POOR'S-ROLL 



POPE 



317 



Poor's-roll, in the practice of the law of Scot- 

 land, means the list of poor persons who are liti- 

 gants, but unable to pay the expenses of litigation, 

 and therefore are allowed to sue in forma pauperis. 

 This privilege is only granted on production of a 

 certificate by the minister of the parish and two 

 elders, setting forth his circumstances to their own 

 knowledge and his general poverty. Notice is 

 given of this to the adverse party, who is allowed 

 time to inquire and oppose the application. Where 

 the applicant is not in Scotland lie may make a 

 declaration of poverty before a magistrate e.g. in 

 Ireland. When the court is satisfied of the poverty 

 the next thing is for the court to remit the matter 

 to the re[>orters appointed by the Faculty of 

 Advocates, who report whether there is Aprobabilis 

 i-ii usa i.e. a plausible cause of action. If this 

 report is made it is considered conclusive, and the 

 party is put on the poor's-roll. This warrant 

 remains in force for two years, and during that 

 time the pauper is exempt from all fees of court, 

 and has the gratuitous services of counsel and 

 agents, whose names appear on a list made by the 

 Faculty of Advocates and other legal bodies. This 

 provision for enabling paupers to carry on litigation 

 is unknown in England or Ireland ; for though a 

 party may also be allowed there to sue in formd 

 jKtiifieris, no provision is made by the court for 

 giving him the gratuitous services of counsel and 

 attorney. There is also a list of poor's counsel in 

 the High Court of Justiciary. By an old custom 

 a panel charged with murder may claim the gra- 

 tuitous services of the Dean of faculty. See IN 

 FORMA PAUPERIS. 



I'opayan, capital of the department of Cauca 

 in Colombia, stands in a fertile plain, 5700 feet 

 above sea-level, near the river Cauca. It is a 

 bishop's see, although its cathedral is now in ruins ; 

 and it has a university and normal school, and 

 manufactures woollens. Founded in 1537, it rose 

 to considerable importance ; but the civil wars and 

 an earthquake in 1827 have done much to reduce 

 it. It is still of some consequence for the trade 

 with Peru. Pop. 9000. 



Pope, a fish of the Perch family. See RUFFE. 



Pope (Gr. pappas, Lat. papa, 'father;' at first 

 used of all bishops, from the 5th century gradually 

 appropriated in the West to the Bishop of Rome, 

 though still used of priests of the Greek Church ), 

 the Bishop of Rome, and supreme pontiff of the 

 Roman Catholic Church. In this article an historic 

 sketch will be given of the papacy as an institu- 

 tion. While the empire remained pagan the his- 

 tory of the bishops of Rome is obscure. Tradition 

 confirmed by the faith of the church represents St 

 Peter as the first Bishop of Rome. His immediate 

 successors must have been recognised by Christians 

 as the heads of Christ's church in the imperial city. 

 Rome, the mistress of the world, was regarded by 

 all men with reverence ; all men came thither. So 

 among Christians its bishop held a position of 

 special dignity, and his judgment in ecclesiastical 

 controversies was regarded as weighty. The heresy 

 of Novatian, irregularly ordained Bishop of Rome 

 during the lifetime of Cornelius (251), illustrated 

 the importance of ecclesiastical unity, and so in 

 the end tended to exalt the Bishop of Rome as the 

 visible head of the church. 



Under Constantine the empire became Christian, 

 and Rome ceased to be the sole imperial city. The 

 first of these changes vastly increased the dignity 

 of its bishop ; the second separated Latin from 

 Eastern Christendom ; the heresies of the specula- 

 tive East found no acceptance in the West ; the 

 Bishop of Rome became the champion of ortho- 

 doxy, and was recognised by the Council of Sar- 

 dica (347) as having appellate jurisdiction. Before 



the end of the 4th century Siricius, in publishing 

 his decretal on clerical celibacy, assumed that the 

 law of the Roman Church was binding everywhere. 

 A great increase in power may be dated from the 

 reign of Innocent I. (402-417), who claimed, as the 

 successor of St Peter, supeiiority over western 

 Christendom. The weakness of the western empire, 

 the sack of Rome by the Visigoths, and the rever- 

 ence which they paid to all things Christian, com- 

 bined to make Innocent the most powerful person 

 in the Christian city which rose upon the ashes of 

 pagan Rome. Leo I. (440-461) maintained the 

 claim of his see to the patriarchate of the West, 

 while in Rome and Italy his fearlessness and 

 prudence during the invasions of the Huns and 

 Vandals gave him commanding influence. In 476 

 the empire of the west came to an end ; the sole 

 emperor of the Romans reigned at Constantinople. 

 As long as he left Italy alone the papal power was 

 the stronger for his absence. Amid the political 

 disintegration of the West the church remained 

 a stable bond of union ; its centre was Rome, and 

 the head of Rome was the pope, who became more 

 and more regarded as the leader and defender of 

 the people. Though Theodoric the Ostrogoth, 

 while master of Italy, abstained from interference 

 with the bishops of Rome until shortly before his 

 death, some trouble arose from disputed elections. 

 The election anciently lay with the clergy and 

 people of the city, but as the interference of the 

 laity led to violence, Symmachus decreed (498) 

 that thenceforward the election should lie decided 

 by the votes of the Roman clergy. The recoil- 

 quest of Italy by the generals of Justinian im- 

 paired the papal power, for he treated the pope 

 like a rebellious servant. As the imperial power 

 waned in Italy before the invasion of the Lombards, 

 the pope again became pre-eminent. Neglected by 

 her emperor, Rome found a protector in Gregory 

 the Great (590-604), who was forced by the suffer- 

 ings of the people to deal with the Lombards 

 as a temporal prince. Yet his work was chiefly 

 spiritual. Under him the right to the patriarchate 

 of the West was firmly established ; his holiness, 

 his writings, and his reforms were universally 

 admired ; he exercised ecclesiastical discipline over 

 the bishops of other lands, and he resented the 

 indignity put upon his see by the assumption of 

 the title ' Universal Bishop ' by the Patriarch of 

 Constantinople. Under him the Arian invaders of 

 Italy, the Lombards, were converted to Catholi- 

 cism ; so, too, were the Arian Visigoths of Spain ; 

 while the heathen English first received the gospel 

 from missionaries whom he sent out. Gregory com- 

 pleted the work of Innocent and Leo, and was the 

 greatest of the three founders of the papacy of the 

 middle ages. 



During the 7th century the popes were much 

 troubled by the eastern emperors, who were still 

 lords of Rome and some parts of Italy. The 

 emperors caused elections to the papacy to be 

 submitted to themselves for confirmation, tried to 

 force the popes to concur in their heresy concerning 

 the will of Christ, and treated them as mere officers 

 of their state. Martin I. (649-654), a strenuous 

 opponent of the Monothelite heresy, was seized, 

 carried oft' to Constantinople, and, after suffering 

 ill-usage, died in exile. Even when the emperors 

 again became orthodox they still humiliated the 

 popes. Meanwhile the papal power was growing in 

 western lands : the Englisn turned from Columban 

 usages, and professed obedience to Rome ( 664 ) ; the 

 Burgundians and Frieslanders received the gospel ; 

 and early in the 8th century Boniface won over a 

 large part of Germany to the faith, acting on a com- 

 mission from Gregory II. (715-731). In Gregory's 

 time the Emperor Leo III. forbade the worship and 

 even the use of images throughout his empire, 



