It was in wide circulation during the Middle Ages and was used as the basis for the modern Roman Pontifical.

Roman Pontifical (Pontificale Romanum)

Pontifical may refer to the Roman Pontifical, a Roman Catholic liturgical book used by a bishop.

Roman Pontifical: the rites of confirmation and ordination, blessing of a church and altar, consecration to a life of virginity, etc.

The texts for the sacraments and ceremonies only performed by bishops, such as confirmation and Holy Orders, are contained within the Roman Pontifical.

For instance the Roman Pontifical continued to have until the Second Vatican Council a ceremony for the first shaving of a cleric's beard.

The ordinations in the ninth-century Manuscript are of the same mixed Roman and Gallican type, but are less developed than those of the modern Roman Pontifical.

The Roman Pontifical, in Latin the Pontificale Romanum, is the Latin Catholic liturgical book that contains the rites performed by bishops.

John IV's Coronation followed a pattern similar to the Coronation of the Kings of France and pre-reformation England, as laid out in the Roman Pontifical.

The address, with a varied end, and the collect (but not the Bidding Prayer), and the anointing of the hands with its formula are in the modern Roman Pontifical, but with very large additions.

The tradition of plain wedding bands worn by certain women religious and conferred upon them in the course of their solemn profession, according to the ritual provided in the Roman Pontifical is found in ancient tradition.

The use of the term to refer to bishops in general is reflected in the terms "Roman Pontifical" (a book containing rites reserved for bishops, such as confirmation and ordination), and "pontificals" (the insignia of bishops).

The Roman Pontifical gives an additional account, "The Liberian basilica, today called Saint Mary Major, was founded by Pope Liberius (352-366) and was restored and enlarged by Sixtus III.

Indeed, only those European coronation rituals which were directly modelled on the Roman imperial ritual, i.e., the papal coronation and the royal coronation ritual in the Roman Pontifical, also include such chanting of a Laudes.

The name given to the book containing the liturgical rites to be performed by any bishop, The Roman Pontifical, and to the form of liturgy known as Pontifical High Mass witness to the continued use of pontifex in this wide sense.

This special blessing for corporals and palls is alluded to even in the Celtic liturgical documents of the seventh century, and the actual form traditionally prescribed by the Roman Pontifical is found almost in the same words in the Spanish Liber Ordinum of about the same early date.