[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.).
An important official of the second rank (_spectabilis_, "respectable"
as contrasted with those of highest rank who were "illustrious") was the
count of the East, who appears to have had the control of a department
in which 600 officials were engaged. His power was reduced in the 6th
century, when he was deprived of his authority over the Orient diocese,
and became civil governor of Syria Prima, retaining his "respectable"
rank. Another important officer of the later Roman court was the _comes
sacri patrimonii_, who was instituted by the emperor Anastasius. In this
connexion it should be observed that the word _patrimonium_ gradually
changed in meaning. In the beginning of the 3rd century _patrimonium_
meant crown property, and _res privata_ meant personal property: at the
beginning of the 6th century _patrimonium_ meant personal property, and
_res privata_ meant crown property. 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_; but the terms have been well translated by a German author
as _Finanzminister des Reichsschatzes_ (finance minister of the treasury
of the Empire), _F. des Kronschatzes_ (of the crown treasury), and _F.
des kaiserlichen Privatvermogens_ (of the emperor's private property).
The Frankish kings of the Merovingian dynasty retained the Roman system
of administration, and under them the word _comes_ preserved its
original meaning; the _comes_ was a companion of the king, a royal
servant of high rank. Under the early Frankish kings some _comites_ did
not exercise any definite functions; they were merely attached to the
king's person and executed his orders. Others filled the highest
offices, e.g. the _comes palatii_ and _comes stabuli_ (see CONSTABLE).
The kingdom was divided for administrative purposes into small areas
called _pagi_ (_pays_, Ger. _Gau_), corresponding generally to the Roman
_civitates_ (see CITY).[2] At the head of the _pagus_ was the _comes_,
corresponding to the German _Graf_ (_Gaugraf_, cf. Anglo-Saxon
_scire-gerefa_,[3] sheriff). The _comes_ was appointed by the king and
removable at his pleasure, and was chosen originally from all classes,
sometimes from enfranchised slaves. His essential functions were
judicial and executive, and in documents he is often described as the
king's agent (_agens publicus_) or royal judge (_judex publicus_ or
_fiscalis_). As the delegate of the executive power he had the right to
military command in the king's name, and to take all the measures
necessary for the preservation of the peace, i.e. to exercise the royal
"ban" (_bannus regis_). He was at once public prosecutor and judge, was
responsible for the execution of the sentences of the courts, and as the
king's representative exercised the royal right of protection (_mundium
regis_) over churches, widows, orphans and the like. He enjoyed a triple
wergeld, but had no definite salary, being remunerated by the receipt of
certain revenues, a system which contained the germs of discord, on
account of the confusion of his public and private estates. He also
retained a third of the fines which he imposed in his judicial capacity.
Under the early Carolings the title count did not indicate noble birth.
A _comes_ was generally raised from childhood in the king's palace, and
rose to be a count through successive stages. The count's office was not
yet a dignity, nor hereditary; he was not independent nor appointed for
life, but exercised the royal power by delegation, as under the
Merovingians. While, however, he was theoretically paid by the king, he
seems to have been himself one of the sources of the royal revenue. The
counties were, it appears, farmed out; but in the 7th century the royal
choice became restricted to the larger landed proprietors, who gradually
emancipated themselves from royal control, and in the 8th century the
term _comitatus_ begins to denote a geographical area, though there was
little difference in its extent under the Merovingian kings and the
early Carolings. The count was about to pass into the feudatory stage.
Throughout the middle ages, however, the original official and personal
connotation of the title was never wholly lost; or perhaps it would be
truer to say, with Selden, that it was early revived with the study of
the Roman civil law in the 12th century. The unique dignity of count of
the Lateran palace,[4] bestowed in 1328 by the emperor Louis IV. the
Bavarian on Castrucio de' Antelminelli, duke of Lucca, and his heirs
male, was official as well as honorary, being charged with the
attendance and service to be performed at the palace at the emperor's
coronation at Rome (Du Cange, s.v. _Comites Palatii Lateranensis_;
Selden, op. cit. p. 321). This instance, indeed, remained isolated; but
the personal title of "count palatine," though honorary rather than
official, was conferred on officials--especially by the popes on those
of the Curia--had no territorial significance, and was to the last
reminiscent of those early comites palatii whose relations to the
sovereign had been purely personal and official (see PALATINE). A relic
of the old official meaning of "count" still survives in Transylvania,
where the head of the political administration of the Saxon districts is
styled count (_comes_, _Graf_) of the Saxon Nation.
