8vo): — Pelerinage du Calvaire sur le Mont Valerien (ibid. 1745, 12mo; 1751, 16mo; 1816, 12mo) :— Ulncre- dule detrompe et le Chretien ajjermi dans la Foi (1752, 8vo), a work which met with uncommon favor. — Hoe- fer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.
Ponte, Luis de, a Spanish Jesuit, noted as an as- cetic writer, was born at Valladolid Nov. 11, 1554. He belonged to a noble family, but renounced all the ad- vantages the world offered him, and at the age of twenty entered the Society of Jesus. He was during many years a teacher of philosophy and theology, but his failing health compelled him at last to monastical retirement. In his retreat he divided his time between prayer, good works, and the composition of pious writ- ings, by which he obtained throughout Europe the reputation of an excellent master of spiritual life. He died Feb. 17, 1624. Most of his numerous writings were translated into Latin by Melchior Trevinnia. We mention Meditaciones de los Mysterios de nuestra Santa Fe (Valladolid, 1605, 1613, 2 vols. 4to). This work was translated into several languages: into Arabic by F. Fromaye, and into French by F. Brignon (1613, 3 vols. 4to): — Guida Espiritual de la Oracion, Meditation, y Contemplacion (ibid. 1609, 4to) : — De la Perfeccion Cris- tiana (ibid. 1612-16, 4 vols. 4to):— Vida del I). Baltha- sar Alvarez (Madrid, 1615, 4to) : — Expositio moralis et mystica in Canticum Canticorum (Cologne, 1622, 2 vols, fob: Paris, 1646, fol.) : — Directorio Espiritual (Madrid, 1625, 8vo). He also wrote the first part of Vida Mara- villosa de Marina de Escobar (ibid. 1665, fob), which was finished and published by a member of his order, Miguel Orefia. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v. See Antonio, Bibliotheca Hispana Nova, s. v.
Pontianus, St., a pope of the 3d century, was a native of Rome, and descended from the gens Calpurnia, if we may believe the ancient writers. He succeeded Urban I in the pontificate in 230. Platina and others assert that he introduced the singing of psalms into the Church, but this custom must be older. The first years of his pontificate under Alexander Severus were quiet, but the persecutions commenced again under Maximi- nus, and Pontianus, together with a presbyter by the name of Hippolytus, suffered sentence of deportation to the usual place of exile, the island of Tavolato, near Sardinia, where he died from want and exposure, Sept. 28, 235. His body was carried to Rome by order of pope St. Fabian. Two epistles are falsely attributed to him. St An terns was his successor. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.; Platina. Viter Pott/ijietint, s. v.; Montor, Hist, des Papes (see Index) ; Milman, Hist, of Latin Christianity, i, 80.
Pontier, Gedeon, a French theologian, was born near Alais (Languedoc). near the middle of the 17th century. Though brought up in the Protestant com- munion, he embraced Roman Catholicism, entered the ecclesiastical state, and obtained the title of apostolic prothonotarv. He died at Paris in 1709, at an advanced age. He left, Le Cabinet, ou la Bibliotk'equt des Grands (1680-89, 3 vols. 12mo) ; the last volume contains in addition, Les Questions de la fritter .**<_■ Ilniriittt- </< la Guicke, Duchesse d'Angoulerm <t Comtessi d, Alais, sur toutes Sort's rh Sujt ts, art,- les Reponses ( L687, 12mo) : — Lettre de Saulx, Premier Eveque d' Alais (1696, 12mo), etc. La Bruvere gives a portrait of Pontier in his " Caracteres," under the name of Dioscurus, and makes very much of him. — Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generate, s. v.
Pontlfex (1), a priest among the ancient Romans. The pontifices were formed into a college, and all mat- ters of religion were placed under its exclusive super- intendence. Their functions and duties were minutely detailed in the pontifical books, which were drawn up in the reign of Numa Pompilius, and contained the names of the gods and the various regulations for their wor- ship, as well as a detailed description of the functions, rights, and privileges of the priests. The pontifices were not priests of any particular divinity, but of the
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worship of the goda generally. Their duties embraced the regulation of all the religious ritea and ceremonies (both public and private) of a Btate -e. ur. how the gods should be worshipped, how burials should be conducted, lmu the .-"ill- of the dead (manes) should be appeased. To them was intrusted the care of the calendar, the proclamation of festival days, etc. They also sav thai every n ligious and every judicial acl took place on the right day. "As they thus had." say- Hr. Mommsen, "an especial supervision of all religious observances, it was i" them in case of need (as on occasion of marriage, testament, or arrogatio) thai the preliminary question was addressed, whether the matter proposed did not, in any respect, offend against divine law." In matters of religion they were the supreme authorities; from their decisions there was no appeal, and they themselves were responsible neither to the senate nor the | pie; fur- ther, they had power to inflict punishment mi such priests as dared to disobey their injunctions and devi- ate into schismatics] courses. The words of Festus are: ■• I.Vnmi quae ad sacra el religiones pertinent,yHtfices et I India -•." The head of the college was called Pontifex . The pontiffs, according to Roman tradition, were instituted by N'unta — a mythical person, to whom the origin of nearly all tin- religious institutions of Koine is ascribed. Bui as they appear in all the Latin communities, they are regarded by Mommsen as a "thoroughly national Italian institution," and probably found a place in the earliest religious organization of the Latin race. Their number was originally four, or, including the poniifex maximus, five, all of whom were taken from the patricians. In B.C. 300, the Ogulnian Law raised the number to nine, four of whom were to be plebeians. The tir-t plebeian, however, who attained the dignity of poniifex maximus was Tib. Coruncanius, ]!.('. 254. Sulla, in B.I '. 81, again increased the number to fifteen, and Julius Caesar to sixteen. During the empire, the functions of pontifex maximus were generally discharged by the emperors themselves; and when at length the emperors dropped the name, it was picked up by the Christian bishops of Rome; and now this title, borrowed from a pagan cult, forms one of the sa- cr< 'I designations of his holiness the pope.