polysynody

plural polysynodies

1. historicalA form of government administered by several councils rather than individual ministers; specifically that of Regency France from 1715-1718.

   Government under polysynody is the affair of human individuals, who through their own efforts create an entity that surpasses them.

   2006, Ellen M McClure, Sunspots and the Sun King, page 262

   2 more examples

   The abbé de Saint-Pierre, for example, saw in the principle of Polysynody a framework for refashioning the polity so as to make it markedly less authoritarian than under Louis XIV.

   2002, Colin Jones, The Great Nation, Penguin, published 2003, page 40

   The Council was thus wholly dependent upon the civil authorities. It constituted one of the elements of the polysynody that was characteristic of the Hapsburgs.

   2004, Joseph Pérez, translated by Janet Lloyd, The Spanish Inquisition, Bookmarque, published 2006, page 108