Hierarchy
A Dictionary of Law · Henry Campbell Black · 1891
A Dictionary of Law
Originally, government by a hody of priests. Now, the body of officers in any church or ecclesiastical institution, considered as forming an ascending series oi ranks or degrees of puwer and authority, with the correlative subjection, each to the one next above. Derivatively, any bedy of men, taken in their public capacity, and considered as forming a chain of powers, as above described.