ECCLESIA, (Lat.. from Gk. IKKX77 a'a, assembly, from 1K, ch-, out KaNciv, loflein, to call). 111 .\ term eommonly used to denote the popular assembly of the Athe nians. in which all free citizens vote. Its authority was supreme, though ordinarily only those citizens could be present who lived in the immediate vieinily of Athens, and 6000 was regarded as a large attendance. A popular assembly is part of the Greek State in the Homeric poems, but with the growth of the power of the nobles. such a body, if it existed at Athens, was seldom convoked and of no practical authority. Solon (tic. 594) first made it a power by admitting to it all citizens. and giving it some power in the election of officials. With the establishment of the Clisthenian democracy, the supremacy of the ecelesia was firmly estab lished. At first it seems to have met only once in eaelt pcytany, i.e. the period of 35 or 36 days, into 10 of which the Athenian year was divided, but later it met regularly four times in a pry tally, while extra meetings could he called by the prytanes. The prytanes were the 50 senators of that one of the 10 tribes which at that time was acting as standing committee of the Senate. In the fifth century mt.., the tpistatCs or chair man of the prytanes presided, but later a com mittee of nine, one from each of the other nine tribes. was chosen as ',rued roi , and presided over the meetings. Those who attended the ecelesia received pay probably after B.c. 400. at first one obol, later three oboli, and at last even six or nine. The ecclesia was opened with sacrifice and prayer, and then the business was laid before the assembly in the form of resolutions already adopted by the Senate, These were open to alteration to any extent. but no business might
be presented to the assembly before passing the Senate. Any Athenian citizen might speak. The vote was regularly taken by show of hands: only when the decree affected a single individual were ballots used. When the business had been fin ished the prytanes dismissed the ecclesia. In Sparta. also, there was a popular assembly, called Apella CArerXXai, which not once a month, to vote on the proposals of the Council of Ephors. There was no free debate, and as a rule only the officials seem to have spoken. It is not known what was the nature of the little ecclesia at Sparta mentioned once by Nenophon. The voting at Sparta was by acclamation, and not by ballot. The majority was determined by the comparative volume of sound, or, if that was doubted, by a division and counting of the two parties. (2) In the Greek of the New Testa ment, ecelesia is the name for the company of Christ's disciples professing to trust Him as their Saviour and to obey Him as their Lord. It is applied to a small assembly of them, such as were members of one family. or could meet in a dwelling-house of ordinary size: to the whole number in one city or neighborhood; to the whole number on earth; to all that are in heaven: and to the innumerable company on earth and in heaven. It has other meanings, but is usually rendered Church.