Chapter I: Front Matter (1)

Transcriber's notes:

(1) Numbers following letters (without space) like C2 were originally
printed in subscript. When letters are subscripted, they are
preceded by an underscore, like C_n.

(2) Characters following a carat (^) were originally printed in
superscript.

(3) Side-notes were relocated to function as titles of their respective
paragraphs.

(4) Letters topped by Macron are represented as [=x].

(5) Letters topped by Breve are represented as [)x].

(6) The following typographical errors have been corrected:

Article COUNCIL: "Although the Frankish monarchs were not absolute
rulers, nevertheless they exercised the right of changing or
rejecting synodal decrees which ran counter to the interests of the
state." 'absolute' amended from 'abolute'.

Article COUNCIL: "The last of the Reform councils, that of Basel,
approved these principles, and at length passed a sentence of
deposition against Pope Eugenius IV." 'approved' amended from
'appoved'.

Article COUNT: "It is difficult to give briefly a clear idea of the
functions of the three important officials comes sacrarum
largitionum, comes rei privatae and comes sacri patrimonii."
'patrimonii' amended from 'partrimonii'.

Article COVENANT: "The covenant not to sue belongs to the law of
contract and needs no explanation." 'explanation' amended from
'explantion'.

Article COWLEY, WELLESLEY: "and also during the excitement and
unrest produced by the attempt made in 1858 by Felice Orsini to
assassinate the emperor of the French." 'emperor' amended from
'emporor'.

Article CRAIG, JOHN: "James VI., like Henry VIII., accepted this
compromise, and the oath in this form was taken by Craig, the royal
chaplains and some others." 'like' amended from 'Like'.

Article CREEDS: "The confession of the Four Cities, Strassburg,
Constance, Memmingen and London, was drawn up by M. Bucer and was
presented to Charles V. at Augsburg in 1530." 'Augsburg' amended
from 'Ausburg'.

Article CREEDS: "It was prepared by Dr George Redford of Worcester,
and was presented, not as a scholastic or critical confession of
faith, but merely such a statement as any intelligent member of the
body might offer as containing its leading principles." 'of'
amended from 'or'.

Article CREEK: "a small inlet on a low coast, an inlet in a river
formed by the mouth of a small stream, a shallow narrow harbour for
small vessels." 'vessels' amended from 'vessles'.

Article CREIGHTON, MANDELL: "His irrepressible and often daring
humour, together with his frank distaste for much conventional
religious phraseology, was a stumbling-block to some pious people."
'irrepressible' amended from 'irrespressible'.

Article CRICKET: "The distance that constitutes "good length" is
not, however, to be defined by precise measurement; it depends on
the condition of the ground, and on the reach of the batsman."
'constitutes' amended from 'consistutes'.

Article CRITICISM: The Poetics of Aristotle (1898); H. L. Havell
and Andrew Lang, Longinus on the Sublime (1890). 'Aristotle'
amended from 'Artistotle'.

ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA

A DICTIONARY OF ARTS, SCIENCES, LITERATURE
AND GENERAL INFORMATION

ELEVENTH EDITION

VOLUME VII, SLICE VI

Coucy-le-Chateau to Crocodile

Articles in This Slice:

COUCY-LE-CHATEAU CRANK
COUES, ELLIOTT CRANMER, THOMAS
COULISSE CRANNOG
COULOMB, CHARLES AUGUSTIN CRANSAC
COULOMMIERS CRANSTON
COUMARIN CRANTOR
COUMARONES CRANWORTH, ROBERT MONSEY ROLFE
COUNCIL CRAPE
COUNCIL BLUFFS CRASH
COUNSEL AND COUNSELLOR CRASHAW, RICHARD
COUNT CRASSULACEAE
COUNTER CRASSUS
COUNTERFEITING CRATER
COUNTERFORT CRATES (Athenian actor)
COUNTERPOINT CRATES (Greek philosophers)
COUNTERSCARP CRATES (of Mallus)
COUNTERSIGN CRATINUS
COUNTRY CRATIPPUS (Greek historian)
COUNTY CRATIPPUS (of Mitylene)
COUNTY COURT CRAU
COUPE CRAUCK, GUSTAVE
COUPLET CRAUFURD, QUINTIN
COUPON CRAUFURD, ROBERT
COURANTE CRAVAT
COURAYER, PIERRE FRANCOIS LE CRAVEN, PAULINE AGLAE
COURBET, GUSTAVE CRAVEN, WILLIAM CRAVEN
COURBEVOIE CRAWFORD, EARLS OF
COURCELLE-SENEUIL, JEAN GUSTAVE CRAWFORD, FRANCIS MARION
COURCI, JOHN DE CRAWFORD, THOMAS
COURIER, PAUL LOUIS CRAWFORD, WILLIAM HARRIS
COURIER CRAWFORDSVILLE
COURLAND CRAWFURD, JOHN
COURNOT, ANTOINE AUGUSTIN CRAYER, GASPARD DE
COURSING CRAYFISH
COURT, ANTOINE CRAYON
COURT CREASY, SIR EDWARD SHEPHERD
COURT BARON CREATIANISM AND TRADUCIANISM
COURT DE GEBELIN, ANTOINE CREBILLON, PROSPER JOLYOT DE
COURTENAY CRECHE
COURTENAY, RICHARD CRECY
COURTENAY, WILLIAM CREDENCE
COURTESY CREDENTIALS
COURTHOPE, WILLIAM JOHN CREDI, LORENZO DI
COURT LEET CREDIT
COURT-MARTIAL CREDIT FONCIER
COURTNEY, LEONARD HENRY COURTNEY CREDIT MOBILIER OF AMERICA
COURTOIS, JACQUES and GUILLAUME CREDITON
COURTRAI CREDNER, CARL FRIEDRICH HEINRICH
COURVOISIER, JEAN JOSEPH ANTOINE CREE
COUSCOUS CREECH, THOMAS
COUSIN, JEAN CREEDS
COUSIN, VICTOR CREEK
COUSIN CREEK or MUSKOGEE INDIANS
COUSINS, SAMUEL CREETOWN
COUSTOU CREEVEY, THOMAS
COUTANCES, WALTER OF CREFELD
COUTANCES CREIGHTON, MANDEL
COUTHON, GEORGES CREIL
COUTTS, THOMAS CRELL NICHOLAS
COUTURE, THOMAS CREMA
COUVADE CREMATION
COVE CREMER, JAKOBUS JAN
COVELLITE CREMERA
COVENANT (mutual agreement) CREMIEUX, ISAAC MOISE
COVENANT (law term) CREMONA, LUIGI
COVENANTERS CREMONA
COVENT GARDEN CREMORNE GARDENS
COVENTRY, SIR JOHN CRENELLE
COVENTRY, THOMAS COVENTRY CREODONTA
COVENTRY, SIR WILLIAM CREOLE
COVENTRY CREON (king of Corinth)
COVER CREON (king of Thebes)
COVERDALE, MILES CREOPHYLUS
COVERTURE CREOSOTE
COVILHA CREPUSCULAR
COVILHAM PERO CREQUY
COVIN CREQUY, RENEE DE FROULLAY
COVINGTON CRESCAS, HASDAI BEN ABRAHAM
COWARD CRESCENT
COWBRIDGE CRESCIMBENI, GIOVANNI MARIO
COWDENBEATH CRESILAS
COWELL, JOHN CRESOLS
COWEN, FREDERIC HYMEN CRESPI, DANIELE
COWEN, JOSEPH CRESPI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA
COWES CRESPI, GIUSEPPE MARIA
COWL CRESS
COWLEY, ABRAHAM CRESSENT, CHARLES
COWLEY, HANNAH CRESSWELL, SIR CRESSWELL
COWLEY, CHARLES WELLESLEY CRESSY, HUGH PAULINUS DE
COWLEY FATHERS CREST (town of France)
COWPENS CREST (plume or tuft)
COWPER, WILLIAM COWPER CRESTON
COWPER, WILLIAM CRESWICK, THOMAS
COWRY CRESWICK
COW-TREE CRETACEOUS SYSTEM
COX, DAVID CRETE
COX, SIR GEORGE WILLIAM CRETINISM
COX, JACOB DOLSON CRETONNE
COX, KENYON CREUSE
COX, RICHARD CREUTZ, GUSTAF FILIP
COX, SAMUEL CREUZER, GEORG FRIEDRICH
COX, SAMUEL HANSON CREVASSE
COXCIE, MICHAEL CREVIER, JEAN BAPTISTE LOUIS
COXE, HENRY OCTAVIUS CREVILLENTE
COXE, WILLIAM CREW, NATHANIEL CREW
COXSWAIN CREW
COXWELL, HENRY TRACEY CREWE, ROBERT CREWE-MILNES
COYOTE CREWE
COYPEL CREWKERNE
COYPU CRIB
COYSEVOX, CHARLES ANTOINE CRIBBAGE
CRAB CRICCIETH
CRABBE, GEORGE CRICHTON, JAMES
CRACKER CRICKET (insect)
CRACOW CRICKET (game)
CRADDOCK, CHARLES EGBERT CRICKHOWELL
CRADLE CRICKLADE
CRADOCK CRIEFF
CRAFT CRIME
CRAG CRIMEA
CRAGGS, JAMES CRIMEAN WAR
CRAIG, JOHN CRIMINAL LAW
CRAIG, SIR THOMAS CRIMINOLOGY
CRAIGIE, PEARL MARY TERESA CRIMMITZSCHAU
CRAIK, DINAH MARIA CRIMP
CRAIK, GEORGE LILLIE CRIMSON
CRAIL CRINAGORAS
CRAILSHEIM CRINOLINE
CRAIOVA CRINUM
CRAMBO CRIOBOLIUM
CRAMER, JOHANN BAPTIST CRIPPLE CREEK
CRAMER, JOHN ANTONY CRISA
CRAMER, KARL VON CRISPI, FRANCESCO
CRAMP, CHARLES HENRY CRISPIN and CRISPINIAN
CRAMP CRITIAS
CRAMP-RINGS CRITICISM
CRANACH, LUCAS CRITIUS and NESIOTES
CRANBERRY CRITOLAUS
CRANBROOK, GATHORNE-HARDY CRITTENDEN, JOHN JORDAN
CRANBROOK CRIVELLI, CARLO
CRANDALL, PRUDENCE CROATIA-SLAVONIA
CRANE, STEPHEN CROCIDOLITE
CRANE, WALTER CROCKET
CRANE, WILLIAM HENRY CROCKETT, DAVID
CRANE CROCKETT, SAMUEL RUTHERFORD
CRANES CROCKFORD, WILLIAM
CRANIOMETRY CROCODILE

