Con·sis·to·ry n.; pl. Consistories
 1. Primarily, a place of standing or staying together; hence, any solemn assembly or council.
 To council summons all his mighty peers,
 Within thick clouds and dark tenfold involved,
 A gloomy consistory.   --Milton.
 2. Eng. Ch. The spiritual court of a diocesan bishop held before his chancellor or commissioner in his cathedral church or elsewhere.
 3. R. C. Ch. An assembly of prelates; a session of the college of cardinals at Rome.
    Pius was then hearing of causes in consistory.   --Bacon.
 4. A church tribunal or governing body.
 Note: ☞ In some churches, as the Dutch Reformed in America, a consistory is composed of the minister and elders of an individual church, corresponding to a Presbyterian church session, and in others, as the Reformed church in France, it is composed of ministers and elders, corresponding to a presbytery. In some Lutheran countries it is a body of clerical and lay officers appointed by the sovereign to superintend ecclesiastical affairs.
 5. A civil court of justice. [Obs.]