COUCY, an old noble family of Picardy, who had for device, “Roi ne suis, ne duc, ne comte aussi; je suis le sire de Coucy.”  RAOUL, a court-poet of the family in the 12th century, lost his life at the siege of Acre in the third crusade.

COULOMB, a learned French physicist and engineer, born at Angouleme; the inventor of the torsion balance, and to whose labours many discoveries in electricity and magnetism are due; lived through the French Revolution retired from the strife (1736-1806).

COUNCILS, CHURCH, assemblies of bishops to decide questions of doctrine and ecclesiastical discipline.  They are oecumenical, national, or provincial, according as the bishops assembled represented the whole Church, a merely national one, or a provincial section of it.  Eastern:  Nice, 325 (at which Arius was condemned), 787; Constantinople, 381 (at which Apollinaris was condemned), 553, 680, 869; Ephesus, 431 (at which Nestorius was condemned); Chalcedon, 451 (at which Eutyches was condemned).  Western:  Lateran, 1123, 1139, 1179, 1215, 1274; Synod of Vienne, 1311; Constance, 1414; Basel, 1431-1443; Trent, 1545-1563; Vatican, 1869.

COURAYES, a French Roman Catholic ecclesiastic who pled on behalf of Anglican orders; was censured; fled to England, where he was welcomed, and received academic honours (1681-1777).

COURBET, a French vice-admiral, born at Abbeville; distinguished himself by his rapid movements and brilliant successes in the East (1827-1885).

COURBET, GUSTAVE, French painter, born at Ornans; took to landscape-painting; was head of the Realistic school; joined the Commune in 1871; his property and pictures were sold to pay the damage done, and especially to restore the Vendome Column; died an exile in Switzerland (1819-1877).

COURIER, PAUL LOUIS, a French writer, born at Paris; began life as a soldier, but being wounded at Wagram, retired from the army, and gave himself to letters; distinguished himself as the author of political pamphlets, written with a scathing irony such as has hardly been surpassed, which brought him into trouble; was assassinated on his estate by his gamekeeper (1772-1825).

COURLAND (637), a partly wooded and partly marshy province of Russia, S. of the Gulf of Riga; the population chiefly German, and Protestants; agriculture their chief pursuit.

COURT DE GEBELIN, a French writer, born at Nimes, author of a work entitled “The Primitive World analysed and compared with the Modern World” (1725-1784).

COURTNEY, WILLIAM, archbishop of Canterbury, no match for Wickliffe in debate, but had his revenge in persecuting his followers (1341-1396).

COURTOIS, JACQUES, a French painter of battle-pieces; became a Jesuit, died a monk (1621-1676).

COURTRAIS (29), a Belgian town on the Lys.