congredient

[Lat. congrediens, pr. par. of congredior to come together.] A component part. ( Sterne: Tristram Shandy, vi. 201.) còn trêe, v . i. [O. Fr. congréer , from Low Lat. congreo, from Lat. con = cum m= cum =with, together, and grat us =pleasing.] To agree together. con-gree-ing, pr . par . or a. [CONGREE, v.] "Congreeing in a full and natural close." IMG:content-0599.png:[blocks in formation] , . -tion, -sion shun; -tion, . -ble, -dle, . = bel, del 2. Of things: Gathered into one ma or body. the great receptacle Of congregated waters, He call'd seas." The Pope can veto their decisions, but does not do so except for weighty reasons. The most notable is the Congregation de propaganda fide. [PROPA- GANDA.] (2) A company, society, or fraternity of monks, as the Congregation of Cluny. 1. Gen.: Pertaining to a congregation. 2. Spec .: Pertaining to the denomination of the Congregationalists (q. v.). The word was first used by the divines of the Westminster A embly. ( Collection of Scarce Tracts , ed. by Sir W. Scott, vol. vii., p. 91. Trench : Eng- IMG:content-0600.png:[blocks in formation] IMG:content-0601.png:[merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small] party in the Church of England. It is not in doctrine but in government that their peculiarity the Parliament. consists They believe that every congregation has independent powers of self-government, uncon- trolled by any Bishop, or Presbytery, or other external ecclesiastical authority. They recognize a ministry, have deacons as subordinate rulers in the congregation, but allow the congregation itself to judicial power in cases of discipline decide who are fit to join its ranks, and to act with IMG:content-0602.png:[blocks in formation] (1) Def ., .: The adherents of the form of church government called Congregationalism or In depend- ency, or the members of the religious denomina- tion in which these views have been carried out. They are often termed Independents, the latter October 12, 1658." churches are independent of each other, and in heavy trial to the Congregationalists, as to the spiritual matters of the civil power; and the term other di enters from the Episcopal Church. The Congregationalists makes it prominent that sep a- Revolutioner the Toleration Act of 1689 extent which they do not po e in some other restored them to peacee declining till the revival congregations have self-government to an to in the early part of the under Wesley and Whit field inspired them with (2) Ch . Hist .: Congregationalists in general benew life. When an official attempt was made, in lieve their form of church government to be of connection with the census of 1851, to ascertain the tolic churches. The adherents of Episcopacy and Divine authority, and to have been that of the Apos numbers actually present at the several churches or Con- strangers that were conversant among them."-Joshud of Presbyterianism, ., on the contrary, reject and on a particular Sunday, the In depending, in Eng view, and put in similar claims for their own land and Wales, 3,244 chapels and an attendance of 2. Scottish History : The Congregation, or the systems. 1,067,760, as against 14,077 churches, with 5,317,915 Congregation of Christ, was the designation which Among the sects which from the 13th century hearers, in the Church of Eugland; 6,579 with the Scottish Reformers a umed during the reign of separated from the dominant Church, some doubt 2,191 in the Wesley an Methodist body; 2,789 with Queen Mary. The term is supposed to have been le had no closer bond than that of fraternal 752,343 among the Baptists, and 570 churches with National Covenant, that subscribed at Edinburgh descend to more modern times, the tenets of Robert tuted them the third English denomination in point taken from the language of the first Scottish sympathy between different congregationster To 158,343 among the Baptists Catholics. This const i on December 3, 1557, in which the word congrega Brown [BROWNISM] were e entially those of mod tuted them the third English they still maintain. ern Congregationalism. He was born about the in this mountry they cupy the eighth place, hav IMG:content-0603.png:[blocks in formation] The American Dictionary and Cyclopedia congre I. Ordinary Language: IMG:content-0605.png:[ocr errors] 1. A friendly meeting for discu ion, a conference. (1) Lit .: A meeting for the settlement of affairs of a difficult or delicate character between nations. [II., 1.] "The general found himself merely the president of a congre of petty kings."-Macaulay: Hist. Eng ., ch. xiii. (2) Fig .: A gathering, an a emblage. 2. A shock between two or more persons or things; a fight, a contest, a combat. "Here Pallas urges on, and Lausus there; Their congre in the field great Jove withstands, Both doom'd to fall, but fall by greater hands." Dryden. Virgil ; Æneid x. 616. "From these laws may be deduced the rules of the congre es and reflections of two bodies." -Cheyne: Philo sophical Principles. II. History , Political Geography , .: 1. In the same sense as I. 1 (q. v.). 2. The legislative body of this country, consisting at the present time (1893) of 360 representatives and 88 senators-a total of 448-who are elected in two different ways, the representatives by the direct popular vote, and the senators by the legislature of each state. There are two senators from each state, regardle of population, but the number of representatives is based upon the population of the state, the ratio of representation having risen from a minimum of 30,000 (as provided by the Constitution) to 173,901 (in 1893). The lower house is presided over by a speaker, elected by itself, from among its members. The vice-president of the United States is ex - officio the president of the senate. The term for which the representatives are elected is two years, while the senators serve six, the election of members of each house being so timed that there is always a nucleus of old members in every se ion of the two bodies. Congre by law must a emble in regular se ion once each year, and the President of the United States has power to convene it in extra se ion should occasion demand. All appropriation bills must originate in the lower house, in this respect the practice conforming with that of the British legislature. The history of the American Congre is in many respects similar to that of its great forerunner and prototype the British parliament. Called originally to protest and petition against wrong at the hands of its sovereign, when it was apparent that those wrongs could not be abated without an appeal to the sword, the appeal was made. The first meeting of the body took place in the year 1774-1775, John Hancock, of Ma achusetts, being the presiding officer. This meeting of delegates of the colonies was merely a convention to consider the best policy to be pursued in regard to illegal taxation and other abuses. But the arrival of General Gage in Boston, and his actions bringing on the battle of Lexington, aroused to a fierce flame of rebellion what had heretofore been but a spirit of loyal resistance to unconstitutional methods of the home government. The seat of meeting was fixed at Philadelphia, where in 1775 the colonies were first represented, and where, after long deliberation, on the 4th of July, 1776, the body declared the United States "free, sovereign, and independent." From this point the congre of the United States may be said to have taken its origin. It was until after the revolutionary war styled the "Continental Congre ." After the war had closed and the constitution had been adopted it became the body which has, with its removal to Washington City, and with little subsequent variation and alterations (except for the absence of representation from the seceding states from 1861 to the fulfillment of the reconstruction period), grown by healthy accretion to the form it now a umes.