Forms: α. 4–7 consistorie, 4–5 -cistorie, (-sistoire, Gower), 6 -systorie, -y(e, 5– consistory; β. 4 constorie, -ry, 5 constere, -stery, -stri, 6 -stre, -stry, (conystre). [a. ONF. consistorie = Central F. consistoire (Pr. consistori, It. consistorio), ad. L. consistōrium, f. consistĕre: see CONSIST v. and -ORY. The original meaning in L. was ‘standing-place,’ ‘waiting-room,’ whence ‘meeting-place of the emperor’s council, the emperor’s cabinet.’ The original Eng. pronunciation was consisto·rie, whence co·nsistorie, syncopated in ME. co·nstorie, co·nstrie.]
I. Non-ecclesiastical senses.
† 1. A place where councillors meet, a council-chamber. (Almost always as a translation of the corresponding French or L. word, and never applied to anything English.) Obs.
c. 1320. Seuyn Sag., 156 (W.). The seuen wise … That child ladde to consistorie, That is a stede withinne Rome, Ther men makes wise dome.
1382. Wyclif, Esther v. 1. And he [the king] sat vp on his see, in the constorie [1388 consistorie, Vulg. in consistorio palatii; 1611 royal house] of the paleis.
1598. Florio, Concistorio, a consistorie, or a councell house.
1637. Heywood, Dial., x. 217. I next prepare the Consistorie, Whereas the Deities in all their glory, Appoint their meetings.
1756. Nugent, Gr. Tour, France, IV. 241. The hall called the great consistory [in Toulouse].
fig. a. 1555. Latimer, Serm. & Rem. (1845), 205. If thou wilt inquire his counsels, and enter into his consistory, thy wit will deceive thee.
1594. Shaks., Rich. III., II. ii. 151. My other selfe, my Counsailes Consistory, My Oracle, My Prophet.
2. A meeting of councillors, a council: spec. that of the Roman Emperors; so, poetically of the Olympian deities, etc. Obs. exc. Hist. or poet.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Troylus, IV. 37. In Consistorie a-mong þe Grekes soone He … sette hym þere as he was woned to done.
1503. Hawes, Examp. Virt., iv. 42. The chaumbre where she held her consystory.
1660. Willsford, Scales Comm., A iij. This noble Consistory of Senators.
1671. Milton, P. R., I. 40. In mid air To council summons all his mighty peers … A gloomy consistory.
1703. Pope, Thebais, 285. At Jove’s assent, the deities around In solemn state the consistory crown’d.
1766. H. Walpole, Lett. conc. Rousseau, ii. 148. Your set of literary friends … hold a consistory to consult how to argue with a madman.
1805. Wordsw., Prelude, X. Wks. (1889), 313/1. Creatures of one ethereal substance met In consistory.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), I. v. 231. Jupiter and Apollo … were recognized in the consistory of the Gallic deities.
† b. fig. A council; as the source of decrees or determinations, the seat of authority. Obs.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 33. Out of þe concistorie of Goddis riȝtwisnesse com a decree.
1502. Ord. Crysten Men (W. de W., 1506), IV. xxix. 327. In the consystorye of the blessed trynyte is determyned irreuocably that it us behoueth all to dye.
1613. W. Browne, Brit. Past. (1772), I. I. i. 21. In heaven’s consistory ’twas decreed.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., iv. 124. All the imperate motions of our wills issuing forth from the same consistory.
† 3. A court of judgment; a tribunal. Obs.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Doctor’s T., 162. This false Iuge … As he was wont sat in his Consistorie And yaf his doomes.
1566. Painter, Pal. Pleas., I. 22. Being come to the consistorie, where Appius set in iudgement, Claudius began to tell a tale and processe of the cause.
1589. Puttenham, Eng. Poesie, III. vii. (Arb.), 166. The graue iudges Areopagites … in their consistorie of Iustice.
1685. Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt. ix. 18. A Ruler of one of their lesser Judicatures or Consistories came.
