College

College (Lat. collegium, 'a collection or assemblage'). In its Roman signification, a college signified any association of persons for a specific purpose, and was in many cases practically what we call a corporation. It required also to be incorporated by some sort of public authority, springing either from the senate or the emperor. A college could not consist of fewer than three persons, according to the well-known maxim, 'three make a college' (Dig. 50, tit. 16, l. 85). Some of these colleges were for purely mercantile purposes, but there were others which had religious objects in view, such as the colleges of pontifices and augurs, &c., and some were political, as the colleges of the tribunes of the plebs. With us, a college is an incorporation, company, or society of persons joined together generally for literary or scientific purposes, and frequently possessing peculiar or exclusive privileges. See PHYSICIANS (COLLEGE OF), SURGEONS (COLLEGE OF), HERALDS' COLLEGE. Very often in England a college is an endowed institution connected with a university, having for its object the promotion of learning. In this relation a college is a sub corporation—i.e. a member of the body known as the university. For a more detailed account of college in this sense, see UNIVERSITY, OXFORD, CAMBRIDGE. In Scotland and in America the distinction between the college as the member and the university as the body has been lost sight of; and we consequently hear of colleges granting degrees, a function which in the English and in the original European view of the matter belonged exclusively to the university. Where there is but one college in a university, as is the case in Edinburgh and Glasgow universities, the two bodies are of course identical. Trinity College, Dublin, is practically the university. Owens College is a branch of the Victoria University. University College is a very usual name for recently founded institutions for the higher learning in the United Kingdom. Some of the public schools are colleges, and many secondary schools are so called. Theological schools often bear this name, which is sometimes given to a hospital. In Germany there are no colleges in the English sense. In France the name of college is sometimes given to the local branches of the University of France (q.v.); as also to a school, corresponding, however, more to the Gymnasium (q.v.) of Germany than to the grammar-school of this country. The principal colleges have articles under special heads; see KING'S COLLEGE, UNIVERSITY COLLEGE (LONDON).