Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 19, PHY-PRO

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forces, and one by tlie Royalists. After its capitulation to
Lambert in March 1649 it was dismantled. Below the
castle is All Saints church, which suffered severely during
the siege of the castle, but still retains some work of the
12th century. In 1837 the tower and transepts were
fitted up for divine service. The church of St Giles,
formerly a chapel of ease to All Saints, but made parochial
in the 18th century, is of Norman date, but most of the
present structure is modern. The 17th-century spire was
removed in 1707, and replaced by a square tower, which
was rebuilt in 1797 ; the chancel was rebuilt in 1869.
In Southgate is an ancient hermitage- and oratory cut out
of the solid rock, which dates from 1396. On St Thomas’s
Hill, where Thomas, earl of Lancaster, was beheaded in
1322, a chantry was erected in 1373, the site of which
is now occupied by a windmill built of its stones. At
Monkhill there are the remains of a Tudor building called
the Old Hall, probably constructed out of the old priory
of St John’s. A grammar school of ancient foundation,
renewed by Queen Elizabeth and by George III., is now
in abeyance. The town-hall was built in 1796 on the site
of one erected in 1656, which succeeded the old moot-hall,
dating from Saxon times. Among other buildings are the
court-house, the market-hall, the assembly rooms (a hand¬
some building adjoining the town-hall), and the dispensary.
The principal alms-house, that of St Nicholas, dates from
Saxon times. Trinity Hospital. was founded in the 14th
century by the celebrated Sir Robert Knolles. There are
extensive gardens and nurseries in the neighbourhood, and
liquorice is largely grown for the manufacture of the cele¬
brated Pomfret cakes. The town possesses iron found¬
ries, sack and matting manufactories, tanneries, breweries,
corn mills, and brick and terra-cotta works. The popula¬
tion of the municipal borough (extended in 1875) in 1871
was 6432, and in 1881 it was 8798, the population of the
parliamentary borough (area 7316 acres) in the same years
being 11,563 and 15,322. The increase is mainly due to
the fact that Pontefract is now a military centre.
There are indications that the Romans were stationed near the
present town, which adjoins the Ermine Street. In Domesday it
is called Tateshale, and is said previously to have been held by the
king (Edward the Confessor). It then possessed a church and
priest, one fishery, and three mills. Subsequently it is mentioned
as Kirkby. Of the cause of the change of the name to Pontefract
various unsatisfactory explanations are given. According to one
account it was because when William advanced to the conquest of
the north his passage was delayed by a broken bridge (but this was
at Ferrybridge, 3 miles off); according to a second the name was
bestowed on it by its Norman possessor from Pontfrete in Nor¬
mandy (which, however, never existed); and according to a third
the name perpetuates the remarkable preservation from drowning
of those who fell into the river when the concourse of people made
the bridge give way on the arrival of St William of Canterbury in
1153 (although all contemporary historians call the place Ponte¬
fract when Archbishop Thurstan died there in 1140). The town
received a charter from Roger de Lacy in 1194, and was incorpor¬
ated in the time of Richard III. As early as 1297 it returned two
members to parliament; but there was a long discontinuance in the
14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The practice was revived under
James I. The “redistribution” measure of 1885 deprives it of
one of its members. The municipal borough is divided info three
wards, and is governed by six aldermen and eighteen councillors.
PONTEVEDRA, a maritime province of Spain, is
bounded on the N. by Coruna, on the E. by Lugo and
Orense, on the S. by Portugal (Entre Douro e Minho), and
on the W. by the Atlantic, and has an area of 1739 square
miles. The general character of the province is hilly, with
a deeply indented coast; its products are those common
to all Galicia (q.v.), of which historical province it formed
a part. The population in 1877 was 451,946, the
municipalities with a population over 10,000 being La
Estrada (23,528), Lalin (16,217), Lavadores (13,658),
Pontevedra (noticed below), Puenteareas (14,566), Redon-
dela (10,073), Silleda (13,346), Tomino ( 11,150), Tuy
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(11,710), and Vigo (13,416). Vigo is connected by rail
with Tuy and Orense, and the line from Santiago to
Vigo is open as far as to Carril.
PONTEVEDRA, capital of the above province, and an
episcopal see, is a picturesque old granite-built town,
pleasantly situated at the head of the Ria de Pontevedra,
where the Lerez is spanned by the old Roman bridge
(whence the name—pons vetus). The inhabitants engage
in agriculture, sardine fishing, and the manufacture of
cloth and hats.. The population of the municipality in
1877 was 19,857.
PONTIANAK. See Borneo.
PONTIFEX. The principal college of priests in ancient
Rome consisted of the pontifices, the rex sacrorum, and the
flamines, under the headship of the pontifex maximus.
The rex sacrorum was the functionary who under the
republic succeeded to the sacrificial duties which in old
time had been performed by the king; the Jiamines were
sacrificial priests of particular gods, the most important
being the flamen Dialis, or priest of Jupiter, whose wife,
the Jlaminica Dialis, was priestess of Juno. The p>ontijices
on the other hand were not assigned to the service of
particular gods, but performed general functions of the
state religion; and their head, the pontifex maximus, was
the highest religious authority in the state. For, while
the rex sacrorum succeeded to the liturgical functions of
the king, it was the pontifex maximus who inherited the
substance of power in sacred things; the other members
of the college were his counsellors and helpers, but no
more. It is probable that there was no supreme pontifex
under the kings, but that in accordance with the general
rule that sacred officers went in threes, following the
number of the old tribes, the king sat as sixth and chief
among the five pontifices whom Numa is said to have
instituted. The functions of pontifex maximus were indeed
too weighty to be discharged by a subject in a monarchical
government, and from Augustus to Gratian (382 a.d.) this
supreme priesthood was held by the emperors in person.
The original idea of the pontificate is as obscure as the
name; it is by no means certain that pontifex means
bridge-maker (as the commonest etymology has it) with
reference to the duty of maintenance of the sacred
Sublician bridge, for there were pontifices from of old in
other parts of Italy. Marquardt conjectures that the
name originally denoted atoning functions, from the same
root as appears in purus, poena. In historical times the
pontificesh&di a very extended sphere of duties, and claimed
to possess professional “ knowledge of things human and
divine.” The supreme pontiff was in the religion of the
state what the father was in the religion of the family.
His dwelling was in the regia close to the altar of Vesta,
the sacred hearth of the state; and the most sacred
objects of national worship, the penates publici and tne
mysterious palladia of Roman sovereignty, were his special
care. The flamens and vestal virgins were appointed by
him and stood under his paternal power, and the stated
service of their cults, as well as those exercises of public
religion for which no special priests were provided, were
under his charge or that of the college in which he pre¬
sided. The pontiffs, moreover, supplied technical guidance
and help in those religious functions in which the senate
or magistrates had the first part; while the charge of the
calendar with its complicated intercalation and system of
feast days gave them an important influence on affairs of
civil life. The control of the calendar is closely connected
with the duties pertaining to the pontifical archives, which,
besides a mass of ritual directions and the like, embraced
the calendars of past years (including the fasti consulares)
and the annales maximi or annual chronicle of public
events. Further the pontiffs had the weighty function of