The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (572 page)

Costa, Uriel da
:

see
DA COSTA, U.

 
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Councils
:

Formal assemblies for religious purposes.
Buddhism
According to tradition three important councils were held in the early centuries after the passing away of the
Buddha
. There is considerable uncertainty surrounding the date, location, deliberations, and conclusions of these councils, and while the traditional account may be accepted as reliable in some respects it should not be regarded as historically accurate in all.
The First Council is reported to have been held at R
jagriha in the year of the Buddha's death (486 BCE) with the objective of establishing the canon or at least two or its three divisions or ‘baskets’ (
tripi
aka
).
The Second Council took place 100 or 110 years after the first and was held at
Vai
l
. It arose out of a dispute concerning monastic practices, and in particular the handling of money by monks.
The Third Council at
P
aliputra
in 250 BCE is the most important of the three and resulted in the ‘Great Schism’ between the ‘Elders’ (
Sthaviras
) and the ‘Great Assembly’ (
Mah
s
ghikas
), which was to have a profound effect upon the later tradition.
Christianity
A council is a formal assembly of
bishops
and representatives of churches for determining doctrine or discipline. Local councils, as of provinces or
patriarchates
, are more usually called
synods
. The meeting described in Acts 15 is traditionally the first council. General, or
ecumenical, councils
are those made up of bishops and other representatives from the whole world; but the term refers specifically to those seven whose decisions have been taken to represent a true consensus and to be authoritative. These are, with dates: 1.
Nicaea I
(325) 2.
Constantinople I
(381) 3.
Ephesus
(431) 4.
Chalcedon
(451) 5. Constantinople II (553) 6. Constantinople III (680–1) 7. Nicaea II (787): see
ICONOCLASM
.

 
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