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.<-- and Papal States. -->
© Webster 1913.