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McClintock Biblical Encyclopedia: Society, a combination of persons uniting in a fellowship for any purpose whatever, and having common objects, principles, and laws. Many such combinations have been made of late years for the purpose of promoting different religious objects, among the earliest of which are the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, for the circulation of Bibles, prayer books, and tracts, founded in 1698; the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, for carrying Christianity to the colonies and other dependencies of the British empire, established in 1701; and others, most of which will be found under their appropriate heads, as SEE BIBLE SOCIETIES, etc. Since convocations and diocesan synods have fallen into disuse, the duty of providing for missions, the circulation of the Scriptures, the preparation and publication of devotional works, and similar objects, have devolved upon voluntary associations. These societies, being formed independent of ecclesiastical authority, are necessarily free from eccles