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COLLEGE (Collegium)

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 687 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COLLEGE (Collegium) , in See also:Roman See also:law, a number of persons associated together by the See also:possession of See also:common functions,—a See also:body of colleagues. Its later meaning applied to any See also:union of persons, and collegium was the See also:equivalent of iratpeia. In many respects, e.g. in the distinction between the responsibilities and rights of the society and those of individual members thereof, the collegium was what we should now See also:call a See also:corporation (q.v.). Collegia might exist for purposes of See also:trade like the See also:English See also:gilds, or for religious purposes (e.g. the college of See also:augurs, of pontifices, &c.), or for See also:political purposes, e.g. tribunorum plebis collegia. By the Roman law a collegium must have at least three members. The name is now usually applied to educational corporations, such as the colleges of See also:Oxford and See also:Cambridge, with which, in the numerous English statutes See also:relating to colleges, the colleges of See also:Winchester and See also:Eton are usually associated. These colleges are in the See also:eye of the law eleemosynary corporations. In some of the earlier statutes of See also:Queen See also:Elizabeth they are spoken of as having an ecclesiastical See also:character, but the See also:doctrine of the common law since the See also:Reformation has been that they are purely See also:lay corporations, notwithstanding that most or all of their members may be persons in See also:priest's orders. This is said to have been settled by Dr See also:Patrick's See also:case (See also:Raymond's Reports, p. 'of). Colleges appear to have grown out of the voluntary association of students and teachers at the university. According to some accounts these must at one See also:time have been numerous and flourishing beyond anything we are now acquainted with.

We are told, for example, of 300 halls or See also:

societies at Oxford, and 30,000 students. In See also:early times there seems to have been a strong See also:desire to confine the scholars to certain licensed houses beyond the See also:influence of the townspeople. Men of See also:wealth and culture, and notably the political bishops and chancellors of See also:England, obtained charters from the See also:crown for the See also:incorporation of societies of scholars, and these in time became exclusively the places of See also:abode for students attending the university. At the same time the corporations thus founded were not necessarily attached to the locality of the university. The early statutes of Merton College, for example, allow the See also:residence of the college to be shifted as occasion required; and the See also:foundations of See also:Wolsey at Oxford and See also:Ipswich seem to have been the same in intention. In later times (until the introduction of non-collegiate students) the university and the colleges became coextensive; every member of the university had to attach himelf to some college or See also:hall, and every See also:person admitted to a college or hall was obliged to matriculate himself in the university. In Ayliffe's See also:Ancient and See also:Present See also:State of the University of Oxford it is stated that a college must be " made up of three persons (at least) joined in community. And the See also:reason of this almost seems to speak its own See also:necessity, without the help of any See also:express law to countenance it: because among two persons only there cannot be, in fact, a See also:major See also:part; and then if any disagreement should happen to arise between them it cannot be, in fact, brought to a conclusion by such a number alone in case both the parties should ' firmly adhere to their dissenting opinions; and thus it is declared by the See also:civil law. But by the See also:canon law it is known to be other-See also:wise; for by that law two persons in number may make and constitute a college, forasmuch as according to this law two persons make and constitute an See also:assembly or See also:congregation. The common law of England, or rather the See also:constant usage of our princes in erecting aggregate bodies,which has established this See also:rule among us as a law, has been herein agreeable to the method and doctrine of the civil law, for that in all their grants and charters of incorporation of colleges they have not framed any aggregate body consisting of less than three in number." Another principle, apparently derived from the civil law, is that a See also:man cannot be a See also:fellow in two colleges at the same time. The law of England steadily resisted any See also:attempt to introduce the principle of in-equality into colleges. An See also:act of 1542, reciting that See also:divers founders of colleges have given in their statutes a See also:power of See also:veto to individual members, enacts that every See also:statute made by any such founder, whereby the See also:grant or See also:election of the See also:governor or ruler with the assent of the most part of such corporation should be in any wise hindered by any one or more being the lesser number (contrary to the common law), shall be void.

The corporation consists of a See also:

head or See also:master, See also:fellows and scholars. Students, not being on the See also:foundation, residing in the college, are not considered to be members of the corporation. The governing body in all cases is the head and fellows. It is considered essential to corporations of an ecclesiastical or educational character that they should have a Visitor whose See also:duty it is to see that the statutes of the founder are obeyed. The duties of this officer have been ascertained by the courts of law in a See also:great variety of decided cases. Subject to such restrictions as may be imposed on him by the statutes of the college, his duties are generally to interpret the statutes of the college in disputed cases, and to enforce them where they have been violated. For this purpose he is empowered to " visit " the society—usually at certain stated intervals. In questions within his See also:jurisdiction his See also:judgment is conclusive, but his jurisdiction does not extend to any cases under the common See also:laws of the See also:country, or to See also:trusts attached to the college. Generally the visitorship resides in the founder and his heirs unless he has otherwise appointed, and in See also:default of him in the crown. The fellowships, scholarships, &c., of colleges were until a comparatively See also:recent date subject to various restrictions. See also:Birth in a particular See also:county, See also:education at a particular school, relationship to the founder and See also:holy orders, are amongst the most usual of the conditions giving a preferential or conclusive claim to the emoluments. Most of these restrictions have been or are being swept away.

(See See also:

UNIVERSITIES; OXFORD; See also:CAM-See also:BRIDGE; &C.) The See also:term " college " (like " See also:academy ") is also applied to various institutions, e.g. to colleges of physicians and surgeons, and to the electoral college in the See also:United States presidential elections, &c. For the Sacred College see See also:CARDINAL.

End of Article: COLLEGE (Collegium)

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COLLEONI, BARTOLOMMEO (1400-1475)

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