Pontif, or High priest, a person who has the superintendence and direction of divine worship, as the offering of sacrifices and other religious solemnities. The Romans had a college of pontiffs; and over these a sovereign pontiff, or pontifex maximus, instituted by Numa, whose function it was to preside over the ceremonies each god was to be worshipped withal, compose the rituals, direct the vestals, and for a good while to perform the business of augury, till, on some superstitious occasion, he was prohibited intermeddling therewith. The office of the college of pontiffs was to assist the high-priest in giving judgment in all causes relating to religion, inquiring into the lives and manners of the inferior priests, and punishing them if they saw occasion, &c. The Jews too had their pontiffs; and among the Romans, the pope is still styled the sovereign pontiff.