POPE, an ecclesiastical title now used in the West exclusively to designate the head of the Roman Catholic Church. In the 4th and sth centuries it was frequently used by any bishop (Du Cange, s.v.) ; but it gradually came to be reserved to the bishop of Rome, becoming official. In the East, the title became restricted to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Con stantinople, but is still given by popular usage to priests. Even in the case of the sovereign pontiff the word pope is officially only used as a less solemn style : though the ordinary signature and heading of briefs is, e.g., "Pius P.P.X.," the signature of bulls is Pius episcopus ecclesiae catholicae, and the heading, Pius episco pus, servus servorum Dei, this latter formula going back to the time of St. Gregory the Great. Other styles met with in official documents are Pontifex, Summits pontifex, Romanus pontifex, Sanctissimus, Sanctissimus pater, Sanctissimus dominos noster, Sanctitas sua, Beatissimus pater, Beatitudo sua; while the pope is addressed in speaking as "Sanctitas vestra," or "Beatissime pater." Jurisdiction.—The pope is pre-eminently, as successor of St. Peter, bishop of Rome. Writers are fond of viewing him as representing all the degrees of the ecclesiastical hierarchy; they say that he is bishop of Rome, metropolitan of the Roman prov ince, primate of Italy, patriarch of the Western Church and head of the universal Church. This is strictly correct, but, with the exception of the first and last, these titles are seldom to be found in documents. And if these terms were intended to indicate so many degrees in the exercise of jurisdiction they would not be cor rect. As a matter of fact, from the earliest centuries (cf. can. 6 of Nicaea, in 325), we see that the popes exercised a special metro politan jurisdiction not only over the bishops nearest to Rome, the future cardinal bishops, but also over all those of central and southern Italy, including Sicily (cf. Duchesne, Origines du culte,
ch. 1), all of whom received their ordination at his hands. North ern Italy and the rest of the western Church, still more the eastern Church, did not depend upon him so closely for their administra tion. His influence was exercised, however, not only in dogmatic questions but in matters of discipline, by means of appeals, peti tions and consultations, not forgetting to mention spontaneous intervention.