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IV. The Collegium
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Politica_001-050.indd 33 1/11/12 10:09 PM IV The Collegium T HIS COMPLETES THE DISCUSSION ofthe natural associ- § 1 ation. We turn now to the civil association, which is a body organized by assembled persons according to their own pleasure and will to serve a common utility and necessity in human life. That is to say, they agree among themselves by common consent on a manner of ruling and obeying for the utility both of the whole body and of its individuals. 1 This society by its nature is transitory and can be discontinued. §2 It need not last as long as the lifetime of a man, but can be disbanded honorably and in good faith by the mutual agreement of those who have come together, however much it may have been necessary and useful for social life on another occasion. For this reason it is called a §3 spontaneous and merely voluntary society, granted that a certain necessity can be said to have brought it into existence. For in the early times of the world, when the human race was increasing and, though one family, yet dispersing itself-since all persons could no longer be expected to live together in one place and family-necessity drove diverse and separate dwellings, hamlets, and villages to stand together, and at length to erect towns and cities in different places. Accordingly, "when the head ofthe family goes out ofhis house, in which he exercises domestic imperium, and joins the heads of other families to pursue business matters, he then loses the name of head and master of the family, and becomes an ally and citizen. In a sense, he leaves the family in order that 1 [A parallel, though briefer, discussion by Althusius ofthe collegium is found in a chapter entitled "Men United By Their Own Consent" in his major work on jurisprudence, Dicaeologica, I, 8.] 33 Politica_001-050.indd 34 1/11/12 10:09 PM§4 34 Politica he may enter the city and attend therein to public instead of domestic concerns."2 This is therefore a civil association. In it three or more men of the same trade, training, or profession are united for the purpose of holding in common such things they jointly profess as duty, way oflife, or craft. Such an association is called a collegium,3 or as it were, a gathering, society, federation, sodality, synagogue, convention, or synod. It is said to be a private association by contrast with the public§5 association.4 The persons who unite in order to constitute a collegium are called colleagues, associates, or even brothers. A minimum ofthree persons is required to organize a collegium, because among two persons there is no third person to overcome dissension. This is so even though two persons may be called colleagues so far as the power and equality of office is concerned. Fewer than three, however, are able to conserve a collegium.5§6 Whoever among the colleagues is superior and set over the others is called the leader ofthe collegium, the rector or director ofthe common property and functions. He is elected by common consent of the colleagues, and is provided with administrative power over property and functions pertaining to the collegium. For this reason he exercises coercive power over the colleagues individually, but not over the group§7 itself. Therefore the president ofa collegium is superior to the individual colleague but inferior to the united colleagues, or to the collegium over which he presides and whose pleasure he must serve.. . .§8 We will consider first the communication of the colleagues, and their symbiotic right (jus symbioticum) in this private and civil association, then the various types of the collegium. Communication among the colleagues is the activity by which an individual helps his colleague, and so upholds the plan ofsocial life set forth in covenanted agreements. These covenants and laws (pacta et leges) of the colleagues 2Jean Bodin, The Commonweale, I, 6. 3 [collegium (pl. collegia): guild; corporation; voluntary association.] 4 Examples ofthis association can be seen in Acts 6:2 f.; 12:12; 13:15, 27; 15:21; 28:23, 30 f.; Matthew 4; 6:2; 10:24; 13; Exodus 29:42; Numbers 10:10. 5 [The discussion of the collegium in this chapter is heavily supported by references to Roman law, especially to the following three titles: Digest Ill, 4 ("Quod cuiuscumque universitatis"); Digest XLVII, 22 ("De collegiis"); and Code X, 32 ("De decurionibus").] [18.217...