Christian Cyclopedia

(Collegial System). Ch.-state relations based on natural rights (see Natural Law, 5) and voluntarism,* rather than presuppositions of divine institutions. Collegialism holds that the state is a corporate unity formed by a pact of union (pacturn unionis) in which free men have agreed to be subjects by a pact of subjection (pactum subjectionis); the state is an object in itself, existing for the common welfare of its subjects. The ch. is a voluntary, indep. assoc. existing for the spiritual welfare of its mems.; its right of self-govt. (Jura sacrorum collegialia) can be voluntarily relinquished and right of govt. transferred by tacit or express agreement (pacto vel tacito vel expresso) to the ruler of the state; this right of govt., then, is not an inherent right of the ruler of the state, who has inherent right only of supervision of the ch. (iura sacrorum maiestatica). Basic concepts of collegialism are traced to S. von Pufendorf,* C. Thomasius,* and, to a lesser degree, H. Grotius.* Its logical conclusions and applications were formulated by C. M. Pfaff.* Other names associated with collegialism are Justus Henning Böhmer (1674–1749) and his son Georg Ludwig Böhmer (1715–97), J. L. v. Mosheim,* and F. D. E. Schleiermacher.* CSM