COUCY-LE-CHATEAU, a village of northern France, in the department of Aisne, 18 m. W.S.W. of Laon on a branch of the Northern railway. Pop. (1906) 663. It has extensive remains of fortifications of the 13th century, the most remarkable feature of which is the Porte de Laon, a gateway flanked by massive towers and surmounted by a fine apartment. Coucy also has a church of the 15th century, preserving a facade in the Romanesque style. The importance of the place is due, however, to the magnificent ruins of a feudal fortress (see CASTLE) crowning the eminence on the slope of which the village is built. The remains, which embrace an area of more than 10,000 sq. yds., form an irregular quadrilateral built round a court-yard and flanked by four huge towers. The nucleus of the stronghold is a donjon over 200 ft. high and over 100 ft. in diameter, standing on the south side of the court. Three large vaulted apartments, one above the other, occupy its interior. The court-yard was surrounded on the ground-floor by storehouses, kitchens, &c., above which on the west and north sides were the great halls known as the _Salle des preux_ and the _Salle des preuses_. A chapel projected from the west wing. The bailey or base-court containing other buildings and covering three times the area of the chateau extended between it and the village. The architectural unity of the fortress is due to the rapidity of its construction, which took place between 1230 and 1242, under Enguerrand III., lord of Coucy. A large part of the buildings was restored or enlarged at the end of the 14th century by Louis d'Orleans, brother of Charles VI., by whom it had been purchased. The place was dismantled in 1652 by order of Cardinal Mazarin. It is now state property. In 1856 researches were carried on upon the spot by Viollet-le-Duc, and measures for the preservation of the ruins were subsequently undertaken.

_Sires de Coucy._--Coucy gave its name to the sires de Coucy, a feudal house famous in the history of France. The founder of the family was Enguerrand de Boves, a warlike lord, who, at the end of the 11th century seized the castle of Coucy by force. Towards the close of his life, he had to fight against his own son, Thomas de Marle, who in 1115 succeeded him, subsequently becoming notorious for his deeds of violence in the struggles between the communes of Laon and Amiens. He was subdued by King Louis VI. in 1117, but his son Enguerrand II. continued the struggle against the king. Enguerrand III., the Great, fought at Bouvines under Philip Augustus (1214), but later he was accused of aiming at the crown of France, and he took part in the disturbances which arose during the regency of Blanche of Castile. These early lords of Coucy remained till the 14th century in possession of the land from which they took their name. Enguerrand IV., sire de Coucy, died in 1320 without issue and was succeeded by his nephew Enguerrand, son of Arnold, count of Guines, and Alix de Coucy, from whom is descended the second line of the house of Coucy. Enguerrand VI. had his lands ravaged by the English in 1339 and died at Crecy in 1346. Enguerrand VII., sire de Coucy, count of Soissons and Marle, and chief butler of France, was sent as a hostage to England, where he married Isabel, the eldest daughter of King Edward III. Wishing to remain neutral in the struggle between England and France, he went to fight in Italy. Having made claims upon the domains of the house of Austria, from which he was descended through his mother, he was defeated in battle (1375-1376). He was entrusted with various diplomatic negotiations, and took part in the crusade of Hungary against the Sultan Bayezid, during which he was taken prisoner, and died shortly after the battle of Nicopolis (1397). His daughter Marie sold the fief of Coucy to Louis, duke of Orleans, in 1400. The Chatelain de Coucy (see above) did not belong to the house of the lords of Coucy, but was castellan of the castle of that name.

