College (canon law)

A college, in the canon law of the Roman Catholic Church, is a collection (Latin collegium) of persons united together for a common object so as to form one body. The members are consequently said to be incorporated, or to form a corporation.

Colleges existed among the Romans and Greeks from the earliest times. The Roman laws required at least three persons for constituting a college. Legal incorporation was made, at least in some cases, by decrees of the Senate, edicts of the emperor, or by special laws. There were, however, general laws under which colleges could be formed by private persons, and if the authorities judged that the members had conformed to the letter and spirit of these laws, they had incontestable rights as collegia legitima; if the requisites were not adhered to they could be suppressed by administrative act.

The Colleges could hold property in common and could sue and be sued. In case of failure this common property could be seized, but that of the individual members was not liable to seizure. The Roman collegium was never instituted as a corporation sole; still, when reduced to one member, that individual succeeded to all the rights of the corporation and could employ its name.

Colleges were formed among the ancient Romans for various purposes. Some of these had a religious object, as the college of the Arval Brothers, of the Augurs, etc.; others were for administrative purposes, as of quæstors, tribunes of the people; others again were trade unions or guilds, as the colleges of bakers, carpenters.

The early Roman Christians are said to have sometimes held church property during times of persecution under the title of collegium.

Most of the prescriptions of the ancient civil law were received into the church law and they are incorporated in the Corpus Juris Canonici. By canonists, a college has been defined as a collection of several rational bodies forming one representative body. Some authors consider "university" and "community" as synonymous terms with college, but others insist that there are points of difference. Thus, there are canonists who define university as a collection of bodies distinct from one another, but employing the same name specially conferred upon them. Pirhing remarks that a community of priests attached to the same church do not form a college unless they are members of one body whose head is a prelate elected by that body.

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