[ad. L. congruitāt-em (perh. immed. through F. congruité, 15th c. in Littré), f. congru-us: see CONGRUE a. and -ITY.]
1. The quality of being congruous; agreement or correspondence in character or qualities; conformity, accordance, harmony. Const. with, less usually to.
1447. Bokenham, Seyntys (Roxb.), 10. This sexefold propyrte Of the margaryte, wych deuly longe To Seynt Margarete be congruyte or simylytude.
1608. Norden, Surv. Dial., 241. Where there is a mutuall congruitie, there is seldome a voluntary seperation.
1665. Glanvill, Sceps. Sci., xiv. 89. Congruity of Opinions … to our natural constitution, is one great incentive to their reception.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., II. xi. 68. Wit … putting those [Ideas] together with Quickness and Variety, wherein can be found any Resemblance or Congruity.
1762. Kames, Elem. Crit., x. (1833), 165. It is clear from the very conception of the terms congruity and propriety that they are not applicable to any single object.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos., III. vii. The congruity of such a right [divorce] with the law of nature.
1869. J. Martineau, Ess., II. 173. Accusations … which have no congruity with one another.
1871. Tyndall, Fragm. Sc. (ed. 6), II. ii. 16. There is, at least, moral congruity between the outward goodness and the inner life.
† b. Of physical substances: Correspondence of structure or molecular constitution (promoting union or mixture). Obs.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 298. The reason is the Congruity of Bodies, which if it be more, maketh a perfecter imbibition and incorporation.
1674. Grew, Anat. Plants, Lect. i. 229. Congruity, or aptitude and respondence betwixt the Sizes and Figures of Parts to be mixed. Ibid. They [two Oils] here mix and coagulate together … by the Congruity of their receiving and intruding parts.
1706. Phillips (ed. Kersey), s.v.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., Congruity, in a lax sense, is used to express an aptitude, in some bodies, to unite or incorporate; by reason of some similitude or fitness of their figures.
† c. Fitness, aptness, aptitude. Obs.
1659. H. More, Immort. Soul, III. i. Axiom xxviii. There is a Triple Vital Congruity in the Soul, namely Æthereal, Aereal, and Terrestrial. Ibid., III. i. xxix. The Soul awakes orderly into these vital Congruities, not passing from one extreme to another without any stay in the middle.
1684. Charnock, Attrib. God, ix. (1834), I. 718. The second Person had the greatest congruity to this work.
1690. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), I. 117. This Hunger and Thirst after Righteousness is the very same to the Life of the Soul, as that Organical Aptness is to the Life of the Body: It is the Congruity of the Soul, in order to Spiritual Life.
1882. Shorthouse, J. Inglesant, I. ii. 36. His master’s Rosicrucian theories … of the vital congruity.
d. (with pl.) An instance or point of agreement, correspondence, etc.
1605. Bacon, Adv. Learn., II. iv. § 2. By these insinuations and congruities [of poesy] with man’s nature and pleasure.
1790. Paley, Horæ Paul., ii. ii. The author of a forgery, who sought to gain credit to a spurious letter by congruities, depending upon the time and place in which the letter was supposed to be written.
1864. H. Spencer, Princ. Biol., § 262. There must exist between all organisms and their environments certain congruities.
2. Self-accordance, harmony of the parts of a whole, coherence.
1827. Carlyle, Richter, Misc. (1857), I. 17. The congruity of Richter’s belief.
1868. Stanley, Westm. Abb., iv. 350. When we contrast the irregularities of Westminster Abbey with the uniform congruity of Salisbury.
1874. Blackie, Self-Cult., 13. The historian, indeed, cannot invent his facts, but he must mould them and dispose them with a graceful congruity; and to do this is the work of the imagination.
3. Accordance a. with what is right, fitting, or reasonable; b. with the circumstances, facts or surroundings; suitableness to the requirements of the case; fitness, propriety. † Phr. Of, in (good) congruity.
1530. Tindale, Practice of Prelates, Wks. (1573), 374. He could not of good congruitie but reward his old chaplaine.
a. 1535. More, On the Passion, Wks. 1335/2. By a certayne concomytaunce folowynge of conuenient congruitye.
a. 1600. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., III. With what congruity then doth the Church of Rome deny, that her enemies, whom she holdeth alwayes for heretikes, do at all appertaine to the church of Christ…?
1670. Walton, Life of Wotton. As himself said of Sir Philip Sidney’s wit, that it was the very measure of congruity.
1756. Burke, Subl. & B., III. § 11. The affixing the name of beauty to proportion, congruity, and perfection.
1850. Carlyle, Latter-d. Pamph., vi. (1872), 199. The Laws of this Universe … are fixed by the everlasting congruity of things.
1871. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 127. Voltaire’s ever-present sense of congruity … upon the tragic stage.
† 4. Gram. Agreement or concord; hence, grammatical correctness or propriety of speech. Obs.
1393. Gower, Conf., III. 136. Gramaire first hath for to teche To speke upon congruite.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., IV. xxi. We were let in, by hygh auctoryte Of the ryght noble dame Congruyte.
