of the college 

 of pontiffs as a 'priesthood;' it was not, how- 

 ever, strictly speaking, such that is to say, the 

 members were not charged with the worship of 

 any particular divinity, nor did they conduct 

 sacrifices. Their duties embraced the regu- 

 lation of all the religious rites and ceremonies 

 of a state how the gods should be worshipped, 

 liow burials should be conducted, how the manes 

 of the dead should be appeased. To them was 

 entrusted the care of the calendar, the proclama- 

 tion of festival days, &c. They also saw that 

 every religious and every judicial act took place 

 on the right day. 'As they had thus,' says 

 Mominsen, ' an especial supervision of all religious 

 oltservances, it was to them in case of need ( as on 

 occasion of marriage, testament, or arrogatio) that 

 the preliminary question was addressed, whether 

 the matter proposed did not, in any respect, offend 

 against divine law.' In matters of religion they 

 were the supreme authorities ; from their decisions 

 there was no appeal, and they themselves were 

 responsible neither to the senate nor the people ; 

 further, they had power to inflict punishment on 

 such priests as dared to disobey their injunctions 

 and deviate into schismatical courses. The words 

 of Festus are : rerum quce ad sacra et religionei 

 pertinent, JUDICES ET VINDICES. Their president 

 was termed pontifex maximus, 



The pontiffs, according to Roman tradition, 

 were instituted by Numa, but as they appear in 

 all the Latin communities they are regarded by 

 Mommsen as a thoroughly national Italian institu- 

 tion, and probably found a place in the earliest 

 religious organisation of the Latin race. Their 

 inimluT was originally four, or, including theponti- 

 fex maximus, five, all of whom were taken from 

 the patricians. In 300 B.C. the Ogulnian Law 

 raised the number to nine, four of whom were to 

 be plebeians. The first plebeian, however, who 

 attained the dignity of pontifex maximus was Tib. 

 Coruncanius, 254 B.C. Sulla, in 81 B.C., again 

 increased the number to fifteen, and Julius Caesar 

 to sixteen. During the empire the functions of 

 pontifex maximus were generally discharged by 

 the emperors themselves ; and the name survived 

 even the establishment of Christianity, occurring 

 in inscriptions of Valentinian, Valens, and Gra- 

 tianns ; out at length the emperors dropped it, 

 when it was assumed by the Christian bishops of 

 Home, and now this title forms one of the designa- 

 tions of the pope. 



Pontifical^ one of the service-books of the 

 Church of Rome, in which are contained the 

 several services, whether in the administration of 

 sacraments or the performance of public worship, 

 in which the bishop or a priest delegated by the 

 bishop officiates. There were many such collections 

 for the various national churches ; but that which 

 is now in universal use throughout the Western 

 Church is the Pontificate Romanum, or Roman 

 Pontifical, first printed in 1485, revised under 

 Clement VIII. in 1596, and repeatedly repnblished 

 since that time. The Pontifical contains the 

 services for ordinations, for religions professions 

 and receptions of monks and nuns, consecrations, 

 benedictions, as well as of the solemn administra- 

 tion by a bishop of those sacraments which are 

 ordinarily administered by priests. Besides the 

 prayers to be recited, the Pontifical also lays down 

 the ceremonial to be observed. 



Pontijjny, a village of the French department 

 of Yonne, 18 miles SE. of Auxerre, with a famous 

 Cistercian monastery, dating from the 12th cen- 

 tury. Three English archbishops retired hither 

 Becket in 1164, Cardinal Langton in 1207, and St 

 Edmund of Canterbury in 1240, the last being 

 buried here. The monastery was devastated by the 

 Huguenots in 1567, and finally destroyed at the 

 Revolution; but the church (mainly 1150-70) is 

 the most perfect Cistercian church in existence. 

 To the slinne of St Edmund ( 18th century) in this 

 church came in 1874 a pilgrimage of English Roman 

 Catholics. 



Pontine Marshes (Lat. Pometince Paludes), 

 a low-lying district, the southern part of the Cam- 

 pagna of Rome, extending south-east from Velletri 

 to the sea at Terracina, 26 miles long by 17 broad. 

 The district is separated from the sea by sand- 

 dunes, and is traversed by the Appian Way. 

 Herds of cattle, horses, and buffaloes feed on its 

 pasture. Many attempts have been made to drain 

 these marshes, from that of Appius Claudius (312 

 B.c.) to the proposals of Captain von Donat (1887), 

 amongst the promoters of these drainage schemes 

 being Augustus, Trajan, and the popes Boniface 

 VIIL, Martin V., Sixtus V., and Pius VI. 



Pontoon (Fr. ponton; Lat. pons, 'a bridge'), 

 the name given to buoyant vessels used in military 

 operations for supporting a temporary bridge. 

 Marlborotigh used clumsy wooden pontoons. Napo- 

 leon and Wellington had them lighter of tin and 

 copper. They were flat-bottomed, rectangular 

 boats, open at the top. Tin cylinders were then 

 used for some time, but light open boats are 

 now carried by the pontoon troops of the Royal 

 Engineers for large bridges capable of carrying 

 artillery, and Berthon's collapsible boats are some- 

 times used for small infantry bridges. See BRIDGE, 

 Vol. II. p. 447; and for pontoons in connection with 

 floating-docks, see DOCK, Vol. IV. p. 32. 



Pontopnidan, ERIK, Danish writer, born at 

 Aarhus on 24th August 1698, was appointed pro- 

 fessor of Theology at Copenhagen in 1738 and 

 bishop of Bergen in Norway in 1 747 ; there he 

 died on 20th December 1764. His writings are 

 principally historical and theological ; amongst 

 them must be mentioned Annales hcclesite Danicee 

 Diplomaticce (4 vols. 1741-52), written in German, 

 and still of use as a book of reference ; Det Danske 

 Atlas (1781), an unfinished historical and topo- 

 graphical account of Denmark ; Glossarium Kor- 

 vagicmn (1749), a work on Norwegian dialect 

 words ; Explanations to Luther's Catechism, used 

 as a text-book down to the present day ; Marmora 

 Danica (2 vols. 1739-41), a collection of Danish 

 inscriptions ; and Norges Naturlige Historic ( 2 vols. 

 1752-54.; Eng. trans. Natural History of Nonvay, 

 1755), containing accounts of the Kraken, the sea- 

 serpent, and other marvels. 



Pontrcsina< a tourist centre in the Swiss 

 canton of Grisons, stands in the Upper Engadine, 

 on the road connecting with the Bermna Pass, and 

 is much frequented by Alpine climbers. Pop. 383. 



Pontus, the name given by the ancient Greeks 

 to a country in the north-east of Asia Minor, 

 bordering on the Pontus Euxinus ( whence its 

 name), and extending from the river Halys in the 

 west to the frontiers of Colchis and Armenia in the 

 east. Its southern limits were the ranges of Anti- 

 Taurus and Paryadres, so that it corresponded 

 pretty nearly to the modern pasha! iks of Trebizond 

 and Sivas. The name seems to have come into 

 use after the time of Alexander the Great. Pre- 

 vious to that Pontus was governed by a satrap 

 for the empire of Persia. One of these satraps, 

 Ariobarzanes, early in the 4th century B.C., laid 

 the foundations of an independent sovereignty. He 



