Aulic Council

Pertaining to a royal court. In the old German empire, the Aulic Council was the personal council of the emperor, and one of the two supreme courts of the empire which decided without appeal. It was instituted about 1502, and organized under a definite constitution in 1559, modified in 1654. It finally consisted of a president, a vice-president, and eighteen councillors, six of whom were Protestants; the unanimous vote of the latter could not be set aside by the others. The Aulic Council ceased to exist on the extinction of the German Empire in 1806. The title is now given to the Council of State of the Emperor of Austria. Cent. Diet.