Footnote
a Pontifex Maximus Julius Caesar increased the number of the pontiffs In the college to sixteen. Says The Encyclopædia Britannica, eleventh edition, Volume 22, page 66b, under PONTIFEX: “The name is clearly derived from pons [bridge] and facere [to make] but whether this should be taken as indicating any special connection with the sacred bridge over the Tiber (Pons Sublicius), or what the original meaning may have been, cannot now be determined. The college existed under the monarchy [of Rome], when its members were probably three in number; they may safely be considered as legal advisers of the rex [king] in all matters of religion. Under the republic [of Rome] they emerged into prominence under a pontifex maximus [greatest bridgemaker], who took over the king’s duties as chief administrator of religious law, . . . They all held office for life. The immense authority of the college centered in the pontifex maximus, the other pontifices forming his consilium or advising body. His functions were partly sacrificial or ritualistic, but these were the least important; the real power lay in the administration of the jus divinum [divine right], . . . It is obvious that a priesthood having such functions as these, and holding office for life, must have been a great power in the state, and for the first three centuries of the republic it is possible that the pontifex maximus was in fact the most powerful member. . . . Julius Caesar held it for the last twenty years of his life, and Augustus took it after the death of Lepidus in 12 B.C. after which it became inseparable from the office of the reigning emperor. With the decay of the [Roman] empire the title very naturally fell to the popes, whose functions as administrators of religious law closely resembled those of the ancient Roman priesthood, hence the modern use of ‘pontiff’ and ‘pontifical.’”