PONTIFICAL. - This is the liturgical book that contains the description (rubrics) and the formulas of the functions normally reserved to the bishop (*pontifex*). As a separate book, it does not appear before the 8th century, nor is its name consistent. It was called *Ordinale* or *Ordinalis liber* (from the Ordinations, one of the main functions described), *Mittrale* (Sacro da Cremona, 13th century), *Benedictionale*, *Pontificalis ordinis liber* (Durandus), *Pontificalis liber* (1485), *Pontificale Romanum* (1596). Its history is relatively recent, and, after the studies of P. Batiffol, P. De Puniet, V. JALABERT, LOUIS, and the critical edition of the medieval Pontificals by M. Andrieu, its development can be traced with certainty.
I. EARLY ELEMENTS (1st–4th centuries)
These belong to the pre-liturgical stage of the pontifical and consist of the benedictional formulas scattered fragmentarily in early Christian writers. For several centuries at the outset, worship revolved around a single rite, the celebration of the Eucharist. Around it and connected with it, in linear fashion, unfolded the various consecrations and blessings, even the most solemn ones reserved to the *pontifex*, vested in the fullness of the priesthood, namely the *episcopus*, head of the Christian community. Thus, Confirmation, Ordination, episcopal consecration, solemn blessings of persons and things. Traces of such rites are found in New Testament writings or shortly thereafter, such as those of Tertullian, Justin, Cyprian, Hippolytus, Cyril of Jerusalem, in Book VIII of the Apostolic Constitutions, in the Eucology of Sarapion, in the *Testamentum Domini*. Eusebius speaks of the dedication of churches. To the same period dates the blessing of holy oils. In 450 Marcian is crowned emperor by the Patriarch of Constantinople. The blessing of abbots and abbesses, however, is later (6th century).II. SOURCES (5th–8th centuries)
A true written tradition, at least for the formulas, begins in the 5th–6th centuries with the first Western collections of euchologia. Naturally, the formulas most commonly used were fixed in the *codex* or on the *rotulus*. For the Latin liturgy, the earliest significant documents are the Sacramentaries, which gather the formulas reserved to the celebrant. The so-called *Leonine Sacramentary*, the oldest type, contains the formulary for the Mass of dedication, the consecration of bishops, the *ordination of deacons* and priests, the consecration of virgins (*ad virgines sacras*), and the solemn blessing of spouses (*velatio nuptialis*). This list grows longer still in the *Gelasian Sacramentary*, the official *liber Missae* of the Roman Church. Gregory the Great (d. 604) reformed this Sacramentary, *multa subtrahens*, *pauca convertens*, *nonnulla superadiciens* (*Vita Gregorii*, II, 17; PL 75, 94). The *Gregorian Sacramentary*---
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Pontifical – Roman Pontifical of the 14th century – Boulogne-sur-Mer, Municipal Library, ms. 86, fol. 2.
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The Pontifical of St Albano, dating from shortly after 950. The original has been lost, but copies survive in Germany, Italy and France. The elements of which it is composed are extremely heterogeneous. Sometimes the two sources are fused and the Roman rubrics are inserted and mingled in an elaborate ceremonial, where the symbolism so dear to medieval Gallican liturgists is displayed. The compiler, a monk, left it untitled. M. Andrieu has suggested calling it the Romano-German Pontifical of the 10th century, a name which well indicates its composite nature, its country of origin and its date. The same scholar is now preparing a critical edition. The Mainz Pontifical enjoyed rapid diffusion, favoured by the political conditions of the time. After the restoration of the Empire (962) many German prelates, following the imperial court or placed at the head of Italian and French dioceses, brought copies of the Pontifical with them. Even Rome adopted it around the year 1000, replacing its own liturgical books and thus bringing about an irreparable breach with its pure and venerable tradition. Throughout the 11th century German influence was considerable. The four German popes of that period certainly used the Mainz Pontifical. Other copies were made in Germany and at Rome. The text remained common, but local variations multiplied. The Roman clergy thus came to know many different editions of this book. With Gregory VII (1073–85) the period ended in which “Teutonicis concessum est regimen nostrae Ecclesiae” (M. Andrieu, *Les Ordines Romani*, I, pp. 526–45). The influx of liturgical books from the north also ceased, but those already in existence were not suppressed; they were merely adapted more closely to local usage. Thus there arose an entire Roman family of Pontificals, all based on the Mainz Pontifical but exhibiting a whole gamut of variations according to the taste of the copyists and the bishops for whom the copies were made. The criteria by which these variations were introduced may be reduced to two: a) a desire to abridge and to include only what was useful (ancient Roman *Ordines*, the consecration of a king, didactic treatises, rituals of excommunication, exorcisms and Masses against demoniacs, series of Masses for the dead, long series of blessings, and ordeal rituals were therefore omitted); b) the *Ordines* that were retained were reproduced not in their primitive form but in the abridged versions that had entered Rome. Thus for episcopal election and consecration, which at Rome had a distinctive character owing to the pope’s presence, and for ordinations, likewise performed by the pope himself. As for the papal functions that took place during the various solemnities of the year, the Roman copyists took local colour into account (stations, basilicas, usages of the papal court). By the 12th century the Roman Pontifical was substantially an episcopal Pontifical, but with modifications that gave it a distinctly papal character.