COUES, ELLIOTT (1842-1899), American naturalist, was born at Portsmouth, New Hampshire, on the 9th of September 1842. He graduated at Columbian (now George Washington) University, Washington, D.C., in 1861, and at the Medical school of that institution in 1863. He served as a medical cadet at Washington in 1862-1863, and in 1864 was appointed assistant-surgeon in the regular army. In 1872 he published his _Key to North American Birds_, which, revised and rewritten in 1884 and 1901, has done much to promote the systematic study of ornithology in America. In 1873-1876 Coues was attached as surgeon and naturalist to the United States Northern Boundary Commission, and in 1876-1880 was secretary and naturalist to the United States Geological and Geographical Survey of the Territories, the publications of which he edited. He was lecturer on anatomy in the medical school of the Columbian University in 1877-1882, and professor of anatomy there in 1882-1887. He resigned from the army in 1881 to devote himself entirely to scientific research. He was a founder of the American Ornithologists' Union, and edited its organ, _The Auk_, and several other ornithological periodicals. He died at Baltimore, Maryland, on the 25th of December 1899. In addition to ornithology he did valuable work in mammalogy; his book _Fur-Bearing Animals_ (1877) being distinguished by the accuracy and completeness of its description of species, several of which are already becoming rare. In 1887 he became president of the Esoteric Theosophical Society of America. Among the most important of his publications, in several of which he had collaboration, are _A Field Ornithology_ (1874); _Birds of the North-west_ (1874); _Monographs on North American Rodentia_, with J. A. Allen (1877); _Birds of the Colorado Valley_ (1878); _A Bibliography of Ornithology_ (1878-1880, incomplete); _New England Bird Life_ (1881); _A Dictionary and Check List of North American Birds_ (1882); _Biogen, A Speculation on the Origin and Motive of Life_ (1884); _The Daemon of Darwin_ (1884); _Can Matter Think?_ (1886); and _Neuro-Myology_ (1887). He also contributed numerous articles to the Century Dictionary, wrote for various encyclopaedias, and edited the _Journals of Lewis and Clark_ (1893), and _The Travels of Zebulon M. Pike_ (1895).

COULISSE (French for "groove," from _couler_, to slide), a term for a groove in which a gate of a sluice, or the side-scenes in a theatre, slide up and down, hence applied to the space on the stage between the wings, and generally to that part of the theatre "behind the scenes" and out of view of the public. It is also a term of the Paris Bourse, derived from a _coulisse_, or passage in which transactions were carried on without the authorized _agents de change_. The name _coulissier_ was thus given to unauthorized _agents de change_, or "outside brokers" who, after many attempts at suppression, were finally given a recognized status in 1901. They bring business to the _agents de change_, and act as intermediaries between them and other parties. (See STOCK EXCHANGE: Paris.)

COULOMB, CHARLES AUGUSTIN (1736-1806), French natural philosopher, was born at Angouleme on the 14th of June 1736. He chose the profession of military engineer, spent three years, to the decided injury of his health, at Fort Bourbon, Martinique, and was employed on his return at Rochelle, the Isle of Aix and Cherbourg. In 1781 he was stationed permanently at Paris, but on the outbreak of the Revolution in 1789 he resigned his appointment as _intendant des eaux et fontaines_, and retired to a small estate which he possessed at Blois. He was recalled to Paris for a time in order to take part in the new determination of weights and measures, which had been decreed by the Revolutionary government. Of the National Institute he was one of the first members; and he was appointed inspector of public instruction in 1802. But his health was already very feeble, and four years later he died at Paris on the 23rd of August 1806. Coulomb is distinguished in the history alike of mechanics and of electricity and magnetism. In 1779 he published an important investigation of the laws of friction (_Theorie des machines simples, en ayant regard au frottement de leurs parties et a la roideur des cordages_), which was followed twenty years later by a memoir on fluid resistance. In 1785 appeared his _Recherches theoriques et experimentales sur la force de torsion et sur l'elasticite des fils de metal_, &c. This memoir contained a description of different forms of his torsion balance, an instrument used by him with great success for the experimental investigation of the distribution of electricity on surfaces and of the laws of electrical and magnetic action, of the mathematical theory of which he may also be regarded as the founder. The practical unit of quantity of electricity, the _coulomb_, is named after him.

COULOMMIERS, a town of northern France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Seine-et-Marne, 45 m. E. of Paris by rail. Pop. (1906) 5217. It is situated in the fertile district of Brie, in a valley watered by the Grand-Morin. The church of St Denis (13th and 16th centuries), and the ruins of a castle built by Catherine of Gonzaga, duchess of Longueville, in the early 17th century, are of little importance. There is a statue to Commandant Beaurepaire, who, in 1792, killed himself rather than surrender Verdun to the Prussians. Coulommiers is the seat of a subprefect, and has a tribunal of first instance and a communal college. Printing is the chief industry, tanning, flour-milling and sugar-making being also carried on. Trade is in agricultural products, and especially in cheeses named after the town.

COUMARIN, C9H6O2, a substance which occurs naturally in sweet woodruff (_Asperula odorata_), in the tonka bean and in yellow melilot (_Melilotus officinalis_). It can be obtained from the tonka bean by extraction with alcohol. It is prepared artificially by heating aceto-ortho-coumaric acid (which is formed from sodium salicyl aldehyde) or from the action of acetic anhydride and sodium acetate on salicyl aldehyde (Sir W. H. Perkin, _Berichte_, 1875, 8, p. 1599). It can also be prepared by heating a mixture of phenol and malic acid with sulphuric acid, or by passing bromine vapour at 107 deg. C. over the anhydride of melilotic acid. It forms rhombic crystals (from ether) melting at 67 deg. C. and boiling at 290 deg. C., which are readily soluble in alcohol, and moderately soluble in hot water. It is applied in perfumery for the preparation of the _Asperula_ essence. On boiling with concentrated caustic potash it yields the potassium salt of coumaric acid, whilst when fused with potash it is completely decomposed into salicylic and acetic acids. Sodium amalgam reduces it, in aqueous solution, to melilotic acid. It forms addition products with bromine and hydrobromic acid. By the action of phosphorus pentasulphide it is converted into thiocoumarin, which melts at 101 deg. C.; and in alcoholic solution, on the addition of hydroxylamine hydrochloride and soda, it yields coumarin oxime.

Ortho-coumaric acid (o-oxycinnamic acid) is obtained from coumarin as shown above, or by boiling coumarin for some time with sodium ethylate. It melts at 208 deg. C. and is easily soluble in hot water and in alcohol. It cannot be converted into coumarin by heating alone, but it is readily transformed on heating with acetic anhydride or acetyl chloride. By the action of sodium amalgam it is readily converted into _melilotic acid_, which melts at 81 deg. C., and on distillation furnishes its lactone, _hydrocoumarin_, melting at 25 deg. C. For the relations of coumaric and coumarinic acid see _Annalen_, 254, p. 181. The homologues of coumarin may be obtained by the action of sulphuric acid on phenol and the higher fatty acids (propionic, butyric and isovaleric anhydrides), substitution taking place at the carbon atom in the [alpha] position to the -CO-group, whilst by the condensation of acetoacetic ester and phenols with sulphuric acid the [beta] substituted coumarins are obtained.

