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UNIVERSITAS.

of the Municipes. Sometimes the word Curia is used as equivalent to Civitas : and sometimes the Decuriones are spoken of as a Juristical person, which lias property as such. (2) Vici; which have no political self-existence, but are attached to some Respublica ; yet they are juristical per­sons, can hold property, and maintain suits. (3) Fora, Conciliabula, Castella. These were places between Civitates and Vici as to extent and im­portance ; the}r belonged to a Respubiica, but had the rights of juristical persons: they are not men­tioned in the legislation of Justinian, but the names occur in the Tablet of Heraclea, in the Lex Galliae Cisalpinae, and in Paulus (S. R. iv. tit. 6. s. 2.) In the later period of the Empire, Provinces were viewed as juristical persons.

In the writings of the Agrimensores, commu­nities, and, particularly, colonies (coloni}^ are desig­nated by the appropriate name of Publicae Per-sonae, and property is spoken of as belonging to the Coloni, that is, the Colonia, Coloni being used here in the same sense in which Municipes was used as above explained.

Other juristical persons were (1) Religious bodies, as Collegia of Priests, and of the Vestal Virgins, which could hold property and take by testament. (2) Associations of official persons, such as those who were employed in administra­tion : the body of Scribae became one of the most numerous and important, as they were employed in all branches of administration ; the general name was Scribae, a term which includes the particular names of librarii, fiscales and others ; they were divided into subdivisions called Decuriae, a term which even under the Republic and also under the Empire denoted the corporations of Scribae ; the individual members were called decuriati, and subsequently decuriales ; the decuriati had great privileges in Rome and subsequently in Constanti­nople. (Cic. in Verr. iii. 79, ad Quint. Frat. ii. 3; Tacit. Ann. xiii. 27 ; Sueton. Aug. 57', Claud. 1.) (3) Associations for trade and commerce, as Fabri, Pistores, Navicularii, the individuals of which had a common profession, on which the notion of their union was founded ; but each man worked on his own account. Associations properly included under Societates [societas] : such associations could be dissolved by the notice of any member, and were actually dissolved by the death of a single member. Some of these associations, such as those for work­ing Mines, Salinae, and farming the Portoria were corporate bodies, though they had the name of Socie­tates. (4) Associations, called Sodalitates, Sodalitia, Collegia Sodalitia, which resembled modern clubs. In their origin they were friendly associations for feasting together ; in course of time many of them became political associations, but from this we must not conclude that their true nature really varied ; they were associations not included in any other class that has been enumerated, but they differed in their character according to the times. In periods of commotion they became the central points of political factions, and new associations, it may-be reasonably supposed, would be formed ex­pressly for political purposes. Sometimes the public places were crowded by the Sodalitia and Decuriati (Cic. ad Quint. Frat. ii. 8), and the Senate was at last compelled to propose a lex which should subject to the penalties of Vis those who would not disperse. This was followed by a gene­ral dissolution of collegia according to Asconius

UNIVERSITAS.

(in Corndianani), but the dissolution only ex­tended to mischievous associations, as may be safely inferred from the nature of the case, and even the words of Asconius, if carefully examined, are not inconsistent with this conclusion. In the Digest (47. tit. 22. s. 1, 2, 3) we find the rule that no collegium could be formed without the permission of a Senatusconsultum or the Caesar;" and persons who associated unlawfully were guilty of an extraordinarium crimen. The rule of law means that no union of persons could form a juristical person without the consent of the proper authority; and this is quite distinct from the other provision contained in the same rule, which punished associations of persons who acted as cor­porations, for this part of the rule relates only to such associations as were dangerous, or of an unde­fined character.

There were also in the Imperial period the Collegia tenuiorum, or associations of poor people, but they were allowed to meet only once a month and they paid monthly contributions. (Dig. 47. tit. 22. s. 1, 3.) A man could only belong to one of them. Slaves could belong to such a collegium, with the permission of their masters.

Communities of cities and towns have a kind of natural or necessary existence ; and other bodies, called corporations, have been fashioned by a kind of analogy to them, and like them can have pro­perty, and be represented like them by an agent, wherein consists the .essence of a juristical person. Some of these corporations, like communities of cities and towns, were of a permanent character, as Colleges of Priests, Decuriae, and Companies of artisans ; others had a temporary character, as Societates and Sodalitates. All these corpo­rations are designated by the name either of Col­legium or Corpus, between which there is no legal distinction ; for it appears that one corporation was called a Collegium and another a Corpus, as it might happen. But both of these terms denote a Corporation, as above explained, as opposed to a Civitas or Respublica. The members of such cor­porations were Collegae and Sodales, which is a more general and an older term than Sodalitas. Altogether they were called Collegiati and Corpo-rati: the members of particular kinds of corpora­tions were Decuriati, Decuriales, Socii. The com­mon name which includes all Corporations and Civitates is Universitas, as opposed to which any individual is singularis persona.

The notion of individual property as a unity is founded on the notion of the unity of the owner. But this notion of unity, when once established, may for certain purposes be arbitrarily assumed, and accordingly it is applied to the case of Peculi-um, Dos, and Hereditas, and modern writers have designated these as cases of a Universitas Juris. The name Universitas Juris does not occur in the Roman law. On this subject see Puchta, Inst. ii. § 222. The nature of Succession is explained under successio.

The term Universitas was adopted in the rniddje ages to denote certain great schools, but not as Schools: the term denoted these places as corpora­tions, that is, as associations of individuals. The adjunct which would express the kind of persona associated would depend on circumstances: thus in Bologna, the expression Universitas Scholarium was in common use ; in Paris, Universitas Magis-trorum. The School as such was called Schola,