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comparative more pontifical, superlative most pontifical
Of or pertaining to a pontiff.
Of or pertaining to a bishop; episcopal. examples
Of or pertaining to a pope; papal. examples
Pompous, dignified or dogmatic. examples
Splendid; magnificent. examples
Of or pertaining to the pontifices of Ancient Rome. examples
(chiefly poetic) Of or relating to the building or forming of bridges. quotations examples
Now had they brought the work by wondrous art / Pontifical, a ridge of pendent rock / Over the vexed abyss.
1667, John Milton, “Book IX”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […]; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873,
plural pontificals
A book containing the offices, or formulas, used by a pontiff. quotations examples
Both ordines are related to an ordo in a pontifical in Reims, the Ordo of 1200 (Ordo XIX). The latter was to be consulted again and again, and its formulas were to have a marked effect upon the French ceremony; […]
1995, Richard A. Jackson, Ordines coronationis Franciae […] , page 30
William Durandus, bishop of Mende in the south of France, compiled a pontifical in three books. William never intended his work to be a universal pontifical, but its clarity of arrangement and quality of substance, along with […]
2001, Leon F. Strieder, The Promise of Obedience: A Ritual History, page 32
If the editio princeps was an attempt to create an authoritative version of the pontifical, such was not yet attainable.
2007, Terence Bailey, Alma Colk Santosuosso, editors, Music in Medieval Europe […] , Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., page 199