At the beginning of the 13th century there appeared another Pontifical whose archetype was composed during the pontificate of Innocent III (1198–1216). Andrieu, by analogy with the *Missale secundum consuetudinem et usum Romanae Curiae* diffused at the same period, calls it the *Pontificale secundum consuetudinem et usum Romanae Curiae*. Three recensions are known: the first (Andrieu’s recension a) is the base recension; the second (recension b) appears in the mid-13th century and is the work of a Roman liturgist who made notable additions to recension a, especially expanding the description of papal ceremonies; the third (recension c) is still the first recension, into which copyists inserted appropriate updates, first in the margins as marginalia and later, more fully, into the text. All three families coexisted throughout the 13th century. In the 14th century, however, the longer recension (b) decisively prevailed over the other two. Just then a rival appeared: the *Pontificale* of William Durand. William Durand, bishop of Mende (d. 1296; v.), between 1293 and 1295 composed a Pontifical for his own use, in which, however, his intention to be of service also to other churches and to Rome itself is clear; he had in fact introduced rites and ceremonies proper to metropolitans and to the Supreme Pontiff. Durand thus envisaged a Pontifical for universal use.
Essentially Durand’s Pontifical was the Curial Pontifical (long recension) with two operations performed upon it: rites that could not serve outside Rome were removed, and others were added to make it a convenient and complete directory for episcopal functions. Some chapters were omitted, others introduced anew. The material was divided into three books (common practice among 13th-century theologians and canonists) and arranged by subject: I. *De personarum benedictionibus et consecratione*; II. *Consecrationes et benedictiones rerum*; III. *Quaedam ecclesiastica officia* (see full description of these parts in P. De Puniet [bibl.], I, pp. 52–54). This arrangement and various particular features were subsequently adopted in the Pontifical and have remained there ever since. Durand’s Pontifical enjoyed great success. It was the *Liber Pontificalis* par excellence, soon adorned with the title “authentic” (= official). The inscription on Durand’s tomb, *Patrum Pontificale*, shows how faithfully he adhered to tradition. For this reason his work was highly esteemed even in Rome, where Clement V (1305–14) cited it as an authority. Innocent VIII (1484–92) wished to extend it as the official book of the whole Latin Church and commissioned Agostino Patrizi Piccolomini, bishop of Pienza (d. 1496), already master of ceremonies to Paul II, to revise it and prepare a correct text for printing. The rubrical part was entrusted to the papal master of ceremonies Giovanni Burckard (d. 1506), author of the *Ordo servandus in celebratione Missarum*. The revised Pontifical appeared in 1485, preceded by a letter from Patrizi to Innocent VIII explaining the reasons and method of the edition (text in De Puniet, I, pp. 67–68; cf. also pp. 56–58). A second, improved edition was published in 1497 under the care of Giacomo de Lutii and Burckard. Other editions appeared at Venice and Lyons in 1511, “perpulchris characteribus diligentissime annotatum.” This is the so-called *Pontificale Iulii II*. The Dominican Alberto Castellani republished it with corrections and additions in 1520. It was the most popular edition of the 16th century. Frequently reprinted, it served as the basis for the Pontifical officially extended to the universal Church in 1596 under the title *Pontificale Romanum*.
BIBL.:
M. Andrieu, *Les Ordines Romani du haut moyen âge*, I–V, Louvain 1931–1961.
P. De Puniet, *Le Pontifical romain*, I–II, Paris 1910–1919.
IV. The *Pontificale Romanum* (16th–20th centuries)
The *Pontificale Romanum* was promulgated by the apostolic constitution *Ex quo in Ecclesia Dei* of 10 February 1596 by Clement VIII, which at the same time abrogated all other *Pontificalia* in use: “By this Motu proprio we suppress and abolish all and each of the Pontificals printed and approved up to this day in any part of the world.” Even the most ancient rites, which preserved distinctive features in the Mass and the Office, adopted the *Pontificale*. Such was the case with the Ambrosian rite (cf. G. Mercati, *Antiche reliquie liturgiche ambrosiane e romane* [Studi e testi, 7, Rome 1902, p. 7]), the Braga rite, which had the so-called *Pontificale* of St Gerald (cf. A. de Vasconcelos, *Notas liturgico-bracarenses*, in *Opus Dei*, 5 [1930–31], pp. 21–28, 46–54; cf. also *Jahrbuch für Liturgiewissenschaft*, 10 [1930], p. 237). The Christians of the Syro-Malabar rite use the *Pontificale* translated into Syriac (J. Vosté, *Projet d’édition du Pontifical des Syriens Orientaux*, in *Ephemerides liturgicae. Analecta*, 53 [1939], p. 3).
The *Pontificale* was republished by Urban VIII on 17 June 1644 in the constitution *Quamvis alias*. Typographical errors were naturally eliminated, but the text remained intact and has remained unchanged to this day. Benedict XIII, to facilitate the performance of the more difficult ceremonies of the *Pontificale*, prepared a new edition, adding various illustrations but leaving the text unaltered; when he wished to introduce the imposition of hands in the rite of Confirmation, he appended a special rubric. Benedict XIV, by the apostolic letter *Quam ardentii studio* of 25 March 1752, promulgated the new edition of the *Pontificale*, the *Rituale*, and the *Cerimoniale Episcoporum*.
The last typical edition, prepared in 1888 at Regensburg by order of Leo XIII, altered the chant, corrected the orthography, and added accents. Pius XI in 1931 intended to reform the *Pontificale*. To this end he appointed a commission presided over by the Benedictine abbot H. Quentin, but various difficulties—above all the lack of critical editions of the earliest *Pontificalia*, which Andrieu was then preparing—brought the undertaking to a standstill; thus the need arose
BIBL.:
G. Mercati, *Antiche reliquie liturgiche ambrosiane e romane* (Studi e testi, 7), Rome 1902.
A. de Vasconcelos, *Notas liturgico-bracarenses*, in *Opus Dei*, 5 (1930–31).
J. Vosté, *Projet d’édition du Pontifical des Syriens Orientaux*, in *Ephemerides liturgicae. Analecta*, 53 (1939).