Definition of "pontifex" []

• A man on the highest council of priests in ancient Rome. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In this position he exerted great influence, first over the emperor Gratian (who revoked the edict of toleration, dropped the title pontifex maximus, confiscated the revenues of the Vestal Virgins and other priesthoods in Rome, and removed the Altar of Victory from the senate house), then over Valentinian II (whose denial in 384 of Symmachus's request to restore the Altar of Victory was due to Ambrose), and finally over Theodosius."
• "In the first four centuries C.E., authority in the Church rested in: (1) the emperor, who continued to take the title pontifex maximus and to exercise a prominent role in religious affairs."
• "Bruno uses the term pontifex a scant nine times in a document some 7200 words long."