Collegium of Pontiffs ( lat. Collegium Pontificum ) - in Ancient Rome, the Council of Pontiffs ; the highest priestly institution of the tsarist and republican period, headed by the Great Pontiff , who until the III century BC. er was selected from its members. The board concentrated the knowledge and preservation of sacred law ( ius pontificium ), elaborated the rules for its interpretation ( commentarii pontificum ), recorded legal precedents and gave competent legal advice.
Initially, there were 5 pontiffs in the college, after the Law of Ogulnya 300/299 BC. er - 9, after Sulla - 15, after Caesar - 16. The common duty of the pontiffs was to preserve the religious balance ( pax deorum ), that is, apparently giving equal degree to the reverence of each god. Before the Law of Ogulnya, all the pontiffs were patricians . There were also 3 minor pontiffs ( pontifices minores ), but their role was not well understood. All the priestly colleges of ancient Rome served one god or another. The pontiffs were ministers of the god Janus .
The history of the great pontiffs stopped at the Roman emperor Gratian , who in 382 declined this title [1] , possibly under pressure from Ambrose of Milan [2] . Subsequently, the Roman high priest, Gregory I (the Great) , restored this title to the Roman bishops .
Notes
- ↑ Zosimus. Historia nova 4, 36, 5.
- ↑ Vitaly Zadvorny. Chapter 2: Roman pontiffs and the process of assimilation of Greco-Roman culture in the epoch of late antiquity // Works of Roman pontiffs of the epoch of late antiquity and the early Middle Ages . - Publishing House of Franciscans, 2011. - 495 p.
Literature
- Borovkov P.S. 2010: The College of Pontiffs in the political and legal structure of the Roman civitas (from the Tsarist period to the end of the Classical Republic) : Auth. Diss ... Ph.D. M.