_Umbelliferone_ or 4-oxycoumarin, occurs in the bark of _Daphne mezereum_ and may be obtained by distilling such resins as galbanum or asafoetida. It may be synthesized from resorcin and malic anhydride or from [beta] resorcyl aldehyde, acetic anhydride and sodium acetate. _Daphnetin_ and _Aesculetin_ are dioxycoumarins.

The structural formulae of coumarin and the related substances are:

CH
/ \_CH:CH.CO2H / \ / \\CH / \ /CH2.CH2.CO2H
| | | | | | |
| |_ | | | | |
\ / OH \ / \ / CO \ / \OH
O
Orthocoumaric Coumarin. Melilotic
acid. acid.

CH2 CH
/ \ / \ CH2 / \ / \\CH
| | | | | |
| | | | | |
\ / \ / CO HO \ / \ / CO
O O
Hydrocoumarin. Umbelliferone.

COUMARONES or BENZOFURFURANES, organic compounds containing the ring system

CH
/\\
C6H4 CH.
\ /
O

This ring system may be synthesized in many different ways, the chief methods employed being as follows: by the action of hot alcoholic potash on [alpha]-bromcoumarin (R. Fittig, _Ann._, 1883, 216, p. 162),

CH:C.Br CH CH
/ /\\ /\\
C6H4 ---> C6H4 C.COOH ---> C6H4 CH;
\ . \ / \ /
O.CO O O

from sodium salts of phenols and [alpha]-chloracetoacetic ester (A. Hantzsch, _Ber._, 1886, 19, p. 1292),

H C.CH3
/ COCH3 /\\
C6H4 ---> . ---> C6H4 C.COOR;
\ Cl.CH.COOR \ /
ONa O

or from ortho-oxyaldehydes by condensation with ketones (S. Kostanecki and J. Tambor, _Ber._, 1896, 29, p. 237), or with chloracetic acid (A. Rossing, _Ber._, 1884, 17, p. 3000),

/OH CH3CO.C6H5 /OH
C6H4 ----------> C6H4 2 Br
\CHO \CH:CH.COC6H5 ----->

/OH KHO / O \
C6H4 ----> C6H4 C.COC6H5,
\CHBr.CHBr.COC6H5 \CH//

/OH Cl.CH2.COOH /CHO CH3COONa
C6H4 ------------> C6H4 -------->
\CHO \O.CH2.COOH

/CH\\
C6H4 C.COOH.
\ O /

The parent substance coumarone, C8H6O, is also obtained by heating [omega]-chlor-ortho-oxystyrol with concentrated potash solution (G. Komppa, _Ber._, 1893, 26. p. 2971),

/CH:CHCl KOH /CH\\
C6H4 ----> C6H4 CH.
\OH \ O /

It is a colourless liquid which boils at 171-172 deg. C. and is readily volatile in steam, but is insoluble in water and in potash solution. Concentrated acids convert it into a resin. When heated with sodium and absolute alcohol, it is converted into _hydrocoumarone_, C8H8O, and ethyl phenol.

COUNCIL (Lat. _concilium_, from _cum_, together, and the root cal, to call), the general word for a convocation, meeting, assembly. The Latin word was frequently confused with _consilium_ (from _consulere_, to deliberate, cf. _consul_), advice, i.e. counsel, and thus specifically an advisory assembly. Du Cange (_Gloss. Med. Infim. Latin._) quotes the Greek words [Greek: synodos, synedrion, symboulion] as the equivalent of _concilium_. In French the distinction between _conseil_ (from _consilium_), advice, and _concile_, council (i.e. ecclesiastical--its only meaning) has survived, but the two English derivatives are much confused. In the New Testament, "council" is the rendering of the Hebrew Sanhedrin, Gr. [Greek: synedrion]. The word is generally used in English for all kinds of congregations or convocations assembled for administrative and deliberative purposes.[1]

The present article is confined to a history of the development of the ecclesiastical council, summoned to adjust matters in dispute with the civil authority or for the settlement of doctrinal and other internal disputes. For details see under separate headings, NICAEA, &c.

From a very early period in the history of the Church, councils or synods have been held to decide on matters of doctrine and discipline. They may be traced back to the second half of the 2nd century A.D., when sundry churches in Asia Minor held consultations about the rise of Montanism. Their precise origin is disputed. The common Roman Catholic view is that they are apostolic though not prescribed by divine law, and the apostolic precedent usually cited is the "council" of Jerusalem (Acts xv.; Galatians ii.). Waiving the consideration of vital critical questions and accepting Acts xv. at its face value, the assembly at Jerusalem would scarcely seem to have been a council in the technical sense of the word; it was in essence a meeting of the Jerusalem church at which delegates from Antioch were heard but apparently had no vote, the decision resting solely with the mother church. R. Sohm argues that synods grew from the custom of certain local churches which, when confronted with a serious problem of their own, augmented their numbers by receiving delegates from the churches of the neighbourhood. Hauck, however, holds that these augmented church meetings, which dealt with the affairs of but a single church, are to be distinguished from the synods, which took cognizance of matters of general interest. Older Protestant writers have contented themselves with saying either that synods were of apostolic origin, or that they were the inevitable outcome of the need of the leaders of churches to take counsel together, and that they were perhaps modelled on the secular provincial assemblies (_concilia provincialia_).

Every important alteration in the constitution of the Church has affected the composition and function of synods; but the changes were neither simultaneous nor precisely alike throughout the Roman empire. The synods of the 2nd century were extraordinary assemblies which met to deliberate upon pressing problems. They had no fixed geographical limits for membership, no _ex-officio_ members, nor did they possess an authority which did away with the independence of the local church. In the course of the 3rd century came the decisive change, which increased the prestige of the councils: the right to vote was limited to bishops. This was the logical outgrowth of the belief that each local church ought to have but one bishop (monarchical episcopate), and that these bishops were the sole legitimate successors of the apostles (apostolic succession), and therefore official organs of the Holy Spirit. Although as late as 250 the consensus of the priests, the deacons and the people was still considered essential to the validity of a conciliar decision at Rome and in certain parts of the East, the development had already run its course in northern Africa. It was a further step in advance when synods began to meet at regular intervals. They were held annually in Cappadocia by the middle of the 3rd century, and the council of Nicaea commanded in 325 that semiannual synods be held in every province, an arrangement which was not systematically enforced, and was altered in 692, when the Trullan Council reduced the number to one a year.

