The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ecclesiastical \Ec*cle`si*as"tic*al\, a. [See Ecclesiastical, a.] Of or pertaining to the church; relating to the organization or government of the church; not secular; as, ecclesiastical affairs or history; ecclesiastical courts.
Every circumstance of ecclesiastical order and
discipline was an abomination.
--Cowper.
Ecclesiastical commissioners for England, a permanent commission established by Parliament in 1836, to consider and report upon the affairs of the Established Church.
Ecclesiastical courts, courts for maintaining the discipline of the Established Church; -- called also Christian courts. [Eng.]
Ecclesiastical law, a combination of civil and canon law as administered in ecclesiastical courts. [Eng.]
Ecclesiastical modes (Mus.), the church modes, or the scales anciently used.
Ecclesiastical States, the territory formerly subject to the Pope of Rome as its temporal ruler; -- called also States of the Church.
Usage examples of "ecclesiastical courts".
But whether he borrowed it from the ecclesiastical courts, or went directly to the fountain- head, certain it is that Glanvill makes use of the classification and technical language of the Corpus Juris throughout his tenth book.
The churches had the right, of course, to hold witch trials any time they wanted, but the maximum penalty in the ecclesiastical courts was excommunication from the congregation.
I) the old notes of tithes for wine that yet remain in the accounts of some parsons and vicars in Kent, elsewhere, besides the records of sundry suits, commenced in divers ecclesiastical courts, both in Kent, Surrey, etc.
As slander was gradually wrested from the jurisdiction of the ecclesiastical courts through tort actions seeking redress for temporal damage rather than spiritual offense, slander became actionable only with proof or the reasonable assumption of special damage of a pecuniary character.