2. _Feudal Counts._--The process by which the official counts were
transformed into feudal vassals almost independent is described in the
article FEUDALISM. In the confusion of the period of transition, when
the title to possession was usually the power to hold, designations
which had once possessed a definite meaning were preserved with no
defined association. In France, by the 10th century, the process of
decomposition of the old organization had gone far, and in the 11th
century titles of nobility were still very loosely applied. That of
"count" was, as Luchaire points out, "equivocal" even as late as the
12th century; any castellan of moderate rank could style himself _comte_
who in the next century would have been called _seigneur_ (_dominus_).
Even when, in the 13th century, the ranks of the feudal hierarchy in
France came to be more definitely fixed, the style of "count" might
imply much, or comparatively little. In the oldest register of Philip
Augustus counts are reckoned with dukes in the first of the five orders
into which the nobles are divided, but the list includes, besides such
almost sovereign rulers as the counts of Flanders and Champagne,
immediate vassals of much less importance--such as the counts of
Soissons and Dammartin--and even one mediate vassal, the count of
Bar-sur-Seine. The title was still in fact "equivocal," and so it
remained throughout French history. In the official lists it was early
placed second to that of duke (Luchaire, _Manuel_, p. 181, note 1), but
in practice at least the great _comtes-pairs_ (e.g. of Champagne) were
the equals of any duke and the superiors of many. Thus, too, in modern
times royal princes have been given the title of count (Paris, Flanders,
Caserta), the heir of Charles X. actually changing his style, without
sense of loss, from that of duc de Bordeaux to that of comte de
Chambord. From the 16th century onwards the equivocal nature of the
title in France was increased by the royal practice of selling it,
either to viscounts or barons in respect of their fiefs, or to rich
_roturiers_.
In Germany the change from the official to the territorial and
hereditary counts followed at the outset much the same course as in
France, though the later development of the title and its meaning was
different. In the 10th century the counts were permitted by the kings to
divide their benefices and rights among their sons, the rule being
established that countships (_Grafschaften_) were hereditary, that they
might be held by boys, that they were heritable by females and might
even be administered by females. The _Grafschaft_ became thus merely a
bundle of rights inherent in the soil; and, the count's office having
become his property, the old counties or _Gauen_ rapidly disappeared as
administrative units, being either amalgamated or subdivided. By the
second half of the 12th century the official character of the count had
quite disappeared; he had become a territorial noble, and the foundation
had been laid of territorial sovereignty (_Landeshoheit_). The first
step towards this was the concession to the counts of the military
prerogatives of dukes, a right enjoyed from the first by the counts of
the marches (see MARGRAVE), then given to counts palatine (see PALATINE)
and, finally, to other counts, who assumed by reason of it the style of
landgrave (_Landgraf_, i.e. count of a province). At first all counts
were reckoned as princes of the Empire (_Reichsfursten_); but since the
end of the 12th century this rank was restricted to those who were
immediate tenants of the crown,[5] the other counts of the Empire
(_Reichsgrafen_) being placed among the free lords (_barones_, _liberi
domini_). Counts of princely rank (_gefurstete Grafen_) voted among the
princes in the imperial diet; the others (_Reichsgrafen_) were grouped
in the _Grafenbanke_--originally two, to which two more were added in
the 17th century--each of which had one vote. In 1806, on the formation
of the Confederation of the Rhine, the sovereign counts were all
mediatized (see MEDIATIZATION). Even before the end of the Empire (1806)
the right of bestowing the title of count was freely exercised by the
various German territorial sovereigns.