† 4. A court, a company surrounding a throne, as in heavenly consistory, c. of saints and martyrs.
c. 1440. Capgrave, St. Kath., 450. Bryng vs, lorde, to þi hevynly concistory.
15[?]. Hours Bless. Virgin, 93. All the heavenly consistorie Thee … Do worship.
1641. Milton, Reform., I. (1851), 26. This holy man with all the whole Consistorie of Saints and Martyrs that liv’d of old.
† 5. A standing-place, a station. Obs. rare. [So L. consistōrium.]
1592. Nashe, P. Penilesse (Shaks. Soc.), 79. The spirits of the fire have their mansions under the regions of the moone … their proper consistorie, from whence they cannot start.
II. Ecclesiastical senses.
6. The ecclesiastical senate in which the Pope, presiding over the whole body of Cardinals, deliberates upon the affairs of the church. Also, a meeting of this body.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 257. The pope … He bare it stille in his memoire, Till he cam to the consistoire.
1579. Fenton, Guicciard., V. (1599), 195. Declared by the Pope, with the iustification of the consistory, Duke of Romania.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. iv. 92. Warranted By a Commission from the Consistorie, Yea, the whole Consistorie of Rome.
1641. Milton, Reform., I. (1851), 17. The Pope himselfe … performeth all Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction as in Consistory amongst his Cardinals.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 10, ¶ 7. The Pope has lately held two other Consistories, wherein he made a Promotion of two Cardinals.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., II. vii. 149. His Holiness said that he would deliberate upon the appeal with the consistory.
1885. Catholic Dict., 217/1. The ordinary meetings of the consistory, held about one a fortnight, are secret; they are usually, but not invariably, presided over by the Pope. Public consistories are held from time to time … in them the resolutions the Pope has arrived at in secret consistory are announced.
7. A bishop’s court for ecclesiastical causes, and offences dealt with by ecclesiastical law; the diocesan court, held by the chancellor or commissary of the diocese.
Formerly a court of great importance, having jurisdiction in matrimonial cases, questions of divorce, wills, administration, tithes, general ecclesiastical and moral discipline; now having authority only over ecclesiastics.
a. 1307. Sat. Consistory Crts., in Pol. Songs (Camd.), 159. Ant seththe y go coure at constory … Seththen y pleide at bisshopes plee.
c. 1325. Poem on Edw. II., 200, ibid., 332. If a man have a wif, and he ne love hire noht, Bringe hire to the constorie … he shal ben to-parted so faire as he wole bidde from his wif.
1362. Langland, P. Pl., A. III. 137. Heo þat ben Curset in Constorie counteþ hit not at a Russche: For heo Copeþ þe Comissarie and Coteþ þe Clerkes.
1426. Audelay, Poems, 39. Thai to here constri hom to here court call.
1503–4. Yatton Church-w. Acc. (Somerset Rec. Soc., 1890, 127). For syting of Emot Thurban and Rych. Wamperfyld to ye Conystre.
1577. Harrison, England, II. ix. (1877), I. 199. We haue also a great part of the Canon law dailie practised among vs,… as are vsuallie to be seene in the consistories of our bishops.
1591. Lambarde, Archeion (1635), 11. The Consistorie, holden by his Commissarie at Canterbury, for his owne Diocesse.
1642. Jer. Taylor, Episc. (1647), 85. Titus was also made a Bishop by the Apostles. S. Paul also was his ordainer … His worke was … to constitute rites and formes of publike Liturgy, to erect a Consistory for cognisance of causes criminall.
1726. Ayliffe, Parerg., 191. Tribunals … which in the Phrase of the Canon Law, are called Consistories.
1875. Stubbs, Const. Hist., III. 346. The archbishops in their prerogative courts, the bishops in their consistories, the archdeacons in some cases … exercised jurisdiction in all these matters.
1885. Catholic Dict., 217/1. Before the Reformation every English Bishop had his consistory, composed of some of the leading clergy of the diocese, presided over by his chancellor.
b. The place where this court is held.
