Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/61

COLLEGE 57 other proper burial ; the sacred college, or col- lege of cardinals, which assembles in conclave and elects the pope ; the colleges or courts of admiralty, having maritime jurisdiction at Am- sterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn, and other sea- ports of Holland ; the colleges of the Armin- ians, or their assemblies 'held twice each week on Sunday and Friday ; the three colleges of electors or their deputies, of princes or their deputies, and of the deputies of imperial cities, which composed the Germanic diet prior to the dissolution of the German em- pire in 1806 ; the college of electors of presi- dent and vice president in the United States, chosen by the people once in four years for that purpose only ; the college of justice, or supreme civil court, of Scotland, embracing the advocates and clerks as well as the lords of council and session ; the college of heralds in England, incorporated by charter of Richard III. with various privileges, and subordinate to the earl marshal of England, who held his court of chivalry in its hall assisted by its members; the college of general superinten- dence in Russia, or that department of gov- ernment which has direction of all benevolent institutions, schools, and houses for the sick and poor ; the London college of civilians, or doc- tors' commons, founded by Dr. Harvey, the members of which live in a collegiate manner, and in whose common hall the principal spiritual court and the high court of admiralty are held ; the London college of physicians, chartered by Henry VIII., and endowed by that monarch and his successors with various privileges, such as the power to inspect the apothecaries' shops and superintend the drugs sold in and about London, and without a license from which no person, though he may have received a medi- cal degree from a university, is permitted to practise medicine within seven miles of that city ; the Edinburgh college of physicians, in- stituted in 1681, to make laws for promoting the art and -regulating the practice of physic, having similar powers to those of the corre- sponding college at London, but obliged to ad- mit the professors of physic in the universities of Scotland as honorary members, and to li- cense all those who have received medical de- grees from the universities ; and several other European colleges of surgery, medicine, or health, which have both a power of police over matters pertaining to the public health and the privilege of instructing and examining candi- dates for medical degrees. The oldest of these in Germany was established by Frederick Wil- liam, elector of Brandenburg, in Berlin, in 1685. This was followed by a similar college of health in each of the Prussian provinces, and in 1725 there were twelve Provinzial- Col- legia medica under the general supervision of the Berlin Ober- Collegium medicum. By the constitution of 1808 "the provincial colleges gave way to medical committees, which were organized in 1815 and 1817 as sections of the administrative government. The London col- lege of surgeons, which dates from the reign of Edward IV., is composed of persons em- powered to practise the art of surgery in Great Britain, and has 24 councillors and over 500 fellows, with extended rights and privileges. A competent education and at least eight years of surgical practice are requisite before an ex- amination for a fellowship. The Edinburgh college of surgeons has a corporate character as a royal college. It consists of the surgeons of Edinburgh, has the privilege of examining and of licensing or rejecting all practitioners in surgery in the neighboring counties, and its diplomas are recognized by the army and navy medical boards, and by the East India com- pany, as qualifications for their surgeons. Colleges as departments of a university arose about the beginning of the 13th century. When the repute of the great scholastic teachers had attracted thousands of students to the uni- versity towns, collisions became frequent be- tween the citizens and so many for the most part rich and noble youths. In order to secure to the students a more fixed mode of life, so that their manners and morals should be under stricter supervision, hotels or boarding houses were established, in which the scholars lodged together under the direction of a superior. These hotels, which were termed colleges, were gradually endowed by the gifts of charitable persons, till they were able to furnish free lodgings and finally entire support to a certain number of poor scholars. The name college was soon applied to any institution for aca- demic purposes, endowed with revenues, and possessing a private code of laws, whether it were wholly independent or subject to the general government of a university. Collegiate foundations do not appear to have existed in the Saracen schools of Spain, but were first established hi Paris, and soon afterward in Ox- ford and Cambridge, in Bologna and Padua, and in Prague and Vienna. In the 15th cen- tury the endowments of popes, kings, digni- taries of the church, and powerful families had made colleges so common in many of the Euro- pean universities, that every person connected with a university was usually a member of some one of its colleges. Some of them were in the interest of the monastic orders, and their design to train ministers for the church still appears in the prohibition of the fellows of the English colleges from marrying. They were sometimes not only schools for the young, but hospitals for the old. Sion college in London was in the 14th and 15th centuries both a priory and a hospital. It is now a corporation of the clergy of the city of London, and also a hospital for 20 poor men and women. St. Peter's college, Westminster, may also be men- tioned, as well as the royal naval college at Portsmouth. Among the oldest French colleges are the Sorbonne, founded about 1250, in which at first 16 students of theology were gratuitously supplied ; the col!6ge de Bons Enfants, founded in 1257; d'Harcourt, in 1280 ; and de Navarre,