There were four great colleges of priests, but the College of Pontiffs was by far the most important. It contained all the pontiffs as well as the pontifex maximus, the rex sacrorum, and the flamines (the three maiores and twelve minores). The Vestal Virgins were closely associated with the College of Pontiffs, although they were not members of it.

Unlike the flamines, the pontiffs did not act in the name of a specific deity. Rather, they were public officials charged with the duty of keeping good relations between the gods and the state. They were not a "priestly caste" and (with the exception of the flamines) they did not dedicate their lives to religious observance.*

During the regal period, the pontiffs served as advisors (concilia) to the kings for matters relating to right relations with the gods. After the kings were ejected, the pontiffs performed the same function for the senate. The Regia, or king's royal palace, was the center of religious activities during the royal period and continued to host the activities of the pontiffs during the early republican period. This tends to indicate that the pontiffs were considered to replace the king in religious matters. (It might also mean that the early republic was a thrifty place and they did not want to let a good public building go to waste.)

The rex sacrorum performed the religious functions for which the king was responsible in his own person. However, there is no indication that the rex sacrorum was considered to exercise magical powers. For one thing, he was not surrounded by taboos as were the flamines.

The pontiffs exercised various functions. First, they gave instructions on the proper performance of all sacral acts and preserved the appropriate oral formulae. They oversaw activities in the comitia colata and they kept the calendar. The calendar was of particular importance because it set out the days on which the courts could be open, votes could be taken, sacrifices could be made, and also determined when the senate could issue decreta. During the royal period, they served as guardians of the pronouncements of the kings for both religious and secular matters.

A major responsibility of the pontiffs was the issuance of responsa--the deliverance of an opinion on the religious legality of a course of action. The opinion might relate to a past event, in which case the responsum was considered to be a judicial pronouncement. No action was taken by the pontiffs on these pronouncements. Responsa were declaratory only. The purpose was to set out the proper conduct of men to gods, and they were not followed by an execution of judgment (as would ordinarily be taken after a judicial pronouncement).

The responsum is an interesting legal concept and warrants a discussion in itself. Probably this is not the place!

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* Although the flamines were members of the College of Pontiffs, they were not "legal pontiffs" in the sense that they did not perform the general public functions of a pontiff. It is a confusing legal distinction that is sometimes meaningless in a historical discussion. Nevertheless, it is an important distinction in any religious discussion because the authority and function of the flamines and the pontiffs was not co-extensive. Thus, although one could say the flamines technically were "pontiffs" in the sense they belong to the College of Pontiffs, flamines were not "legal pontiffs."