fcriptions, have, without much propriety, been, uniformly, in the books of English law, called corporations; and from hence, corporations have been diftributed into two general claffes; corporations fole, and corporations aggregate of many (a); the defcription of each of these two claffes, and the distinction between them, will be sufficiently understood from what has been already said, as will also, one general division of fole corporations into two kinds; those, where the perfon so denominated, has a corporate capacity for his own benefit; and those, where he acts only as a trustee for the benefit of others: of the first kind, those best known, and most commonly enumerated, are the King, archbishops, bishops, certain deans, and prebendaries, all_archdeacons, parsons, and vicars; and of the fame kind were chauntry priests, in the times of Popish superstition (b); of the fecond kind, the most familiar inftance is the chamberlain of the city of London, who may take a recognizance to himself and fucceffors, in his politic capacity, in truft for the orphans (c). BEFORE the diffolution of monafteries, corporations aggregate, were divided into the two claffes of corporations aggregate of many perfons capable, and corporations aggregate of one perfon (a) Co. Lit. 250, a. (b) Vid. 10 Co. 27, a, b. 28, a. 4 Co. 65. Cro. El. 464. capable, capable, and the reft incapable or dead in law (a). A mafter and fellows, or a mafter and scholars of a college (b), and a dean and chapter, are examples of the former kind; an abbot and monks, and a prior and monks, were examples of the latter: thofe of the former muft fue and be fued by their aggregate name; but the abbot alone, or the prior alone, might fue and be sued alone in right of his houfe: Thus, when an abbot and convent were feifed of land, and were afterwards diffeifed of it, the abbot might have an affize in his own name without naming the convent, and a præcipe quod reddat was, in like manner, to be fued against the abbot alone; for as to civil purposes, a monk was totally incapacitated to act in his own right, and if he received a per sonal injury, or did an injury to another, he could not fue or be fued alone, but the fovereign of the house must, in both cafes, have been joined with him (c); but he had a capacity to fill a spiritual office, as to be a vicar, or to be the abbot of another place than that of which he had been a fubordinate monk, or he might act in the right of another, as executor (d). And the abbot, as well as the fubordinate monks, was, as a natural perfon, (a) Co. Lit. 2, a. (b) Long quinto Ed. 4, 73 b. (c) 11 Aff. pl. 9. Bro. Corpor, 81. confidered as dead in law; but he had a politic capacity as fovereign of the house, by which he might fue and be sued, infeoff, give, demise, and leafe to others, and purchase and take from others, and which was admitted by the policy of the law, that thofe, who had a right against the house, might know how they were to fue, and that the rights of the house itself might be recovered in the name of the abbot (a). THERE is one general divifion of corporations, whether fole or aggregate, into ecclefiaftical, and lay. Ecclefiaftical corporations are thofe of which not only the members are spiritual perfons, but of which the object of the inftitution is also spiritual; fuch are bishops; fome deans and prebendaries; all archdeacons, parfons and vicars; and formerly chauntry priests, which are fole corporations; deans and chapters at prefent, and formerly prior and convent, abbot and monks, which are corporations aggregate. AND ecclefiaftical corporations were formerly fubdivided into regular and fecular; the regular were compofed of thofe ecclefiaftical perfons who lived under fome rule, had a common dormitory and refectory, and were obliged to obferve the ftatutes of their order; of this clafs were the mo (a) Vid., 22 H. 6, 4. Co. Lit. 346, b. 347, a. nafteries, nafteries, priories, and fome canonries. The fecular were fo called because they converfed in feculo, performed spiritual offices to the laity, and took upon them the cure of fouls: fuch are, at this day, all the ecclefiaftical corporations. known to the law, and fuch were formerly fome canons (a). It is not the defcription of the perfons who are the members of a corporation, but the purpose of its inftitution which characterises it to be a lay or a fpiritual foundation; and for this reason, though the greater part of the members of the colleges in the univerfities be clerical, yet they are, in general, to be confidered as lay corporations (b): they are not within the jurifdiction of the ecclefiaftical courts; their members have no admiffion or institution from the ordinary; they are merely private focieties to be governed by their own ftatutes and orders (c): most of them were founded ad ftudendum et orandum: the object of their studies is human learning, in its various branches, as logic, philofophy, mathematics. Camden (d), defcribing the univerfity of Oxford, fays, that the places of learning were, in ancient times, called Studia, for that they were defigned (a) Vid. Burn's Ecclefiaftical Law, Monafteries, f. 3. I (d) Britannia 381, cited Raym. 107. pro bonarum literarum ftudiofis : and in his description of Cambridge, after having enumerated all the colleges in the univerfity, he adds, "I will let pass little monafteries and religious houses;" fo that he makes a plain diftinction between the colleges and religious houfes: and Stow (a), enumerating all the colleges of both univerfities, and their foundations, and fhewing fome originally founded for grammar, fome for logic, and others, for other sciences, reckons none of them barely for ecclefiaftical matters. Lindwood (b) defines a college to be only habitaculum fcholarium: and if we obferve the foundation of all religious and ecclefiaftical corporations and focieties, not one will be found whofe object was ad ftudendum. Their defign was either to pray pro animabus, or to obferve fuch and fuch canonical hours, according to fuch and fuch an order, their matins, vespers, and other ceremonies belonging to divine worship, which were prepared by the church to their hands, and were fuch as men of little learning might perform; they might contemplate on what was already prescribed to them, but not excogitate new matters in religion: They went on in a circle, and where they left off at night they began in the morning: They were not enjoined (a) Fol. 450, &c. cited Raym. 108. 46) 155 K. cap. de Magiftris, cited Raym. ibid. ad |