1577. Harrison, England, II. ix. (1877), I. 210. The second daie following euerie one of the said feasts, the court of audience of Canturburie is kept in the consistorie in Paules in the forenoone.
1641. Termes de la Ley, 77. Consistory is the Counsell house of Ecclesiasticall persons.
1645. Pagitt, Heresiogr., 41. [In 1575] one man and ten women, Dutch Anabaptists, were in the Consistory of Pauls condemned to bee burnt in Smithfield.
c. fig.
1377. Langl., P. Pl., B. Prol. 99. Drede is at þe laste Lest crist in constorie acorse ful manye.
1591. Troub. Raigne K. John (1611), 28. This heart that choller keepes a consistorie, Searing my inwards with a brand of hate.
1640. Sir E. Dering, Carmelite (1641), 55. I … leave you to the consistory of your own conscience.
a. 1716. South, Serm. (1844), I. 51. Christ himself in that great consistory shall deign to step down from his throne.
8. In the Lutheran Church, a board of clerical officers, local, provincial or national, usually appointed by the sovereign, and charged with the supervision of ecclesiastical affairs. Its constitution and relations to other parts of the ecclesiastical administration vary greatly in different Lutheran states.
The name was retained from the bishop’s consistory of pre-reformation times, of which this board retained more or less of the functions. The first consistorion was formed in Saxony in 1542; they were established in Protestant Germany generally in 1587.
1698. J. Crull, Muscovy, 88. The Ecclesiastical Government is … administred by a Consistory and a Superintendent.
1882–3. Schaff, Encycl. Rel. Knowl., II. 1217. When a consistorial constitution was established, the consistory stepped adroitly into the shoes of the bishop [in Germany].
9. In the Reformed, Genevan, or Presbyterian polity, a court of presbyters; in Switzerland, Holland, and the Reformed Churches of America, corresponding to the kirk-session in Scotland; in France, now, that of a larger area, corresponding to a presbytery. The term was also familiar in England in the ecclesiastical discussions and changes of the 16th and 17th centuries.
a. 1593. H. Smith, Wks. (1867), II. 447. At that time no deacons were chosen, nor consistories of elders erected.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., VII. xxiii. § 11. If one convented before their consistories, when he standeth to make his answer, etc.
1692. Quick, Synodicon, p. xxx. (Discipl. Reformed Ch. France, ch. v. The Consistory Canon i). In every Church there shall be a Consistory made up of those who govern it, to-wit of its Pastors and Elders, and in this Assembly as well as in all other Church-Assemblies, the Pastors are of right to be Presidents. Ibid., p. xxxvii. (Colloquies, Canon iv). As Consistories are subject and subordinate unto Colloquies, so are Colloquies unto the authority of Provincial Synods.
a. 1693. Abp. Sancroft, Serm., 18 (L.). I left thee; thee, a single person; not a consistory of presbyters, or a bench of elders.
1839. G. P. R. James, Louis XIV., IV. 68. The consistory and synods were restricted in their functions, and rendered less frequent.
1873. Morley, Rousseau, II. 105. The consistory, composed mainly of a body of peasants, entirely bound to their minister in matters of religion, cited him to appear.
10. attrib. (in senses 6–9.)
1526–7. Yatton Church-w. Acc. (Somerset Rec. Soc., 1890, 127). For withdrawyng ye constre cowrte.
1552. Lyndesay, Monarche, 5762. Officialis, with thare Constry [v.r. consistorie] Clerkis.
1561. Reg. St. Andrews Kirk Sess. (1889), I. 78. Thei summond hym to compeir befoyr tham in the consistorie hows.
1768. Blackstone, Comm., III. 64. The consistory court of every diocesan bishop is held in their several cathedrals for the trial of … ecclesiastical causes.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. (L.). The Archidiaconal Courts, the Consistory Courts, the Court of Arches, the Court of Peculiars, and the Court of Delegates were revived.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. ii. 123. The small iniquities of the consistory courts had shaken the popular faith.
