Sentence:  At Utrecht and Breda there was strong pressure from the Dutch Reformed Church to exclude from employment British preachers who refused to take membership in the <WSD>classis</WSD>.Webster 1913 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  An ecclesiastical body or judicatory in certain churches, such as the Reformed Dutch. It is intermediate between the consistory and the synod, and corresponds to the presbytery in the Presbyterian church.