Definitions from Black's Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition and Ballentine's Law Dictionary as are available for each term in each dictionary.
  • Ballentine's Law Dictionary

    A corporation; an ecclesiastical body uncontrolled by the state.

  • Black's Law Dictionary: 2nd Edition

    Lat In the civil law. A word having various meanings; e. g., an assembly, society or company; a body of bishops; an army; a class of men. But the principal idea of the word was that of an association of individuals of the same rank and station or united for the pursuit of some business or enterprise. Sometimes, a corporation, as in the maxim "fres faciunt collegium" (1 Bl. Comm. 469), though the more usual and proper designation of a corporation was "universitas."
    —Collegium ammiralitatis. The college or society of the admiralty.
    —Collegium illicitum. One which abused its right, or assembled for any other purpose than that expressed in its charter.
    —Collegium licitum. An assemblage or society of men united for some useful purpose or business, with power to act like a single individual. 2 Kent, Comm. 269. Collegium est societas plurium corporum simul habitantium. Jenk. Cent. 229. A college is a society of several persons dwelling together.