Presbyterianism, that form of Church government which, discarding prelacy, regards all ministers in conclave as on the same level in rank and function, and which is the prevailing form of Church government in Scotland; inherited from Geneva, as also prevailing extensively in the United States of America. The government is administered by a gradation of courts, called “Kirk-Sessions,” of office-bearers in connection with a particular congregation; “Presbyteries,” in connection with a small district; “Synods,” in connection with a larger; and finally a General Assembly or a Synod of the whole Church, which, besides managing the affairs of the collective body, forms a court of final appeal in disputed matters or cases.
Definition taken from The Nuttall Encyclopædia, edited by the Reverend James Wood (1907)
Presbyopia * Prescott, William Hickling