consistory

noun5

1. •
   A solemn assembly or council.

   • To council summons all his mighty peers, / Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved, / A gloomy consistory. — 1671
2. •
   An assembly of prelates; a session of the College of Cardinals at Rome.

   • Pius […][was] then hearing of causes in consistory. — 1627
3. •
   The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere.

   • In 1551 we find Bertholier excommunicated by the consistory because he would not allow that he had done wrong in asserting that he was as good a man as Calvin — 1860
4. •
   A church tribunal or governing body, especially of elders in a Reformed church.
5. •
   (no longer used) A civil court of justice.