a register kept of the admission of officers and persons entered into any body or society whereof a list is made. Hence those who are admitted into our universities are said to be matriculated. Among ecclesiastical authors, we find mention made of two kinds of matricula; the one containing a list of the ecclesiastics called matricula clericorum; the other of the poor subsisted at the expense of the church, called matricula pauperum.

Matricula was also applied to a kind of almshouse, where the poor were provided for. It had certain revenues appropriated to it, and was usually built near the church; whence the name was also frequently given to the church itself.