Definition of "classis" []

• Ecclesiastical A governing body of pastors and elders in certain Reformed churches, having jurisdiction over local churches. (noun)
• Ecclesiastical The district or churches governed by such a body. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "A few, indeed, went back after 1640 -- Mather says some ten or twelve of the ministers of the first "classis" or immigration were among them -- when the victory of the Puritanic party in"
• "The lower 'classis' has paid its penalty, and only the strong and hardy are left."
• "****] * A presbytery in Scotland is an inferior ecclesiastical court, the same that was afterwards called a classis in"