A Collection of College Words and Customs

by Benjamin Homer Hall

They find themselves conditioned on the studies of the term, and not very generally respected.—Harvard Mag., Vol. I. p. 415.

CONDUCT. The title of two clergymen appointed to read prayers at
Eton College, in England.—Mason. Webster.

CONFESSION. It was formerly the custom in the older American colleges, when a student had rendered himself obnoxious to punishment, provided the crime was not of an aggravated nature, to pardon and restore him to his place in the class, on his presenting a confession of his fault, to be read publicly in the hall. The Diary of President Leverett, of Harvard College, under date of the 20th of March, 1714, contains an interesting account of the confession of Larnel, an Indian student belonging to the Junior Sophister class, who had been guilty of some offence for which he had been dismissed from college.

"He remained," says Mr. Leverett, "a considerable time at Boston, in a state of penance. He presented his confession to Mr. Pemberton, who thereupon became his intercessor, and in his letter to the President expresses himself thus: 'This comes by Larnel, who brings a confession as good as Austin's, and I am charitably disposed to hope it flows from a like spirit of penitence.' In the public reading of his confession, the flowing of his passions was extraordinarily timed, and his expressions accented, and most peculiarly and emphatically those of the grace of God to him; which indeed did give a peculiar grace to the performance itself, and raised, I believe, a charity in some that had very little I am sure, and ratified wonderfully that which I had conceived of him. Having made his public confession, he was restored to his standing in the College."—Quincy's Hist. Harv. Univ., Vol. I. pp. 443, 444.

CONGREGATION. At Oxford, the house of congregation is one of the two assemblies in which the business of the University, as such, is carried on. In this house the Chancellor, or his vicar the Vice-Chancellor, or in his absence one of his four deputies, termed Pro-Vice-Chancellors, and the two Proctors, either by themselves or their deputies, always preside. The members of this body are regents, "either regents 'necessary' or 'ad placitum,' that is, on the one hand, all doctors and masters of arts, during the first year of their degree; and on the other, all those who have gone through the year of their necessary regency, and which includes all resident doctors, heads of colleges and halls, professors and public lecturers, public examiners, masters of the schools, or examiners for responsions or 'little go,' deans and censors of colleges, and all other M.A.'s during the second year of their regency." The business of the house of congregation, which may be regarded as the oligarchical body, is chiefly to grant degrees, and pass graces and dispensations.—Oxford Guide.

CONSERVATOR. An officer who has the charge of preserving the rights and privileges of a city, corporation, or community, as in Roman Catholic universities.—Webster.

CONSILIUM ABEUNDI. Latin; freely, the decree of departure. In German universities, the consilium abeundi "consists in expulsion out of the district of the court of justice within which the university is situated. This punishment lasts a year; after the expiration of which, the banished student can renew his matriculation."—Howitt's Student Life of Germany, Am. ed., p. 33.

CONSISTORY COURT. In the University of Cambridge, England, there is a consistory court of the Chancellor and of the Commissary. "For the former," says the Gradus ad Cantabrigiam, "the Chancellor, and in his absence the Vice-Chancellor, assisted by some of the heads of houses, and one or more doctors of the civil law, administers justice desired by any member of the University, &c. In the latter, the Commissary acts by authority given him under the seal of the Chancellor, as well in the University as at Stourbridge and Midsummer fairs, and takes cognizance of all offences, &c. The proceedings are the same in both courts."

CONSTITUTIONAL. Among students at the University of Cambridge,
Eng., a walk for exercise.

The gallop over Bullington, and the "constitutional" up
Headington.—Lond. Quart. Rev., Am. ed., Vol. LXXIII. p. 53.