Consistory

1. Primarily, a place of standing or staying together; hence, any solemn assembly or council.
2. (Eng. Ch.) The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere.
3. (R. C. Ch.) An assembly of prelates; a session of the college of cardinals at Rome.
4. A church tribunal or governing body.
5. A civil court of justice.

In some churches, as the Dutch Reformed in America, a consistory is composed of the minister and elders of an individual church, corresponding to a Presbyterian church session, and in others, as the Reformed church in France, it is composed of ministers and elders, corresponding to a presbytery. In some Lutheran countries it is a body of clerical and lay officers appointed by the sovereign to superintend ecclesiastical affairs.
a.

1. Of the nature of, or pertaining to, a consistory.