CORPORAL. 437 CORPORATION. of lance corporal, given to private soldiers Jc- sirous of and selected for promotion. CORPORAL (Lat. corpoiule, from curpus, body, lji'iMU>i' the host or sacramental body of C'lirist re>t^ upon it). A square linen cloth which is spread uiJon the altar durinj; the mass, and upon hich rest the chalice and paten. It was originally large enough to be folded over the oblations of the people when they were placed upon the altar. Kven after this custom ceased, one fold of it was still turned over the chalice, but this was later made a separate piece, now- known as the pall (q.v. ). The older usage was long preserved in the French Church and in the C'artluisian Order. Both corporal and pall must be lilessed by the bishop, and when not in use are carried in the burse, a square pocket of card- board covered with silk, none except those in holy orders Ix'ing allowed to touch them. CORPORAL, The Little (Fr., Le petit ca-. point). A term of familiarity and afl'ection a])plied by the French soldiery to Xapoleou I., who liegan his military career as a sous-lieutenant in Corsica. CORPORAL PUNISHMENT. Punishment by the infliction of pain or hardship upon the body, as by confinement in the stocks, branding, or Hogging. Ordinarily the term is understood to refer only to flogging or whipping of the body. Much has been said for and against this last kind of punishment, both as a means of public and private correction. The contention of those who opjiose its use and deny its value is that it degrades the one punished and the one who exe- cutes the punishment, and that it tends to de- teriorate the character of the person punished by taking away his self-respect. Those who favor it generally admit that severe floggings which lacerate the body or which are so con- trived as to cause extreme agony, as iil*the basti- nado, do cause a degeneration in the moral char- acter of the victim which increases his tendency to repeat his offense or commit others in spite of ihe danger of the second punishment, and that this is especially the case when such punishment is inflicted publicly. But they claim, with ap- parent truth, that whipping which produces stinging but transient pain, without mangling the body and without such public disgrace as to destroy the sense of shame, is an efficient cor- rective for those cruel, or brutal, or intractable ofl'enders. such as wife and child beaters, who are insensible to the pimishment of confinement or other ordinary penalties which are far more protracted and of much greater expense to the State. In such cases a smart whipping, not brutally inflicted, seems to exercise a control oer tlic ofl'ender, without the long confinement which often necessarily removes from a dependent family its only means of support. Corporal punishment at the hands of public officers as a punishment for crime is usually inflicted by flogging in prison or at the public "whipping-post. Further information will be given under the titles Flogging; Whipping. The authority of the husband, parent, guar- dian, and schoolmaster to inflict corporal punish- ment upon the wife, child, or pupil will be con- sidered under the titles Husband and Wife; Guardian; Ward; Parent and Child; School- master, etc. See also the article Apprentice. For a bibliography of corporal punishment as a |>unishment for crime, consult the authorities referred to under the titles Penology; Crimi- nology. CORPORAL TRIM. An old soldier, the ser- vant of I'ncle Toby in Sterne's Tristram Shandy. CORPORAL Violet, or father violet. A nanie given to Napoleon Bonaparte by his ad- herents in France when he was in e.xile. The violet typified the Empire, which, in the person of Corporal 'iolet, it was predicted, would return in the spring. CORPORATION (Lat. corporatio, from cor- porare, to embody, from corpus, bod}'; the classi- cal terms were corpus, universitas, coHeg-ium), Roman and Ciril haw. — The legal concep- tion of the corporation was clearly worked out at Roman law. As a ship remains the same ship, although all its parts be gradually renewed b.y successive repairs; as a human body remains the same body, although waste and repair periodically change all its minutest particles; so a body of human beings, like a bench of judges, a legion, or the Roman people, remains the same body in spite of all changes in its composition (Alfenus, in Digest, 5, 1. 76). In all cases in which such a body of persons is recognized as a separate legal entity — in all cases, that is, in which the body itself is re- garded as owning property, holding claims, and owing debts — a corpus or universitas exists; where, on the other hand, the members of an association are treated as joint proprietors, joint creditors, and joint debtors, all that exists is a societas or partnership. The Ronuui law recognized both private and public corporations. Private corporations (at least in the Imperial period) could not be estab- lished except by special authorization or under Certain general statutes. In the field of public law, the towns (municipia) , or. rather, the town councils (collegia decurionum) , were regarded as corporations; and the Imperial treasury (fiscus) was recognized as an entity- distinct from the Empire. From this latter theory was derived the valuable conclusion that the fiscus could be sued by private persons to recover property or enforce contractual claims. Charitable corporations were recognized ; when the Empire became Cliristian, churches and monasteries received the rights of corporations; but where propei'ty was devoted to a permanent charitable use (pia causa) it was not necessaiy to give it to an existing chari- table corporation nor to create a new corpora- tion to hold it. The Roman law did not treat the persons who administered such property as titular owners subject to a trust, nor was it usual, as at English law, to incorporate boards of managers and to treat the corporations thus created as owners of the property. The Roman law, in its final development, treated the founda- tion itself as a legal entity, and viewed the persons who managed the property as mere officers and representatives of the foundation. Modern civil law uses these Roman conccjj- tions without substantial change. The German jurist Gierke, indeed, maintains that mcdia'val German law developed, and modern jurisprudence is bound to recognize, a third t.^-pe of association, intermediate between corporation and partner- ship, which he terms the fellowship [Genossen- sehaft ] : but his theory has obtained no legisla- tive or judicial recognition. The German civil
