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The Constitution of Pennsylvania, framed in 1776, provided that every seven years the people should choose a Council of Censors, two for each city or county, who should investigate the doings of departments of government, inquire whether the Constitution had been violated, etc. This institution was not continued by the Constitution of 1790. The Vermont Constitution of 1777, modeled on that of Pennsylvania, made similar provision for a Council of Censors, to convene every seven years, and this provision, continued by the Constitutions of 1786 and 1793, was not abrogated until 1870.

[L.] In Rom. Hist., two magistrates appointed for eighteen months out of each lustrum, or period of five years, for the purpose of taking the register of the citizens. See Lustration.