Editing Pontifex maximus (section)

==The Roman Empire==
After Julius Caesar's assassination in 44&nbsp;BC, his ally [[Marcus Aemilius Lepidus (49 BC)|Marcus Aemilius Lepidus]] was selected as ''pontifex maximus''. Though Lepidus eventually fell out of political favor and was sent into exile as [[Augustus]] consolidated power, he retained the priestly office until his death in 13/12&nbsp;BC, at which point Augustus was selected to succeed him and given the right to appoint other pontifices. Thus, from the time of Augustus, the election of pontifices ended and membership in the sacred college was deemed a sign of imperial favour.<ref name=livius/> Augustus took the title of ''pontifex maximus'' for political gain, in an attempt to restore traditional Roman values. With this attribution, the new office of Emperor was given a religious dignity and the responsibility for the entire Roman state cult. Most authors contend that the power of naming the Pontifices was not really used as an ''[[instrumentum regni]]'', an enforcing power.{{Citation needed|date=July 2021}}

From this point on, ''pontifex maximus'' was one of the many titles of the Emperor, slowly losing its specific and historical powers and becoming simply a referent for the sacral aspect of imperial duties and powers. During the Imperial period, a ''promagister'' (vice-master) performed the duties of the ''pontifex maximus'' in lieu of the emperors whenever they were absent.<ref name="Van Haeperen"/>

In post-Severan times (after 235 AD), the small number of pagan senators interested in becoming pontiffs led to a change in the pattern of office holding. In Republican and Imperial times no more than one family member of a gens was member of the [[College of Pontiffs]], nor did one person hold more than one priesthood in this collegium. However, these rules were loosened in the later part of the 3rd&nbsp;century&nbsp;A.D. In periods of joint rule, at first only one of the emperors bore this title, as it occurred for the first time during the joint reign of [[Marcus Aurelius]] and [[Lucius Verus]] (161–169&nbsp;AD), when only Marcus Aurelius was ''pontifex maximus'', but later two ''pontifices maximi'' could serve together, as [[Pupienus]] and [[Balbinus]] did in 238&nbsp;AD—a situation unthinkable in Republican times.<ref>{{cite book|author=Christer Bruun, J. C. Edmondson|title=The Oxford Handbook of Roman Epigraphy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Z2bDBAAAQBAJ&dq=Pupienus+Balbinus+pontifex+maximus+shared&pg=PA191|year=2015|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-533646-7|page=191}}</ref>

=== Late Antiquity ===
When [[Tertullian]], a [[Montanism|Montanist]], furiously applied the term to a bishop with whom he was at odds (either [[Pope Callixtus I]] or [[Agrippinus of Carthage|Agrippinus]] of Carthage),<ref>Francis Aloysius Sullivan, ''From Apostles to Bishops'' (Paulist Press 2001 {{ISBN|978-0-8091-0534-2}}), p. 165</ref><ref>David E. Wilhite, ''Tertullian the African'' (De Gruyter, Walter 2007 {{ISBN|978-3-11-019453-1}}), p. 174</ref> ca. 220, over a relaxation of the Church's penitential discipline allowing repentant adulterers and fornicators back into the Church, it was in bitter irony:

{{blockquote|In opposition to this [modesty], could I not have acted the dissembler? I hear that there has even been an edict sent forth, and a peremptory one too. The "Pontifex Maximus," that is the "bishop of bishops," issues an edict: "I remit, to such as have discharged [the requirements of] repentance, the sins both of adultery and of fornication." O edict, on which cannot be inscribed, "Good deed!"... Far, far from Christ's betrothed be such a proclamation!|Tertullian|''On Modesty'' ch. 1}}