With the multiplication of synods came naturally a differentiation of type. In text-books we find clear lines drawn between diocesan, provincial, national, patriarchal and oecumenical synods; but the first thousand years of church history do not justify the sharpness of the traditional distinction. The _provincial_ synods, presided over by the metropolitan (archbishop), were usually held at the capital of the province, and attempted to legislate on all sorts of questions. The state had nothing to do with calling them, nor did their decrees require governmental sanction. Various abortive attempts were made to set up synods of _patriarchal_ or at least of more than provincial rank. In North Africa eighteen such synods were held between 393 and 424; during part of the 5th and 6th centuries _primatial_ councils assembled at Arles; and the patriarchs of Constantinople were accustomed to invite to their "_endemic_ synods" ([Greek: synodoi endemousai]) all bishops who happened to be sojourning at the capital. _Papal_ synods from the 5th and especially from the 9th century onward included members such as the archbishops of Ravenna, Milan, Aquileia and Grado, who resided outside the Roman archdiocese; but the territorial limits from which the membership was drawn do not appear to have been precisely defined.

Before the form of the provincial synod had become absolutely fixed, there arose in the 4th century the _oecumenical_ council. The Greek term [Greek: synodos oikoumenike][2] (1) (used by Eusebius, _Vita Constantini_, iii. 6) is preferable to the Latin _concilium universale_ or _generale_, which has been applied loosely to national and even to provincial synods. The oecumenical synods were not the logical outgrowth of the network of provincial synods; they were creations of the imperial power. Constantine, who had not even been baptized, laid the foundations when, in response to a petition of the Donatists, he referred their case to a committee of bishops that convened at Rome, which meeting Eusebius calls a synod. After that the emperor summoned the council of Arles to settle the matter. For both of these assemblies it was the emperor that decided who should be summoned, paid the travelling expenses of the bishops, determined where the council should be held and what topics should be discussed. He regarded them as temporary advisory bodies, to whose recommendations the imperial authority might give the force of law. In the same manner he appointed the time and place for the council of Nicaea, summoned the episcopate, paid part of the expenses out of the public purse, nominated the committee in charge of the order of business, used his influence to bring about the adoption of the creed, and punished those who refused to subscribe. To be sure, the council of Nicaea commanded great veneration, for it was the first attempt to assemble the entire episcopate; but no more than the synods of Rome and of Arles was it an organ of ecclesiastical self-government--it was rather a means whereby the Church was ruled by the secular power. The subsequent oecumenical synods of the undivided Church were patterned on that of Nicaea. Most Protestant scholars maintain that the secular authorities decided whether or not they should be convened, and issued the summons; that imperial commissioners were always present, even if they did not always preside; that on occasion emperors have confirmed or refused to confirm synodal decrees; and that the papal confirmation was neither customary nor requisite. Roman Catholic scholars to-day tend to recede from the high ground very generally taken several centuries ago, and Funk even admits that the right to convoke oecumenical synods was vested in the emperor regardless of the wishes of the pope, and that it cannot be proved that the Roman see ever actually had a share in calling the oecumenical councils of antiquity. Others, however, while acknowledging the futility of seeking historical proofs that the popes _formally_ called, directed and confirmed these synods, yet assert that the emperor performed these functions not of his own right but in his quality as protector of the Church, that this involved his acting at the request or at least with the permission and approval of the Church, and in particular of the pope, and that a special though not a stereotyped papal confirmation of conciliar decrees was necessary to their validity.

In the Germanic states which arose on the ruins of the Western Empire we find _national_ and _diocesan_ synods; provincial synods were unusual. National synods were summoned by the king or with his consent to meet special needs; and they were frequently _concilia mixta_, at which lay dignitaries appeared. Although the Frankish monarchs were not absolute rulers, nevertheless they exercised the right of changing or rejecting synodal decrees which ran counter to the interests of the state. Clovis held the first French national synod at Orleans in 511; Reccared, the first in Spain in 589 at Toledo. Under Charlemagne they were occasionally so representative that they might almost be ranked as general synods of the West (Regensburg, 792, Frankfort, 794). Contemporaneous with the evolution of the national synod was the development of a new type of diocesan synod, which included the priests of separate and mutually independent parishes and also the leaders of the monastic clergy.

The papal synods came into the foreground with the success of the Cluniac reform of the Church, especially from the Lateran synod of 1059 on. They grew in importance until at length Calixtus II. summoned to the Lateran the synod of 1123 as "_generale concilium_." The powers which the pope as bishop of the church in Rome had exercised over its synods he now extended to the oecumenical councils. They were more completely under his control than the ancient ones had been under the sway of the emperor. The Pseudo-Isidorean principle that all major synods need papal authorization was insisted on, and the decrees were formulated as papal edicts.

The absolutist principles cherished by the papal court in the 12th and 13th centuries did not pass unchallenged; but the protests of Marsilius of Padua and the less radical William of Occam remained barren until the Great Schism of 1378. As neither the pope in Rome nor his rival in Avignon would give way, recourse was had to the idea that the supreme power was vested not in the pope but in the oecumenical council. This "conciliar theory," propounded by Conrad of Gelnhausen and championed by the great Parisian teachers Pierre d'Ailly and Gerson, proceeded from the nominalistic axiom that the whole is greater than its part. The decisive revolutionary step was taken when the cardinals independently of both popes ventured to hold the council of Pisa (1409). The council of Constance asserted the supremacy of oecumenical synods, and ordered that these be convened at regular intervals. The last of the Reform councils, that of Basel, approved these principles, and at length passed a sentence of deposition against Pope Eugenius IV. Eugenius, however, succeeded in maintaining his power, and at the council of Florence (1439) secured the condemnation of the conciliar theory; and this was reiterated still more emphatically, on the eve of the Reformation, by the fifth Lateran council (1516). Thenceforward the absolutist theories of the 13th and 14th centuries increasingly dominated the Roman Church. The popes so distrusted oecumenical councils that between 1517 and 1869 they called but one; at this (Trent, 1545-1563), however, all treatment of the question of papal versus conciliar authority was purposely avoided. Although the Declaration of the French clergy of 1682 reaffirmed the conciliar doctrines of Constance, since the French Revolution this "Gallicanism" has shown itself to be but a passing phase of constitutional theory; and in the 19th century the ascendancy of Ultramontanism became so secure that Pius IX. could confidently summon to the Vatican a synod which set its seal on the doctrine of papal infallibility. Yet it would be a misconception to suppose that the Vatican decrees mean the surrender of the ancient belief in the infallibility of oecumenical synods; their decisions may still be regarded as more solemn and more impressive than those of the pope alone; their authority is fuller, though not higher. At present it is agreed that the pope has the sole right of summoning oecumenical councils, of presiding or appointing presidents and of determining the order of business and the topics which shall come up. The papal confirmation is indispensable; it is conceived of as the stamp without which the expression of conciliar opinion lacks legal validity. In other words, the oecumenical council is now practically in the position of the senate of an absolute monarch. It is in fact an open question whether a council is to be ranked as really oecumenical until after its decrees have been approved by the pope. (See VATICAN COUNCIL, ULTRAMONTANISM, INFALLIBILITY.)

