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.*)