COUMARIN

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.