Classis

Classis (a class, division), the name of an ecclesiastical body in the Reformed (Dutch)Church in Holland and in America, corresponding to the presbytery in -the Presbyterian Church. A classis is composed of the minister or ministers, and one elder, of each church constituting the body, together with such other ministers without pastoral charge as may belong to it. The same arrangement prevails in the German Reformed Church in the United States.

The classis hold an intermediate place between the consistory and the particular synod. It is represented by two ministers and two elders in the particular synod, and by three ministers and three elders in the general synod. It is both a legislative and a judicial body, many of whose acts are -

subject to the revision of the superior courts. SEE REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA; SEE GERMAN REFORMED CHURCH IN AMERICA. (W. J.R.T.)