AULIC COUNCIL (Reichshofrat), an organ of the Holy Roman empire, originally intended for executive work, but acting chiefly as a judicature, which worked from 1497 to 18o6. In the early middle ages the emperor had already his consiliarii; but his council was a fluctuating body of personal advisers. In the i4th century there first arose an official council, with permanent and paid members, many of whom were legists. Its business was largely executive, and it formed something of a Ministry; but it had also to deal with petitions addressed to the king, and accord ingly it acted as a supreme court of judicature. It was thus par allel to the king's council in mediaeval England; while by its side, during the 15th century, stood the Kammergericht, composed of the legal members of the council, in much the same way as the Star Chamber stood beside the English council. But the real his tory of the Aulic Council, as that term was understood in the later days of the empire, begins with Maximilian I. In 1497-98 he created a new Ho/rat to deal with "all and every business which may flow in from the empire, Christendom at large, or the king's hereditary principalities." It was thus to be the supreme executive and judicial organ, discharging all business except that of finance and the drafting of documents. But it was difficult to work such a body for the empire and for the hereditary principali ties; and under Ferdinand I. it became an organ for the empire alone, the hereditary principalities being removed from its cog nizance. As such an imperial organ, its composition and powers were fixed by the treaty of Westphalia of 1648. (I) It consisted of about 20 members—a president, a vice-president, the vice chancellor of the empire, and some 18 others. The council followed the person of the emperor, and was therefore stationed at Vienna; it was paid by the emperor, and he nominated its members, whose office terminated with his life. (2) Its powers were nominally both executive and judicial. (a) Its executive powers were small: it gradually lost everything except the formal business of investi ture with imperial fiefs and the confirmation of charters, its other powers being taken over by the Geheimrate, who were already constituted as a definite body for dealing with imperial affairs by 1527. (b) In its judicial aspect, the Aulic Council, exercising the emperor's judicial powers on his behalf, had exclusive cognizance of matters relating to imperial fiefs, criminal charges against im mediate vassals of the empire, and cases "reserved" for the em peror. In all other matters, the Aulic Council was a competitor for judicial work with the Imperial Chamber (q.v.).
See R. Schroder, Lehrbuch der deutschen Recktsgeschichte (Leipzig, • (E. B.) a district and town in the Syr-darya province of the Russian S.F.S.R. The area of the district is 7 5 sq.km. and the pop. (1926) was 227,016. The Talas river waters the dis trict and it has been a fertile loess oasis known to pilgrims and armies from Central Mongolia for centuries. The chief products are rice, cotton, wheat, barley, millet, potatoes, silk and grapes. Cattle, camels, horses, sheep and goats are reared. The town, Lat. 42° 52' N., Long. 71 ° 23' E., alt. 5, 7oof t., has prospered since the railway through it to Alma Ata was built. Pop. (1926) 24,682.