an inferior officer under a sergeant, in a company of foot, who has charge over one of the divisions, places and relieves sentinels, and keeps good order in the corps de garde; he also receives the word from the inferior rounds which passes by his corps de garde. This officer carries a fusil, and is commonly an old soldier; there are generally three corporals in each company.

CORPORAL of a Ship of War, an officer under the master at arms, employed to teach the officers the exercise of small arms, or of musketry; to attend at the gangway, on entering ports, and observe that no spurious liquors are brought into the ship, unless by express leave from the officers. He is also to extinguish the fire and candles at eight o'clock in winter, and nine in summer, when the evening gun is fired; and to walk frequently down in the lower decks in his watch, to see that there are no lights but such as are under the charge of proper sentinels.

(Corporale), is also an ancient church-term, signifying the sacred linen spread under the chalice in the eucharist and mass, to receive the fragments of the bread, if any chance to fall. Some say it was Pope Lucius who first enjoined the use of the corporal; others ascribe it to St Sylvester. It was the custom to carry corporals, with some solemnity, to fires, and to heave them against the flames, in order to extinguish them. Philip de Comines says, the pope made Louis XI. a present of the corporale whereon my lord St Peter fung mass.