Assembly

Assembly, (1) the title given to the supreme deliberative body of the Scottish Established Church. The delegates are sent from each presbytery, royal burgh and university in Scotland. Its functions are deliberative, judicial, and legislative. There is a similar Assembly in connection with the Free Church of Scotland. (2) National Assembly was the name given to a body which was established in 1789 in France, when the clergy and privileged nobles refused to be associated with the commons. The Abbe Sieyes (q.v.) therefore proposed the establishment of this National Assembly. They drew up no less than 3,250 decrees, and having thus laid down the basis of a new constitution, they dissolved in 1791.