ecclesiastical society

American  

noun

1. (in Congregational churches) a legal corporation with power to sue and be sued and to administer all of the temporalities of the church.

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Example Sentences

With neither Presbyterian nor Jesuit was the separation complete, for the simple reason that each had a secret conviction that the ecclesiastical society was at bottom the superior.

From Political Thought in England from Locke to Bentham by Laski, Harold Joseph

Such attempts, however, at a reformation of ecclesiastical society were as ineffectual as pin-pricks in the cure of a fever which demands blood-letting.

From Renaissance in Italy, Volume 1 (of 7) The Age of the Despots by Symonds, John Addington

Mr. Hume's treatment of the peculiar and exclusive ecclesiastical society of a small English cathedral city is quite worthy of Anthony Trollope, and his leading character, Bishop Pendle, is equal to Trollope's best bishop.

From The Bishop's Secret by Hume, Fergus

In 1785 New Cambridge and West Britain, another ecclesiastical society of Farmington, were incorporated as the township of Bristol, but in 1806 they were divided into the present townships of Bristol and Burlington.

From Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, Volume 4, Part 3 "Brescia" to "Bulgaria" by Various

Constitution, Subsequent Laws.—An ecclesiastical society formed before the adoption of the state constitution is not by that constitution and subsequent laws concerning religious societies divested of its legal character.125 69.

From The Clergyman's Hand-book of Law by Scanlan, Charles M.