consistory

/kənˈsɪstəɹi/

Etymology

Inherited from Middle English consistorie, from Old Northern French consistorie (“secular tribunal”) (Old French consistoire), and Late Latin consistorium (“waiting room, meeting place of the imperial council”). Meaning "Church council" is from early 14th century. By surface analysis, consist + -ory.

consistory means A solemn assembly or council. Lexicurio rates it Rare gem — a strength score of 82 out of 100.

Why this word is great

CONSISTORY — [Noun] A formal ecclesiastical council or assembly, especially of cardinals convened by the Pope or of a diocesan bishop's court. From Middle English consistorie, from Old Northern French consistorie ("secular tribunal"), from Late Latin consistorium ("waiting room, meeting place of the imperial council"), from Latin consistere ("to stand together, take a stand"). Unlike a synod—a broader, often discursive gathering—or a conclave—an exclusively electoral, sealed event—a consistory is the standing, judicial machinery of the church in polished, procedural session. It is the scent of beeswax and old vellum in a high, cold chamber; the tactile weight of a seal pressed into wax; the faint, collective rustle of scarlet silk as postures are taken for a verdict. Here, doctrine is not discovered but administered, a slow sedimentation of law into the bedrock of belief, for all power requires a room where men stand together and are seen to decide.

noun

A solemn assembly or council.“To council summons all his mighty peers, / Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved, / A gloomy consistory.”
The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere.“1860-1876, Walter Hook, Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury 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”
An assembly of prelates; a session of the College of Cardinals at Rome.“Pius […][was] then hearing of causes in consistory.”
A church tribunal or governing body, especially of elders in a Reformed church.
A civil court of justice.“And so were many greate and heighnous maters Obiected against S. Ambrose, because he refused to haue the cause betwene himselfe and the Heretike Auxentius, to be tried in the Consistorie of the Emperour, before Secular Iudges.”