3. _Modern Counts._--Any political significance which the feudal title
of count retained in the 18th century vanished with the changes produced
by the Revolution. It is now simply a title of honour and one, moreover,
the social value of which differs enormously, not only in the different
European countries, but within the limits of the same country. In
Germany, for instance, there are several categories of counts: (1) the
mediatized princely counts (_gefurstete Grafen_), who are reckoned the
equals in blood of the European sovereign houses, an equality symbolized
by the "closed crown" surmounting their armorial bearings. The heads of
these countly families of the "high nobility" are entitled (by a decree
of the federal diet, 1829) to the style of _Erlaucht_ (illustrious, most
honourable); (2) Counts of the Empire[6] (_Reichsgrafen_), descendants
of those counts who, before the end of the Holy Roman Empire (1806),
were _Reichsstandisch_ i.e. sat in one of the _Grafenbanke_ in the
imperial diet, and entitled to a ducal coronet; (3) Counts (a) descended
from the lower nobility of the old Empire, titular since the 15th
century, (b) created since; their coronet is nine-pointed (cf. the nine
points and strawberry leaves of the English earl). The difficulty of
determining in any case the exact significance of the title of a German
count, illustrated by the above, is increased by the fact that the title
is generally heritable by all male descendants, the only exception being
in Prussia, where, since 1840, the rule of primogeniture has prevailed
and the bestowal of the title is dependent on a rent-roll of L3000 a
year. The result is that the title is very widespread and in itself
little significant. A German or Austrian count may be a wealthy noble of
princely rank, a member of the Prussian or Austrian Upper House, or he
may be the penniless cadet of a family of no great rank or antiquity.
Nevertheless the title, which has long been very sparingly bestowed,
always implies a good social position. The style _Altgraf_ (old count),
occasionally found, is of some antiquity, and means that the title of
count has been borne by the family from time immemorial.
In medieval France the significance of the title of count varied with
the power of those who bore it; in modern France it varies with its
historical associations. It is not so common as in Germany or Italy;
because it does not by custom pass to all male descendants. The title
was, however, cheapened by its revival under Napoleon. By the decree of
the 1st of March 1808, reviving titles of nobility, that of count was
assigned _ex officio_ to ministers, senators and life councillors of
state, to the president of the Corps Legislatif and to archbishops. The
title was made heritable in order of primogeniture, and in the case of
archbishops through their nephews. These Napoleonic countships,
increased under subsequent reigns, have produced a plentiful crop of
titles of little social significance, and have tended to lower the
status of the counts deriving from the _ancien regime_. The title of
marquis, which Napoleon did not revive, has risen proportionately in the
estimation of the Faubourg St Germain. As for that of count, it is safe
to say that in France its social value is solely dependent on its
historical associations.
Of all European countries Italy has been most prolific of counts. Every
petty Italian prince, from the pope downwards, created them for love or
money; and, in the absence of any regulating authority, the title was
also widely and loosely assumed, while often the feudal title passed
with the sale of the estate to which it was attached. Casanova remarked
that in some Italian cities all the nobles were _baroni_, in others all
were _conti_. An Italian _conte_ may or may not be a gentleman; he has
long ceased, _qua_ count, to have any social prestige, and his rank is
not recognized by the Italian government. As in France, however, there
are some Italian _conti_ whose titles are respectable, and even
illustrious, from their historic associations. The prestige belongs,
however, not to the title but to the name. As for the papal countships,
which are still freely bestowed on those of all nations whom the Holy
See wishes to reward, their prestige naturally varies with the religious
complexion of the country in which the titles are borne. They are
esteemed by the faithful, but have small significance for those outside.
In Spain, on the other hand, the title of _conde_, the earlier history
of which follows much the same development as in France, is still of
much social value, mainly owing to the fact that the rule of
primogeniture exists, and that, a large fee being payable to the state
on succession to a title, it is necessarily associated with some degree
of wealth. The Spanish counts of old creation, some of whom are grandees
and members of the Upper House, naturally take the highest rank; but the
title, still bestowed for eminent public services or other reasons, is
of value. The title, like others in Spain, can pass through an heiress
to her husband. In Russia the title of count (_graf_, fem. _grafinya_),
a foreign importation, has little social prestige attached to it, being
given to officials of a certain rank. In the British empire the only
recognized counts are those of Malta, who are given precedence with
baronets of the United Kingdom.
See Selden, _Titles of Honor_ (London, 1672); Du Cange, _Glossarium
Med. Lat._ (ed. Niort, 1883) s.v. "Comes"; _La Grande Encyclopedie_,
s.v. "Comte"; A. Luchaire, _Manuel des institutions francaises_
(Paris, 1892); P. Guilhiermoz, _Essai sur l'origine de la noblesse en
France au moyen age_ (Paris, 1902); Brunner, _Deutsche
Rechtsgeschichte_, Band ii. (Leipzig, 1892).