COUNCIL BLUFFS 



COl NT 



519 



had convoked the bishops, unl was rrsponsihli> for 

 peace and order. ' It was n.>t,' savs Haniuck (Dog- 

 ////. i,-/ii,-/if,-, ii. |>. 101), 'till the fourth general 

 ciiiiiii-il thai tin- papal legates gained a unique 



RiMtion. and learned Catholic* have admitted that 

 16 presidency of the papal legate-, at Nicn-a does 

 not admit of positive proof.' This 'IK tme even 

 iiholic theologians writing after the Vatican 

 decrees. Tims Kraus (Ktrehtnff&Mckti, p. 147) 

 contents himvclf with maintaining 'the proba- 

 hility ' that the papal legates presided at Nic;ea, 

 and Hefele ( Cuiiril. i. p. HS, I 2d ed.) admits that the 

 question is ' not without difficulty.' The modern 

 theory that a council is then, ami then only, to be 

 counted general when its acts have l>een ratified by 

 the i)ope, is of still later origin. Even medieval 

 theologians, such as Thomas of Walden, main- 

 tained that the decisions of general councils did not 

 acquire binding force till they had been accepted by 

 the whole church. And although it was an estab- 

 li-hed principle in the 6th ami the following cen- 

 turies that the definitions of councils, indisput- 

 ably oecumenical, could not be called in ques- 

 tion, it is certain that St Augustine had teen 

 of another mind. He asserts (De Bci]>t. contra 

 Donat. ii. p. 3-4) that Scripture alone has final 

 and irreiormahle authority, but that even 'plenary 

 councils, assembled from the whole Christian 

 world,' may be 'corrected' (emeiuiari) by the 

 accession of knowledge and experience. Moreover, 

 the fact that the decisions even of provincial 

 councils are sometimes attributed, in the 4th 

 century, to the 'suggestion' of the Holy Spirit, 

 shows that caution is needed in interpreting the 

 rhetorical language of early writers. 



Tl-1 Greek Church recognises seven general 

 councils viz.: (1) The first of Nicrea, 325 A.D. ; 

 (2) the first of Constantinople, 381 ; (3) Ephesus, 

 431; (4) Chalcedon, 451; (5) second of Constan- 

 tinople, 553; (6) third of Constantinople, 680; 

 (7) second of Nicfea, 787. To these Roman 

 Catholics add: (8) fourth of Constantinople, 80!); 

 (9) first Lateran, 1123; (10) second Lateran, 

 1139; (11) third Lateran, 1179; (12) fourth 

 Lateran, 1215; (13) first of Lyons, 1245; (14) 

 second of Lyons, 1274; (15) Vi'enne, 1311; (16) 

 Constance, 1414-18, of which Ultrarnontanes 

 accept only the decrees passed in sessions 42d to 

 45th inclusive, and such decrees of earlier sessions 

 as were approved by Martin V. ; (17) Basel, 1431 

 and the following years, oecumenical according to 

 Ultramontanes only till the end of the twenty- 

 fifth session, and even then only in respect of such 

 decrees as were approved by Eugenius IV. ; (18) 

 Ferrara-Florence, 1438-42, really a continuation of 

 Basel; (19) fifth Lateran, 1512-17; (20) Trent, 

 1545-63; (21) Vatican, December 8, 1869, to July 

 18, 1870, and still unfinished. 



The l>est collections of councils are by Hardouin 

 (12 vols. folio, Paris, 1715), and that of Mansi 

 (31 vols. folio, Florence, 1759), which is by far 

 more co-aplete than Hardouin's, but inferior to 

 it in correctness of typography. An excellent, 

 account of the councils, with the text of the most 

 important decrees, will be found in Bishop Hefele's 

 Kimzilicngeschichte (7 vols. 1855-74; continued by 

 MeiiM-m other and then Knopfier, vols. viii.-ix., 

 1887-90; Eng. trans., vols. i.-iv., 1871-95). For the 

 more important councils, see NlC-iEA, BASEL, xc. 



