Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol I).djvu/485

 Ch. 18. every manual trade and profeion. They were afterwards much conidered by the civil law, in which they were called univeritates, as forming one whole out of many individuals; or collegia, from being gathered together: they were adopted alo by the canon law, for the maintenance of eccleiatical dicipline; and from them our piritual corporations are derived. But our laws have coniderably refined and improved upon the invention, according to the uual genius of the Englih nation: particularly with regard to ole corporations, coniting of one peron only, of which the Roman lawyers had no notion; their maxim being that "tres faciunt collegium ." Though they held, that if a corporation, originally coniting of three perons, be reduced to one, "i univeritas ad unum redit," it may till ubit as a corporation, "et tet nomen univeritatis ."

we proceed to treat of the everal incidents of corporations, as regarded by the laws of England, let us firt take a view of the everal orts of them; and then we hall be better enabled to apprehend their repective qualities.

firt diviion of corporations is into aggregate and ole. Corporations aggregate conit of many perons united together into one ociety, and are kept up by a perpetual ucceion of members, o as to continue for ever: of which kind are the mayor and commonalty of a city, the head and fellows of a college, the dean and chapter of a cathedral church. Corporations ole conit of one peron only and his ucceors, in ome particular tation, who are incorporated by law, in order to give them ome legal capacities and advantages, particularly that of perpetuity, which in their natural perons they could not have had. In this ene the king is a ole corporation : o is a bihop: o are ome deans, and prebendaries, ditinct from their everal chapters: and o is every paron and vicar. And the neceity, or at leat ue, of this intitution will be very apparent, if we Rh