1530. Palsgr., Introd., 29. And for the same cause [euphony] breke they somtyme the congruite betwene the substantyve and the adjectyve.
1570. Ascham, Scholem. (Arb.), 94. All the hard congruities of Grammer.
a. 1656. Bp. Hall, Rem. Wks., Life (1660), 21. The congruity of my Latin (in respect of their perfect Barbarisme).
1706. Phillips, Congruence or Congruity … ’tis properly said of a Theme, or Discourse, in which there is no Fault committed contrary to Grammar-Rules. So Bailey 1730–6.
5. Theol. a. (Doctrine of Merit.) With the Schoolmen, the condition of its being ‘congruous’ that God should confer the ‘first grace’ in response, and in ‘a certain equality of proportion,’ to the performance of good works by man. Opposed to CONDIGNITY.
Representing L. congruitas, used by Aquinas in stating that while ‘condignity’ can be attributed to meritorious works only as they proceed from the grace of the Holy Spirit, it yet ‘seems congruous that a man, working according to his own virtue or power, should be recompensed by God according to the excellency of His virtue.’ Summa Theol., Prim. Sec. Q. cxiv. Art. iii. Hence the expressions meritum ex congruo, meritum congrui ‘merit (arising) out of congruity,’ ‘merit of congruity’; mereri (gratiam, etc.) de congruo ‘to merit (grace, etc.) from or of congruity.’ (Some late writers have apparently confused the last with the ‘congruity of efficient grace’ in b.)
1553. Articles of Relig., xii. Workes done before the grace of Christe … are not pleasaunt to God … neither do thei make menne mete to receiue Grace, or (as the Schole aucthoures saie) deserue Grace of congruitie [L. neque gratiam, ut multi vocant, de congruo merentur].
1570. Foxe, A. & M., 25. So that those works maie be meritorious, and of congruitie obteine grace.
1625. Ussher, Answ. Jesuit, 491. From what fountaine the Schoole-men did deriue their doctrine of workes preparatorie, meriting grace by way of Congruetie, though not of Condignitie.
1625. W. Pemble, Justification (1629), 31. What then are merits of congruity? Such workes whereto wages is not due by any iustice.
1675. Baxter, Cath. Theol., II. 39. But some of them say, that the Gospel it self, yea and the first special Grace, is given to men upon merit of congruity, though not of condignity.
a. 1707. Beveridge, On 39 Art., art. xiii. As we cannot do anything which it is just God should reward, and so deserve Grace of condignity: so neither can we do anything which it is fit and meet God should reward, and so deserve grace of Congruity.
1841. J. H. Newman, Tract, xc. § 3. To deserve de congruo or of congruity, is to move the divine regard, not from any claim upon it, but from a certain fitness or suitableness: as for instance it might be said that dry wood had a certain disposition of fitness towards heat which green wood had not.
1856. Bp. H. Browne, On 39 Articles, Art. x. It being agreeable to His nature and goodness to bestow grace on those who make such [unassisted] efforts. Endeavours then on the part of man to attain to godliness were by the schoolmen said to deserve grace de congruo, of congruity.
b. (Doctrine of Grace.) The suitability or adaptation of divine grace to the character, nature, disposition, or other circumstances of the person called, to which some theologians attribute its efficacy (see CONGRUISM); ‘the efficacy of grace which acts while at the same time preserving the action of the free will’ (Littré). A term belonging to the great controversy on Grace between the Dominicans and the Jesuits, which began c. 1580.
Cf. St. Aug., Ad Simplic., I. § 13. Illi enim electi qui congruenter vocati: illi autem qui non congruebant neque contemperabantur vocationi, non electi, quia non secuti, quamvis vocati … Cujus [Deus] miseretur, sic eum vocat, quomodo scit ei congruere ut vocantem non respuat.
Fenelon, Œuvres (1820), III. 253. La grâce qu’on appelle congrue trouve dans sa congruité une véritable efficace.
c. 1650. T. Goodwin, Exp. Ephes., Serm. 23. But the Jesuits ascribe it [efficacious grace] all unto a congruity; that is, that God doth take a man at an advantage, spieth out a time wherein, a man being under such and such circumstances and considerations, he may certainly convert him.
a. 1680. J. Corbet, Free Actions, III. xxii. (1683), 43. Receptivity and congruity for Grace doth not always lye in mens fair carriage.
1727–51. Chambers, Cycl., The system of congruity in matters of grace.
1855. Ess. Intuitive Morals, 104, note. Molina … affirmed that Predestination was founded upon God’s foreknowledge of the merits of the elect, to whom He accords grace of congruity; His scientia media enabling Him to foresee the future contingents arising from the nature and circumstances of His creatures.
† 6. Geom. Coincidence; exact agreement in superposition; capability of being exactly superposed. Obs. [med.L. congruere = to coincide.]
1656. trans. Hobbes’ Elem. Philos. (1839), 183. There can be no congruity between a strait line and a line that is continually crooked.
1755. Johnson, s.v., (In geometry.) Figures or lines which exactly correspond, when laid over one another, are in congruity.