Council Kind's, a city of Iowa, capital of 

 Pottawattamie county, 141 miles WSW. of Des 

 Moines by rail, on a plain backed by the high 

 blull's from which it takes its name. The Missouri 

 River, 3 miles to the west, is crossed by a grand 

 railway bridge to Omaha, and five railways form 

 a junction at the town, which has manufactures of 

 paper, iron, carriages, and arricultural machines. 

 Pop. (1870) 10,020; (1880) 18,063; (1890)21,474. 



Council of War i a conference of military or 

 naval officers, to consider a plan of campaign, 

 determine the order of battle, or give their opinion* 

 on some matter in which the commander wishes to 

 fortify his judgment by an appeal to that of others. 

 The Henioi <>Miccr8 and head- of department* meet 

 him in the consultation whenever he thinks it 

 desirable ; and their opinions are placed upon 

 record. Thus the commandant of a fortress gener- 

 ally solicits the opinion of a council of war before 

 surrendering to besiegers. The British military 

 code leaves it - assembly to his discretion, but the 

 French make a special provision for a council of 

 defence. In the navy, a council of war consists 

 usually of flag-officers only ; but officers of lower 

 rank occasionally assist. 



Counsel. See ADVOCATE and BARRISTER. 



Counsellor is the term which in the United 

 States most nearly corresponds to Barrister (q- v -) 

 in England, and Advocate (q.v.) in Scotland. But 

 in the United States there is no such well-marked 

 distinction l>etween counsellor and solicitor as in 

 the United Kingdom obtains between barrister or 

 advocate and solicitor. See LAWYER, 



Count (Lat. comes, in Fr. comte, Span, conde, 

 Ital. conte), the name of a dignity in medieval 

 and modern Europe, to which Earl (q.v.) is in 

 one view supposed to be analogous, the Latin 

 equivalent of each being the same, and the wife 

 or an earl being a countess. On the various 

 significations of the comes of classical times it is 

 unnecessary to enter. Under Constantine the term 

 l>ecame an honorary title ; and the comites became 

 a sort of council of state both in the eastern and 

 western empire, each having his separate office in 

 the household. The counts under the first two 

 races of Prankish kings were (like those of the 

 lower empire ) of various degrees. The count of the 

 palace (comes palatii nostri) was the highest digni- 

 tary in the state after the mat re of the palace ; and 

 in the llth century he had already acquired a rank 

 apart from that of the other counts. He presided 

 in the court of the sovereign in his absence, and 

 possessed sovereign jurisdiction. The habit of 

 instituting counts-palatine (comites palatii) was 

 adopted by Spain and England. Tnose counts, 

 again, who, at a later period, as rulers of provinces, 

 had attained to something approaching to sovereign 

 power, exercised also the right of appointing counts- 

 palatine under them e.g. the Counts of Chartres, 

 of Champagne, of Blois, Toulouse, &c. ; and the 

 ancient houses of Chartres and of Blois continued 

 to claim in perpetuity the title of count- palatine as 

 that of their eldest sons. Counts of this sovereign 

 class owed their origin to the feebleness of the later 

 Carlovingian kings, under whom they contrived 

 gradually to convert the provinces and towns which 

 they had governeti as royal officers into prin- 

 cipalities hereditary in their families. It was then 

 that the counts came to le known by the names of 

 their counties. Down to the middle of the 14th cen- 

 tuiv they wielded a most formidable power, some- 

 what broken by the eventually successful struggle 

 of the towns of Northern France to throw off their 

 yoke. In later times there were numerous mere 

 titular counts, and even liefore the first revolution 

 many titles of count, believed to be pure assump- 

 tions, were recognised by the courtesy of society. 



The German word gruf, akin ( like reeve, grieve, 

 and sheriff) to the Anglo-Saxon ifcrrfa, 'gover- 

 nor,' in time came to be identified with the 

 comes or count, the pfalzgraf being the German 

 equivalent of the comes nalutii. In Germany there 

 have been in modern times two classes of counts. 

 one belonging to the Difiimttifit-arlel, or higher 

 nobility i.e. those families whose head had a 

 seat in the diet or estates of the realm ; the other 



