COLLEGE, is also used for a public place endowed with certain revenues, where the several parts of learning are taught.
An assemblage of several of these colleges constitutes a university. The erection of colleges is part of the royal prerogative, and not to be done without the king's license.
The establishment of colleges or universities is a remarkable period in literary history. The schools in cathedrals and monasteries confined themselves chiefly to the teaching of grammar. There were on-
College. ly one or two masters employed in that office. But, in colleges, professors are appointed to teach all the different parts of science. The first obscure mention of academical degrees in the university of Paris (from which the other universities in Europe have borrowed most of their customs and institutions), occurs A. D. 1215.