Hist. [med.L., f. Gr. ἐκκλησία, f. ἔκκλητος called out, f. ἐκκαλεῖν to call out.] A Greek word for a regularly convoked assembly; chiefly applied to the general assembly of Athenian citizens. On the introduction of Christianity it became the regular word for CHURCH, q.v.
1577. trans. Bullinger’s Decades (1592), 79. Ecclesia, which worde wee vse for the Church, is properly an assembly.
1820. T. Mitchell, Aristoph., I. 227. The ecclesia consisted of all such as were freemen of Athens.
1849. Grote, Hist. Greece (1862), II. lxiv. V. 533. That misguided vote, both of the Senate and of the Ekklesia.
