wall are a number of smaller temples. A visit to these temples is enjoined upon a Hindu as one of the most important acts in the ritual of his religion, and year after year this Mecca is resorted to by representatives from every section of the country. See the literature quoted under the article Jaggernaut. (J. H. W.)
Poor Men's Box is a chest put up usually at the church entrance for the deposit of alms (q. v.). It is found on the continent of Europe not only in the churches, but also in the synagogues. In England the Poor Men's Box (uniculus, pyxis ad oblationes faciendas) is a box affixed near the high-altar, and was introduced there by archbishop Cranmer, to serve in lieu of pilgrim- age. In 1559 it was enjoined in every church in Eng- land. As architectural specimens, many of these " boxes" are a curiosity. Thus there is a curious alms-box in St. Helen's, Bishopsgate, supported by the figure of a men- dicant, and another at Outwell, with a grinning mouth. The idea for the style of these boxes was probably de- rived from such objects as the bracket of the 15th cen- tury adjoining the tomb of Edward II at Gloucester, and the oaken box with a slit for alms used at St. Rich- ard's shrine at Chichester, which is of the 16th century, although the iron-work dates back three hundred years earlier. There is a wooden alms-box of the 14th cen- tury at Fribourg. There is a stone box at Bridlington. A flasket or box of wood for collecting alms is mentioned in England in the 17th century. At Selby there is a chest made out of the bole of a single tree. In 1292 such hutches were forbidden at Chichester, as the obla- tions hitherto made at the altar were placed in them. At St. David's, two centuries ago, old people could re- member having seen basinfuls of oblations made by sea- men and passengers. See Walcott, Saci-ed A rcha;ulogy, s. v.
Poor of Lyons. See Waldenses.
Poor Pilgrims, an order that started up in the year 1500. They came out of Italy into Germany bare- footed and bareheaded, feeding all the week, except on Sundays, upon herbs and roots sprinkled with salt. They remained not above twenty-four hours in a place. They went by couples, begging from door to door. This penance they undertook voluntarily — some for three, others for five or seven years, as they pleased, and then returned home to their callings. See Wal-
DEXSES.
Poor Priests were those of the Lollards who in the 14th and 15th centuries wandered about the country holding what are called in modern times "missions" wherever they pleased, without any cure of souls being given to them, or license by the bishop of the diocese. The name poor seems to show an association of idea with the Pauperes Catholici (q. v.), or the Poor of Lyons.
Pope. Having treated in the article Papacy of the rise and development of the papal dignity and power, we shall speak in the present article of the per- sonal attributes of the incumbent of the Roman see.
I. The Title. — The word pope is derived from the Latin papa, Greek Trcnnrac, and meansfather. While the Greek word was used in the Greek Church to desig- nate both bishops and priests, and has gradually come to be reserved for the priests exclusively, the Latin term was for several centuries a title applied to all bish- ops, and was finally reserved for the bishops of Rome. As far as is known, bishop Siricius, in the 4th century, was the first to use the word as a title. After the 5th century it came into more general use, and after the 7th it gradually disappeared from ecclesiastical language for every ecclesiastical dignity except that of the bishop of Rome. It was expressly made the exclusive prerog- ative of the Roman bishops by Gregory VII. In a like manner several other titles, which at first were applied to the bishops of the principal seats, such as apostolicus, dominus apostolicus, sedes apostolica, were gradually mo- nopolized by the bishops of Rome. The designation
popp;
404
POPE
tervut eervorum Dei was i i r - r used by Gregory 1, and though occasionally also bishops, priests, and emperors adopted it,il likewise remained in the curse of time the prerogative of the popes. During the 8th and the following centuries i: was common to call the bishop <>f
Rome vicorim Petri. The expressio •curs in the
Pseudo-Isidorian Decretals, in the oath which was taken in 722 by Boniface to Gregory II. in the oath taken by Gregory VII to the king of Germany, in the conclusion between Alexander III and the emperor Fred- erick Barbarossa; but from the time of Innocent III. when the power of the popes had become more absolute, the vicaruu Petri gave way to the vicarius Christi. The title Sanciitas tva or Beatitude tua, which came into use in the 3d or Ith century, the pope shares even now with the bishops of the Eastern I Jhurch. It is ac- corded to him even by Protestant governments. (See Brit, and For. Ev. Rev. dan. 1866, p. 18 sq.)
II. Rights and Functions.— 1. Pi rsonalPrt rogatives. The rights claimed by the popes within the Roman Catholic Church, and accorded to them by the bishops, priests, and laity of the Church, have of course great!} varied according to the degrees of power which the in-