The earlier oecumenical councils have well been called "the pitched battles of church history." Summoned to combat heresy and schism, in spite of degrading pressure from without and tumultuous disorder within, they ultimately brought about a modicum of doctrinal agreement. On the one side as time went on they bound scholarship hand and foot in the winding-sheet of tradition, and also fanned the flames of intolerance; yet on the other side they fostered the sense of the Church's corporate oneness. The diocesan and provincial synods have formed a valuable system of regularly recurring assemblies for disposing of ecclesiastical business. They have been held most frequently, however, in times of stress and of reform, for instance in the 11th, 16th and 19th centuries; at other periods they have lapsed into disuse: it is significant that to-day the prelate who neglects to convene them suffers no penalty. At present the main function of both provincial and oecumenical synods seems to be to facilitate obedience to the wishes of the central government of the Church.

The _right to vote_ (_votum definitivum_) has been distinguished from early times from the right to be heard (_votum consultativum_). The Reform Synods of the 15th century gave a decisive vote to doctors and licentiates of theology and of laws, some of them sitting as individuals, some as representatives of universities. Roman Catholic canonists now confine the right to vote at oecumenical councils to bishops, cardinal deacons, generals or vicars general of monastic orders and the _praelati nullius_ (exempt abbots, &c.); all other persons, lay or clerical, who are admitted or invited, have merely the _votum consultativum_--they are chiefly procurators of absent bishops, or very learned priests. It was but a clumsy and temporary expedient, designed to offset the preponderance of Italian bishops dependent on the pope when the council of Constance subdivided itself into several groups or "nations," each of which had a single vote. In voting, the simple majority decides; yet such is the importance attached to a unanimous verdict that an irreconcilable minority may absent itself from the final vote, as was the case at the Vatican Council.

The numbering of oecumenical synods is not fixed; the list most used in the Roman Church to-day is that of Hefele (_Conciliengeschichte_, 2nd ed., I. 59 f.):

A.D.
1. Nicaea I. 325
2. Constantinople I. 381
3. Ephesus 431
4. Chalcedon 451
5. Constantinople II. 553
6. Constantinople III. 680
7. Nicaea II. 787
8. Constantinople IV. 869
9. Lateran I. 1123
10. Lateran II. 1139
11. Lateran III. 1179
12. Lateran IV. 1215
13. Lyons I. 1245
14. Lyons II. 1274
15. Vienne 1311
16. Constance (in part) 1414-1418
17a. Basel (in part) 1431 ff.
17b. Ferrara-Florence (a continuation of Basel) 1438-1442
18. Lateran V. 1512-1517
19. Trent 1545-1563
20. Vatican 1869-1870

(Each of these and certain other important synods are treated in separate articles.)

By including Pisa (1409) and by treating Florence as a separate synod, certain writers have brought the number of oecumenical councils up to twenty-two. These standard lists are of the type which became established through the authority of Cardinal R. F. Bellarmine (1542-1621), who criticized Constance and Basel, while defending Florence and the fifth Lateran council against the Gallicans. As late as the 16th century, however, "the majority did not regard those councils in which the Greek Church did not take part as oecumenical at all" (Harnack, _History of Dogma_, vi. 17). The Greek Church accepts only the first seven synods as oecumenical; and it reckons the Trullan synod of 692 (the Quinisextum) as a continuation of the sixth oecumenical synod of 680. But concerning the first seven councils it should be remarked that Constantinople I. was but a general synod of the East; its claim to oecumenicity rests upon its reception by the West about two centuries later. Similarly the only representatives of the West present at Constantinople II. were certain Africans; the pope did not accept the decrees till afterwards and they made their way in the West but gradually. Just as there have been synods which have come to be considered oecumenical though not convoked as such, so there have been synods which though summoned as oecumenical, failed of recognition: for instance Sardica (343), Ephesus (449), Constantinople (754). The last two received the imperial confirmation and from the legal point of view were no whit inferior to the others; their decrees, however, were overthrown by subsequent synods. As the Protestant leaders of the 16th century held fast the traditional christology, they regarded with veneration the dogmatic decisions of Nicaea I., Constantinople I., Ephesus and Chalcedon. These four councils had enjoyed a more or less fortuitous pre-eminence both in Roman and in canon law, and by many Catholics at the time of the Reformation were regarded, along with the three great creeds (Apostles', Nicene, Athanasian), as a sort of irreducible minimum of orthodoxy. In the 17th century the liberal Lutheran George Calixtus based his attempts at reuniting Christendom on this _consensus quinquesaecularis_. Many other Protestants have accepted Constantinople II. and III. as supporting the first four councils; and still others, notably many Anglican high churchmen, have felt bound by all the oecumenical synods of the undivided Church. The common Protestant attitude toward synods is, however, that they may err and have erred, and that the Scriptures and not conciliar decisions are the sole infallible standard of faith, morals and worship.

_Protestant Councils._--The churches of the Reformation have all had a certain measure of synodal life. The Church of England has maintained its ancient provincial synods or convocations, though for the greater part of the 18th and the first part of the 19th centuries they transacted no business. In the Lutheran churches of Germany there was no strong agitation in favour of introducing synods until the 19th century, when a movement, designed to render the churches less dependent on the governmental consistories, won its way, until at length Prussia itself fell into line (1873 and 1876). As the powers granted to the German synods are very limited, many of their advocates have been disillusioned; but the Lutheran churches of America, being independent of the state, have developed synods both numerous and potent. In the Reformed churches outside Germany synodal life is vigorous; its forms were developed by the Huguenots in days of persecution, and passed thence to Scotland and other presbyterian countries. Even many of the churches of congregational polity have organized national councils (see CONGREGATIONALISM); but here the principle of the independence of the local church prevents the decisions from binding those congregations which do not approve of the decrees. Moreover, in the last decade of the 19th century a growing desire for a rapprochement between the Free Churches in the United Kingdom as a whole led to the annual assembly of the Free Church Council for the consideration of all matters affecting the dissenting bodies. This body has no executive or doctrinal authority and is rather a conference than a council. In general it may be said that synods are becoming more and more powerful in Protestant lands, and that they are destined to still greater prominence because of the growing sentiment for Christian unity.

AUTHORITIES.--GENERAL COLLECTIONS: _Collectio regia_ (Paris, 1644, 37
vols.) (the first very extensive work); P. Labbe (not Labbe) and G.
Cossart, _Sacrosancta concilia_ (Paris, 1672, 17 vols.), with
supplement by Etienne Baluze (Baluzius), 1683 (based on above); J.
Hardouin (Harduinus), _Conciliorum collectio regia maxima_ (Paris,
1715), 11 tomi in 12 vols, (to 1714; more exact; indexed; serious
omissions); enlarged edition by N. Coletus (Venice, 1728-1732),
supplemented by J. D. Mansi, _Sanctorum conciliorum et decretorum nova
collectio_ (Lucca, 1748, 6 tomi). Convenient but fallible is Mansi's
_Sacrorum conciliorum et decretorum nova et amplissima collectio_
(Florence, 1759-1767; completed Venice, 1769-1798, 31 vols.);
facsimile reproduction by Welter (Paris, 1901 ff.), adding (tom. O)
_Introductio seu apparatus ad sacrosancta concilia_, and (tom. 17B and
18B) Baluze, _Capitularia regum Francorum_, and continuing to date by
reproducing parts of Coletus and of Mansi's supplement to Coletus, and
furnishing (tom. 37 ff.) a new edition of the councils from 1720 on by
J. B. Martin and L. Petit. A careful text of Roman Catholic synods
from 1682 to 1870 is _Collectio Lacensis_ (_Acta et decreta sacrorum
conciliorum recentiorum_, Friburgi, 1870 ff.), 7 vols.

