[mod. ad. L. conciliābulum (cf. vestibule, etc.), representing the original L. more closely than the earlier conciliable: see prec. Also in mod.F.] A small private or secret assembly; a conventicle.
1817. H. Hunt, in Cobbett’s Wks., XXXII. 192. I belong to … no Clubs, no Conciliabules, no secret Associations, of all which I disapprove.
1840. J. W. Bowden, Life Gregory VII., I. 87. This council … was a pretended one—in ecclesiastical language a conciliabule.
1885. M. Pattison, Mem., vi. 185. Haunting conciliabules, and reading fiery articles in the English Churchman.
