COLLEGIAL OR COLLEGIATE CHURCHES:
In the Roman Catholic Church, churches served by a body of canons, regular or secular, living together in collegia; and in the Anglican Church, by a dean and a number of canons, whUe the cathedral churches are always served by a bishop. In New York City the term " Collegiate Church " is best known as applied to a corporation in the Reformed (Dutch) Church which owns considerable property, out of whose rental the deficit in the support of four churches with their clergy and chapels is met.
COLLEGIALISM : [A. term denoting a conception of the relation between Church and State which developed in Germany in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. The name, first used by J. H. Bohmer of Halle (d. 1749), was derived from the Roman law, which, before Constantine, considered the Christian congregations as collegia illicita (" illegal associations ").]
The school of natural rights, which has been running its triumphant course since the middle of the seventeenth century, teaches as follows: the State is not a divine foundation and institution, but a corporate unity, founded by means of a social compact of free men {pactum unionis); under this bond the " powers that be " have arisen by virtue of an additional compact, or pactum subjectionis. Furthermore, neither is the Church any longer a divine institution, but a collegium which has grown up in the State through a social compact. According to these doctrines, the medieval idea of the unity of Church and State, of unum corpus christianum, is given up. The State has no longer in common with the Church the object of promoting the spiritual welfare of men, but the object of the State is the prosperity of its subjects: the State is an object in itself. Several religious associations
Colleg-ialisiT' Collins
THE NEW SCIIAFF-HERZOG
are conceivable side by side; and, intrinsically regarded, all these associations stand on a perfectly equal footing: there is no internal warrant given for any difference of treatment among them on the side of the State. Still again, if the Church is only one association within the State, it is of course but logical that the Church go\'erns itself and administers its affairs independently, and that the sovereign State authority exercises over this association, the same as over other associations, merely a right of surveillance.
On the basis of this doctrine of natural right, territorialism (q.v.) had maintained, in theory, the independence of the Church; but it was collegialism, an elaboration of territorialism, that carried that doctrine to its logical conclusion. The first and foremost exponent of collegialism is conceded to be Christoph Matthiius Pfaff (q.v.). Its adherents include Mosheim, G. L. Bohmer (whose views are embodied in the Prussian common law, his Principia juris canonici sTpeciatim juris ecclesiastici, Gottingen, 1762, having been used in the revision of the ecclesiastical law), Georg Wiese, Schleiermacher, Puchta, and others. It may be summarized as follows: The Church as a voluntary association has only two classes of members, teachers and hearers — not the three estates of nobility, clergy, and people (Germ. Wehr-jLehr- und Xdhrstdnde) — and these two classes stand side by side with equal rights, the teachers having no sovereign authority over the hearers.
In this way the rights of the third estate become still more sharply emphasized than was the case under territorialism. As free associations the churches are self-governing {jura sacrorum coUegialia); the State has only the same rights, as affecting them, that it has in relation to any other associations existing in the State; that is, only the right of supervision, the jura sacrorum majestatica. And these latter are restricted by the exponents of collegialism to actual rights of supervision; so that the power inherent in association is guaranteed the character of a real government. At the same time, this power of association may be made over by an act of transfer to the State ruler; and the exponents of collegialism teach that this was the case in Germany by virtue of a tacit transfer. The rights of the State sovereign over the Church are therefore not identical with the State's rights (as in territorialism), but they are the power of association as conveyed per pactum, which is to be distinguished from the sovereign's inherent rights in the way of State surveOlance. Although this system has been able to change practically nothing in actual conditions, nevertheless, by defining more sharply than did territorialism the division between Church and State, between power of association and State sovereignty, it has prepared the way toward the modern comprehension of things and the modern construction of the constitution of the Church. See Church and State. E. Sehling.
Bibliography: F. J. Stahl, Kirchenverfassung nach Lehre urid Recht dcr Protestanten, Erlangen, 1840; A. L. Richter, Ceachicfile der evangelischen Kirchenverfassunn in Deutarldnnd, Lfipsic, 1851; O. Mejer, Grundlagen des lutherischen Kirchenregiments, Rostock, 1864; K. Rieker, Rechtliche Stellung der evangelischen Kirche Deulachlands, Ltipsic, 1893.
COLLEGIANTS (RHYNSBURGERS): A branch of the Remonstrants in Holland (see Remonstrants). In 1619 the Remonstrant minister Christopher Sopingius was dismissed at Warmond, whereupon Gysbert van der Kodde proposed that the congregation hold services without the ministrations of a clergyman. Such exercitia or colloquia prophetica were common in the time of the Reformation. One prayed and read and any one who felt inclined addressed the congregation. At first meetings were held every month, afterward every week. After the death of Prince Maurice (1625) the Remonstrant ministers were allowed to return, but Van dei' Kodde opposed the settlement of a minister at Warmond and, with a number of followers, removed to the neighboring village of Rhynsburg (3 m. n. of Leyden), where they continued their services.
The example of Rhynsburg was followed and collegia were formed in various places, one of which (at Rotterdam) lasted till 1787. Delegates met annually at Rhynsburg, where the Lord's Supper was celebrated and adults were baptized. A result of Spinoza's residence at Rhynsburg (1661-64) was that many CoUegiants accepted his ideas and rejected prophecy and miracles. This caused a split, and for years two parties met separately until a reconciliation was effected at the beginning of the seventeenth century.
The CoUegiants believed that Christianity had sadly degenerated through the influence of the sects. They claimed freedom of speech for all and mutual toleration. They did not desire to establish a new Church and admitted all Christians to their meetings. They were noted for benevolence, especially for caring for the poor and for orphans. They did not seek public offices and they had a horror of war. Their significance lies in the fact that they defended the principle of the Reformation— the i-ight of the individual in matters of religion — against those who wished to limit this right. H. C. RoGGEt.
The influence of Polish Socinianism is discerned in two particulars, in the liberal type of doctrine and in the practise of immersion. The CoUegiants drew largely from the Mennonites, who hatl no adequate educational facilities and were attracted by the able exegesis of the Bible in the Collegiant meetings. The last meeting seems to have been held May 27, 1787- A. H. N.
Bibliography: J. C. van Slee, De Rijnsburger Collegianten, Haarlem, 1895 (best); J. M. Schrock, Kirchengeachichte. v. 330-331, 10 vols., Leipsic, 1804-12; H. Gr^goire, Histoiredes sectes religieuses,v. 328 sqq., 6 vols., Paris, 1828-45; J. L. von Mosheim, Church Histori/. cent, xvii., book iv., chap, viii., London, 1863; A'L, iii. 607-608.
COLLENBUSCH, SAMUEL: German mystic; b. at Wicklinghausen (a suburb of Barmen) Sept. 1, 1724; d. at Barmen Sept. 1, 1803. He studied medicine at Duisburg and Strasburg, in the latter place becoming interested in mysticism through the large collection of works on that subject and on alchemy found there. For a time he engaged in experiments in alchemy, but after repeated failure returned to Dutsburg and took up the practise of medicine. In 1784 he removed to Barmen.