CONSISTORY (CONCISTORO). - For Protestants the c. (they rarely call it consistory) has multiple forms and meanings. For Calvin (1509-64) in Geneva the c. was the great means of dominating the city. It was composed of 12 elders, of whom, if not legally then at least practically, Calvin was the head. It fell within its competence to judge the religious and moral discipline of the citizens, and for this purpose it investigated, admonished, and excommunicated transgressors, and, if that was not enough, denounced them to the magistrates. And since the magistrates or the civil authority, in Calvin's doctrine, were to govern the city according to the law of God, and in practice the sole interpreter of the divine law was Calvin, so he, under the shadow of the c., was the absolute head of the city.
Among Lutherans there are various classes of councils and tribunals called c. Through them the German princes governed the Church of their states. In the Evangelical Church of Prussia, which King Frederick William III (1797-1840) formed by uniting the Lutherans and the Reformed of his states, there was, after 1851, a supreme c., composed of Lutherans and Reformed. In the Reformed Churches (with the exception of the Presbyterian ones), the individual local congregations are governed by a c., composed of the local pastor, of elders and of deacons: it falls to the pastor and the elders to watch over spiritual interests, to the deacons to administer property and works of charity. In the "Protestant-Presbyterian National Church of Italy," organized in 1929, the name "supreme c." is given to the board or council that is to govern the Church.
Bibliography4 works
Camillo Crivelli