SPECIAL COLLECTIONS: GREAT BRITAIN: _Concilia Magnae Britanniae et
Hiberniae_, ed. D. Wilkins (London, 1737, 4 vols.); _Councils and
Ecclesiastical Documents relating to Great Britain and Ireland_, ed.
by A. W. Haddan and W. Stubbs (Oxford, 1869 ff., 4 vols.); J. W.
Joyce, _Handbook of the Convocations or Provincial Synods of the
Church of England_ (London, 1887); _Concilia Scotiae_ (1225-1559), ed.
Joseph Robertson (Edinburgh, Bannatyne Club, 1866, 2 tom.).

UNITED STATES: _Collectio Lacensis_ (Roman Catholic synods); _The
American Church History Series_ (New York, 1893 ff. 13 vols.) gives
information on the various Protestant synods.

FRANCE.--_Concilia aevi Merovingici_, rec. F. Maassen (Hanover, 1893)
(_Monumenta Germaniae historica, Legum sectio_ iii., _Concilia_, tom.
i.); _Concilia antiqua Galliae_, cur. J. Sirmond (Paris, 1629, 3
vols.); supplement by P. de la Lande (Paris, 1666); L. Odespun,
_Concilia novissima Galliae_ (Paris, 1646); _Conciliorum Galliae tam
editorum quam ineditorum, stud. congreg. S. Mauri_, tom. i. (Paris,
1789). Synods of the Reformed Churches of France are contained in J.
Quick, _Synodicon in Gallia reformata_ (London, 1692, 2 vols.); J.
Aymon, _Tous les synodes nationaux des eglises reformees de France_
(La Haye, 1710, 2 vols.); E. Hugues, _Les Synodes du desert_ (Paris,
1885 f., 3 vols.). For the synods of other countries see Herzog-Hauck,
3rd ed., 19,262 f., and Wetzer and Welte, 2nd ed., 3809 f.

LESS ELABORATE TEXTS: _Canones apostolorum et conciliorum saeculorum_,
iv.-vii., rec. H. T. Bruns (Berlin, 1839, 2 vols.) (still useful); J.
Fulton, _Index Canonum_ (3rd ed., New York, 1892) (3rd and 4th
centuries); W. Bright, _Notes on the Canons of the First Four General
Councils_ (2nd ed., Oxford, 1892); _Die Kanones der wichtigsten
altkirchlichen Conzilien nebst den apostolischen Kanones_, ed. F.
Lauchert (Freiburg i. B., 1896); _Enchiridion symbolorum et
definitionum, quae de rebus fidei et morum a conciliis oecumenicis et
summis pontificibus emanarunt_, ed. H. Denzinger (7th ed., Wurzburg,
1895); _Bibliothek der Symbole und Glaubensregeln der alten Kirche_,
ed. by A. Hahn (3rd edition, revised and enlarged, Breslau, 1897),
with variant readings; C. Mirbt, _Quellen zur Geschichte des Papsttums
und des romischen Katholizismus_ (2nd much enlarged ed., Tubingen,
1901); E. F. Karl Muller, Die Bekenntnisschriften der reformierten
Kirche (Leipzig, 1903) (for all countries). These last five are
elaborately indexed.

TRANSLATIONS: John Johnson, _A Collection of the Laws and Canons of
the Church of England_ [601-1519], 2 parts (London, 1720; reprinted
Oxford, 1850 f., in the _Library of Anglo-Catholic Theology_); P.
Schaff, _The Creeds of Christendom_ (New York, 1877, 3 vols.) (texts
and translations parallel); _Canons and Creeds of the First Four
Councils_, ed. by E. K. Mitchell, in _Translations and Reprints from
the Original Sources of European History, published by the Department
of History of the University of Pennsylvania_, vol. iv. 2 (1897); H.
R. Percival, _The Ecumenical Councils_ (New York, 1900) (_Nicene and
Post-Nicene Fathers_, second series, vol. xiv.; translates canons and
compiles notes; bibliography in Introduction).

GENERAL HISTORIES OF COUNCILS: C. J. von Hefele, _Conciliengeschichte_
(Freiburg i. B., 1855); English translation of the earlier volumes to
A.D. 787, from A.D. 326 on, based on the second German edition
(Edinburgh, 1871 ff.); French, by Delarc (Paris, 1869-1874, 10 vols.).
This first edition not entirely superseded by the second, made after
the Vatican council, and continued by Knopfler and by Hergenrother
(Freiburg, 1873-1890, 9 vols.); a French translation, with
continuation and critical and bibliographical notes, _par un religieux
benedictin de Farnborough_, tome i. 1^re partie (Paris, Letouzey,
1907); Paul Viollet, _Examen de l'histoire des conciles de Mgr Hefele_
(Paris, 1876) (_Extrait de la Revue historique_); W. P. du Bose, _The
Ecumenical Councils_ (New York, 1896) (popular); P. Guerin, _Les
Conciles generaux et particuliers_ (Paris, 1868, 3rd impression, 1897,
3 tom.); see also A. Harnack, _History of Dogma_ (Boston, 1895-1900, 7
vols.); F. Loofs, _Leitfaden der Dogmengeschichte_ (4th ed., enlarged,
Halle, 1906).

