COMMEMORATION

commemoration, a general term for celebrating some past event. it is also the name for the annual act, or _encaenia_, the ceremonial closing of the academic year at oxford university. it consists of a latin oration in commemoration of benefactors and founders; of the recitation of prize compositions in prose and verse, and the conferring of honorary degrees upon english or foreign celebrities. the ceremony, which is usually on the third wednesday after trinity sunday, is held in the sheldonian theatre, in broad st., oxford. "commencement" is the term for the equivalent ceremony at cambridge, and this is also used in the case of american universities. commendation (from the lat. _commendare_, to entrust to the charge of, or to procure a favour for), approval, especially when expressed to one person on behalf of another, a recommendation. the word is used in a liturgical sense for an office commending the souls of the dying and dead to the mercies of god. in feudal law the term is applied to the practice of a freeman placing himself under the protection of a lord (see feudalism), and in ecclesiastical law to the granting of benefices _in commendam_. a benefice was held _in commendam_ when granted either temporarily until a vacancy was filled up, or to a layman, or, in case of a monastery or abbey, to a secular cleric to enjoy the revenues and privileges for life (see abbot), or to a bishop to hold together with his see. an act of 1836 prohibited the holding of benefices _in commendam_ in england. commentarii (lat. = gr. [greek: hypomnemata]), notes to assist the memory, memoranda. this original idea of the word gave rise to a variety of meanings: notes and abstracts of speeches for the assistance of orators; family memorials, the origin of many of the legends introduced into early roman history from a desire to glorify a particular family; diaries of events occurring in their own circle kept by private individuals,--the day-book, drawn up for trimalchio in petronius (_satyricon_, 53) by his _actuarius_ (a slave to whom the duty was specially assigned) is quoted as an example; memoirs of events in which they had taken part drawn up by public men,--such were the "commentaries" of caesar on the gallic and civil wars, and of cicero on his consulship. different departments of the imperial administration and certain high functionaries kept records, which were under the charge of an official known as a _commentariis_ (cf. _a secretis_, _ab epistulis_). municipal authorities also kept a register of their official acts. the _commentarii principis_ were the register of the official acts of the emperor. they contained the decisions, favourable or unfavourable, in regard to certain citizens; accusations brought before him or ordered by him; lists of persons in receipt of special privileges. these must be distinguished from the _commentarii diurni_, a daily court-journal. at a later period records called _ephemerides_ were kept by order of the emperor; these were much used by the scriptores historiae augustae (see augustan history). the _commentarii senatus_, only once mentioned (tacitus, _annals_, xv. 74) are probably identical with the acta senatus (q.v.). there were also commentarii of the priestly colleges: (a) _pontificum_, collections of their decrees and responses for future reference, to be distinguished from their _annales_, which were historical records, and from their _acta_, minutes of their meetings; (b) _augurum_, similar collections of augural decrees and responses; (c) _decemvirorum_; (d) _fratrum arvalium_. like the priests, the magistrates also had similar notes, partly written by themselves, and partly records of which they formed the subject. but practically nothing is known of these _commentarii magistratuum_. mention should also be made of the _commentarii regum_, containing decrees concerning the functions and privileges of the kings, and forming a record of the acts of the king in his capacity of priest. they were drawn up in historical times like the so-called _leges regiae_ (_jus papirianum_), supposed to contain the decrees and decisions of the roman kings. see the exhaustive article by a. von premerstein in pauly-wissowa, _realencyclopadie_ (1901); teuffel-schwabe, _hist. of roman lit._ (eng. trans.), pp. 72, 77-79; and the concise account by h. thedenat in daremberg and saglio, _dictionnaire des antiquites_.