communitas

…the Low Countries became a communitas (sometimes called corporatio or universitas)—a community that was legally a corporate body, could enter into alliances and ratify them with its own seal, could sometimes even make commercial or military contracts with other towns, and could negotiate directly with the prince. Land within the…

…body became an association, a communitas or universitas, capable of owning property and entering into agreements, of exercising varying degrees of jurisdiction over its members (who did not normally comprise the entire population of the town), and of exercising governmental powers. There were very marked regional differences between different types…