EAVES-DROPPERS, crim. law. Persons as wait under walls or windows or the eaves of a house, to listen to discourses, and thereupon to frame mischievous tales.

2. The common law punishment for this offence is fine, and finding sureties for good behaviour. 4 Bl. Com. 167; Burn's Just. h. t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; 1 Russ. Cr. 302.

3. In Tennessee, an indictment will not lie for eaves-dropping. 2 Tenn. R. 108.

ECCHYMOSIS, med. jur. Blackness. It is an extravasation of blood by rupture of capillary vessels, and hence it follows contusion; but it may exist, as in cases of scurvy, and other morbid conditions, without the latter. Ryan's Med. Jur. 172.

ECCLESIA. In classical Greek this word signifies any assembly, and in this sense it is used in Acts xix. 39. But ordinarily, in the New Testament, the word denotes a Christian assembly, and is rendered into English by the word church. It occurs thrice only in, the Gospels, viz. in Matt. xvi. 18, and xviii. 17; but very frequently in the other parts of the New Testament, beginning with Acts ii. 47. In Acts xix. 37, the word churches, in the common English version, seems to be improperly used to denote heathen temples. Figuratively, the word church is employed to signify the building set apart for the Christian assemblies; but the word eclesia is not used in the New Testament in that sense.

ECCLESIASTIC. A clergyman; one destined to the divine ministry, as, a bishop, a priest, a deacon. Dom. Lois Civ. liv. prel. t. 2, s. 2, n. 14.

ECCLESIASTICAL. Belonging to, or set apart for the church; as, distinguished from civil or secular. Vide Church.

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS. English law. Courts held by the king's authority as supreme governor of the church, for matters which chiefly concern religion.

2. There are ten courts which may be ranged under this class. 1. The Archdeacon's Court. 2. The Consistory Court. 3. The Court of Arches. 4. The Court of Peculiars. 5. The Prerogative Court. 6. The Court of Delegates, which is the great court of appeals in all ecclesiastical causes. 7. The Court of Convocation. 8. The Court of Audience. 9. The Court of Faculties. 10. The Court of Commissioners of Review.

ECCLESIASTICAL LAW. By this phrase it is intended to include all those rules which govern ecclesiastical tribunals. Vide Law Canon.

ECCLESIASTICS, canon law. Those persons who compose the hierarchial state of the church. They are regular and secular. Aso & Man. Inst. B. 2, t. 5, c. 4, §1.