Theol. [corresp. to F. congruiste (Littré): see prec. and -IST.] One who holds the doctrine of CONGRUISM; applied to one of the parties in the great controversy, which began c. 1580. in the R. C. Ch., about the source and condition of the efficacy of grace. Also attrib.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Congruity, The will, in the language of the congruists, does always infallibly, though voluntarily, choose what appears best.
1885. Arnold, Cath. Dict., 384/1. The three first of the Thomist propositions are admitted by that large number of Jesuit theologians known as Congruists, but they make the efficacity of grace depend, not on anything in the grace itself, but on the fact that it is given under circumstances which, as God foresees, are suitable to the dispositions of the recipient. Ibid., 385/2. In 1613, Aquaviva, general of the Jesuits, required the members of his order to teach the doctrine on grace known as congruism. Ibid. The Molinist and Congruist theories are held by many theologians who are not Jesuits.