In the [[Crisis of the Third Century]], emperors continued to assume the title ''pontifex maximus''. The early Christian emperors, including [[Constantine the Great]] ({{Reign|306|337}}) and the rest of the [[Constantinian dynasty]], continued to use it; it was only relinquished by [[Gratian]], possibly in 376 at the time of his visit to Rome,<ref name="Van Haeperen" /> or more probably in 383 when a delegation of pagan senators implored him to restore the [[Altar of Victory]] in the [[Roman Senate]]'s ''[[Curia Julia]]''.<ref>A. Cameron, A. (1969). Gratian's repudiation of the pontifical robe. ''The Journal of Roman Studies'', 58: 96–102. The confusion in dates arises from Zosimus, who writes that it was repudiated at Gratian's accession, impossible from epigraphic and literary references</ref> Its last use with reference to the emperors is in inscriptions of Gratian.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia|title=Gratian|encyclopedia=[[Encyclopædia Britannica]]|via=[[Encyclopædia Britannica Online]]|date=February 3, 2008|url=https://www.britannica.com/biography/Gratian-Roman-emperor|access-date=27 June 2019|publisher=[[Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.]]|first=Amy|last=Tikkanen}}</ref><ref name="lacus" /><ref name="livius" />

The [[Edict of Thessalonica]] of 27 February 380 was enacted in Thessalonica ([[Thessaloniki]]) and published in [[Constantinople]] ([[Istanbul]]) for the whole empire. By it, Theodosius I established [[Nicene Christianity]] as the [[state church of the Roman Empire]]. The Latin text refers to the bishop of Rome, [[Pope Damasus I|Damasus]], as a ''pontifex'', and the bishop of Alexandria, [[Pope Peter II of Alexandria|Peter]], as an ''episcopus'':<ref>Unlike ''episcopus'' (from [[Greek language|Greek]] {{lang|grc|ἐπίσκοπος}}), the word used for the bishop from the Greek-speaking East, ''pontifex'' is a word of purely [[Latin]] derivation.</ref><blockquote>...&nbsp;the profession of that religion which was delivered to the Romans by the divine Apostle Peter, as it has been preserved by faithful tradition and which is now professed by the ''Pontiff'' Damasus and by Peter, ''Bishop'' of Alexandria ... We authorize the followers of this law to assume the title Catholic Christians&nbsp;...<ref>Theodosian Code XVI.1.2; and Sozomen, "Ecclesiastical History", VII, iv. {{cite web|author=Emperor Theodosius I|title=IMPERATORIS THEODOSIANI CODEX Liber Decimus Sextus|url=http://ancientrome.ru/ius/library/codex/theod/liber16.htm|access-date=2006-12-04|publisher=ancientrome.ru|format=web}}</ref></blockquote>Various forms of {{lang|la|summus pontifex}} ('highest pontiff' or bishop) were for centuries used not only of the Bishop of Rome but of other bishops also.<ref name=":0" /> [[Hilary of Arles]] (d. 449) is styled {{lang|la|summus pontifex}} by [[Eucherius of Lyon]] (''[[Patrologia Latina|P. L.]]'', vol. L, col. 773).

==== ''Pontifex inclytus'' ====
During Gratian's reign or immediately afterwards the phrase ''pontifex maximus'' – which had unwelcome associations with traditional Roman religion during the [[Christianization of the Roman Empire]] – was replaced in imperial titulature with the {{Langx|la|pontifex inclytus|label=phrase}}.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|last=Cameron|first=Alan|date=2007|title=The Imperial Pontifex|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/30032227|journal=Harvard Studies in Classical Philology|volume=103|pages=341–384|jstor=30032227|issn=0073-0688}}</ref> The first to adopt the ''inclytus'' alternative to ''maximus'' may have been the rebel ''augustus'' and devout Christian close to bishop [[Martin of Tours]], [[Magnus Maximus]] ({{Reign|383|388}}), who killed Gratian in August 383.<ref name=":1" />

This practice was followed by Gratian's junior co-emperor [[Theodosius the Great]] and was used by emperors thereafter, including the ''co''-''[[augusti]]'' [[Valentinian III]] ({{Reign|425|455}}), [[Marcian]] ({{Reign|450|457}}) and the ''augustus'' [[Anastasius Dicorus]] ({{Reign|491|518}}), for whom examples of official usage survive.<ref name=":1" /> Another inscription dedicated to [[Justin II]] ({{Reign|565|574}}) and naming him ''pontifex'' has long been recognized as a forgery, though there is no evidence to suggest the title could not have been used by [[Justinian the Great]] ({{Reign|527|565}}) or even by [[Constantine IV]] ({{Reign|654|685}}).<ref name=":1" />