LITERATURE: _Dictionnaire universel et complet des conciles_, redige
par A. C. Peltier, publie par Migne (Paris, 1847, 2 vols.) (Migne,
_Encyclopedie theologique_, vol. 13 f.); Z. Zitelli-Natali, _Epitome
historico-canonica conciliorum generalium_ (Rome, 1881); F. X. Kraus,
_Realencyklopadie der christlichen Altertumer_, vol. i.
(Freiburg-i.-B., 1882) (art. "Concilien" by Funk); William Smith and
S. Cheetham, _Dictionary of Christian Antiquities_ (London, 1876-1880,
2 vols.) (erudite detail); Wetzer und Welte's _Kirchenlexikon_, 2nd
ed. by Hergenrother and Kaulen (Freiburg i. B., 1882-1903, 13 vols.)
(art. "Concil" by Scheeben); _La Grande Encyclopedie_ (Paris, s.d., 31
vols.) (numerous articles); P. Hinschius, _Das Kirchenrecht der
Katholiken und Protestanten in Deutschland_, vol. 3 (Berlin, 1883)
(fundamental and masterly); R. von Scherer, _Handbuch des
Kirchenrechtes_, vol. i. (Graz, 1886) (excellent notes and
references); E. H. Landon, _A Manual of Councils of the Holy Catholic
Church_, (revised ed., London, [1893], 2 vols.) (paraphrases chief
canons; needs revision); Martigny, _Dictionnaire des antiquites
chretiennes_ (3rd ed., Paris, 1889) (for ceremonial); R. Sohm,
_Kirchenrecht_, vol. i. (Leipzig, 1892) (brilliant); A. Kneer, _Die
Entstehung der konziliaren Theorie_ (Rome, 1893); _Realencyklopadie
fur protestantische Theologie und Kirche_, begrundet von J. J. Herzog,
3rd revised ed. by A. Hauck (Leipzig, 1896 ff.) (in vol. 19 Hauck's
excellent _Synoden_, 1907); F. X. Funk, _Kirchengeschichtliche
Abhandlungen und Untersuchungen_ (Paderborn, 1897); A. V. G. Allen,
_Christian Institutions_ (New York, 1897), chap. xi.; C. A. Kneller,
"Papst und Konzil im ersten Jahrtausend" (_Zeitschrift fur katholische
Theologie_, vols. 27 and 28, Innsbruck, 1893 f.); F. Bliemetzrieder,
_Das Generalkonzil im grossen abendlandischen Schisma_ (Paderborn,
1904); Wilhelm and Scannell, _Manual of Catholic Theology_ (3rd ed.,
London, 1906, sect. 32); J. Forget, "Conciles," in A. Vacant and E.
Mangeot, _Dictionnaire de theologie catholique_, tome 3, 636-676
(Paris, 1906 ff.), with elaborate bibliography; _The Catholic
Encyclopedia_ (New York, 1907 ff.). (W. W. R.*)

FOOTNOTES:

[1] For the Greek Council see BOULE; for the Hebdomadal Council see
OXFORD; see also ENGLAND: Local Government.

[2] From [Greek: he oikoumene (ge)]. the inhabited world; Latin
_oecumenicus_ or _universalis_. The English forms "oecumenical" and
"ecumenical" are both used.

COUNCIL BLUFFS, a city and the county-seat of Pottawattamie county, Iowa, U.S.A., about 2-1/2 m. E. of the Missouri river opposite Omaha, Nebraska, with which it is connected by a road bridge and two railway bridges. Pop. (1890) 21,474; (1900) 25,802, of whom 3723 were foreign-born; (1910) 29,292. It is pre-eminently a railway centre, being served by the Union Pacific, of which it is the principal eastern terminus, the Chicago, Burlington & Quincy, the Chicago, Milwaukee & Saint Paul, the Chicago & Northwestern, the Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific, the Chicago Great-Western, the Illinois Central, and the Wabash, which together have given it considerable commercial importance. It is built for the most part on level ground at the foot of high bluffs; and has several parks, the most attractive of which, commanding fine views, is Fairmount Park. With the exception of bricks and tiles, carriages and wagons, agricultural implements, and the products of its railway shops, its manufactures are relatively unimportant, the factory product in 1905 being valued at only $1,924,109. Council Bluffs is the seat of the Western Iowa Business College, and of the Iowa school for the deaf. On or near the site of Council Bluffs, in 1804, Lewis and Clark held a council with the Indians, whence the city's name. In 1838 the Federal government made this the headquarters of the Pottawattamie Indians, removed from Missouri. They remained until 1846-1847, when the Mormons came, built many cabins, and named the place Kanesville. The Mormons remained only about five years, but on their departure for Utah their places were speedily taken by new immigrants. During 1849-1850 Council Bluffs became an important outfitting point for California gold seekers--the goods being brought by boat from Saint Louis--and in 1853 it was incorporated as a city.

COUNSEL AND COUNSELLOR, one who gives advice, more particularly in legal matters. The term "counsel" is employed in England as a synonym for a barrister-at-law, and may refer either to a single person who pleads a cause, or collectively, to the body of barristers engaged in a case. Counsellor or, more fully, counsellor-at-law, is practically an obsolete term in England, but is still in use locally in Ireland as an equivalent to barrister. In the United States, a counsellor-at-law is, specifically, an attorney admitted to practice in all the courts; but as there is no formal distinction of the legal profession into two classes, as in England, the term is more often used loosely in the same sense as "lawyer," i.e. one who is versed in, or practises law.

COUNT (Lat. _comes_, gen. _comitis_, Fr. _comte_, Ital. _conte_, Span. _conde_), the English translation of foreign titles equivalent generally to the English "earl."[1] In Anglo-French documents the word _counte_ was at all times used as the equivalent of earl, but, unlike the feminine form "countess," it did not find its way into the English language until the 16th century, and then only in the sense defined above. The title of earl, applied by the English to the foreign counts established in England by William the Conqueror, is dealt with elsewhere (see EARL). The present article deals with (1) the office of count in the Roman empire and the Frankish kingdom, (2) the development of the feudal count in France and under the Holy Roman Empire, (3) modern counts.

1. The Latin _comes_ meant literally a companion or follower. In the early Roman empire the word was used to designate the companions of the emperor (_comites principis_) and so became a title of honour. The emperor Hadrian chose senators as companions on his travels and to help him in public business. They formed a permanent council, and Hadrian's successors entrusted these _comites_ with the administration of justice and finance, or placed them in military commands. The designation _comes_ thus developed into a formal official title of high officers of state, some qualification being added to indicate the special duties attached to the office in each case. Thus in the 5th century, among the _comites_ attached to the emperor's establishment, we find, e.g., the _comes sacrarum largitionum_ and the _comes rei privatae_; while others, forming the council, were styled _comites consistorii_. Others were sent into the provinces as governors, _comites per provincias constituti_; thus in the _Notitia dignitatum_ we find a _comes Aegypti_, a _comes Africae_, a _comes Belgicae_, a _comes Lugdunensis_ and others. Two of the generals of the Roman province of Britain were styled the _comes Britanniae_ and the _comes littoris Saxonici_ (count of the Saxon shore).

At Constantinople in the latter Roman empire the Latin word _comes_ assumed a Greek garb as [Greek: komes] and was declined as a Greek noun (gen. [Greek: kometos]); the _comes sacrarum largitionum_ (count of the sacred bounties) was called at Constantinople [Greek: ho komes ton sakron largitionon] and the _comes rerum privatarum_ (count of the private estates) was called [Greek: komes ton pribaton]. The count of the sacred bounties was the lord treasurer or chancellor of the exchequer, for the public treasury and the imperial fisc had come to be identical; while the count of the private estates managed the imperial demesnes and the privy purse. In the 5th century the "sacred bounties" corresponded to the _aerarium_ of the early Empire, while the _res privatae_ represented the fisc. The officers connected with the palace and the emperor's person included the count of the wardrobe (_comes sacrae vestis_), the count of the residence (_comes domorum_), and, most important of all, the _comes domesticorum et sacri stabuli_ (graecized as [Greek: komes tou stablou]). The count of the stable, originally the imperial master of the horse, developed into the "illustrious" commander-in-chief of the imperial army (Stilicho, e.g., bore the full title as given above), and became the prototype of the medieval constable (q.v.).