Also 4–6 -acio(u)n. [a. F. congrégation (OF. -atiun, -acion, 12th c. in Littré), ad. L. congregātiōn-em, n. of action f. congregāre: see CONGREGATE. The concrete sense ‘assembly of people’ is not recorded in classical Latin, but occurs in the Vulgate.]
1. The action of congregating or collecting in one body or mass.
c. 1374. Chaucer, Boeth., II. ii. 65. By þe congregacioun of alle goodes.
1626. Bacon, Sylva, § 312. The Maturation of Drinks is wrought by the Congregation of the Spirits together.
1635. Person, Varieties, II. 71. The stirring winds would hinder … their congregation or gathering together.
1669. Gregory, in Rigaud, Corr. Sci. Men (1841), II. 187. The congregation of the rays by refraction.
1869. Ruskin, Q. of Air, § 121. As if the first purpose of congregation were not to devise laws and repress crimes.
b. As a condition or state.
1835. I. Taylor, Spir. Despot., ii. 47. The priest has to do with men in congregation.
2. The result of congregating; a gathering, assemblage, or company: a. of men.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 13370 (Trin.). Þe brydgome did hem þider calle … þe congregacioun [earlier MSS. gadering, gedering] was ful grete.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 944. A congregacioun Of folke as I saugh rome a-bout.
a. 1400. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 70. Cryst conserve this congregacion Fro perellys past, present, and future.
1598. Barret, Theor. Warres, IX. i. 93. A squadron of men is … a congregation of souldiers orderly ranged and set.
1611. Bible, Ezra x. 1.
1694. R. Molesworth, Acc. Denmark (ed. 3), B v. Small Territories, or Congregations of People, chose valiant and wise Men to be their Captains.
1809. Campbell, Gertr. Wyom., I. i. Some congregation of the elves, To sport by summer moons.
b. of animals or things.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 121. Whiche congregacyons of waters he called the sea.
1602. Shaks., Ham., II. ii. 315. A foule and pestilent congregation of vapours.
1691. Ray, Creation (1714), 78. The great Concepticula and Congregations of water.
1717. Berkeley, Jrnl. Tour Italy, 29 May. A congregation of oyster and scollop shells.
1865. J. G. Bertram, Harvest of Sea, v. (1873), 98. A congregation of fish brought together by means of a scatter of food.
1878. H. Irving, The Stage, 2. To efficiency in … acting there should come a congregation of fine qualities.
1883. Froude, Short Stud., IV. III. 255. A congregation of gaseous atoms.
† c. techn. of plovers. Obs.
c. 1430. Lydg., Hors, Shepe & G. (Roxb.), 30. A congregacon of plouers.
1486. Bk. St. Albans, F vj b.
3. A regular meeting or assembly of a society or body.
1389. in Eng. Gilds (1870), 31. Somouned to don semble, er to congregacioun be-forn ye alderman and ye bretheryn [of the gild].
c. 1430. Freemasonry, 108. That every mayster, that ys a mason, Most ben at the generale congregacyon.
1526. Tindale, Acts xix. 39. Itt may be determined in a lawfull congregacion.
1533–4. Act 25 Hen. VIII., c. 21 § 20. To or for any visitacion, congregation, or assemble for religion.
b. Acad. A general assembly of the members of a University, or of such of them as possess certain specified qualifications.
At Cambridge an assembly or meeting of the Senate. At Oxford a meeting of the Vice-Chancellor, Proctors, and ‘Regent Masters’ (Ancient House of Congregation), to grant or confer degrees, etc.; also, since 1854, the name of the whole body of resident Masters, Doctors, and Professors (Congregation of the University), and of a regular meeting of this body, constituting the chief deliberative assembly of the University. (The intention of the Act of 1854 was to enlarge the constitution and powers of the ‘Ancient House of Congregation’: it was held, however, by the legists that, instead of doing so, it had created a new body, ‘the Congregation of the University,’ leaving the ‘Ancient House’ intact. There are therefore now two Congregations in the University.)
[1511. Colet, Serm. Conform & Ref., in Phenix (1708), II. 12. Suffer not … this your great convocation to depart in vain; suffer not this your congregation to be for no end.]
1532. More, Confut. Tindale, Wks. 419. This woorde congregacyon … in some vniuersityes it signifyeth their assembles.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camd. Soc.), 2. The bel began to ring to the congregation before M. Nuce began to rise.
1712. Hearne, Collect., III. 387. Yesterday Mr. John Keil was confirm’d in Congregation Professor of Geometry.
1714. Ayliffe, Univ. Oxford, II. III. i. 139. Degrees are proposed and granted in the Congregation of Regent Masters.
1863. Sat. Rev., 300 (Oxford). Every measure, before it reaches Convocation, must go through Congregation; and Congregation, as the Act finally passed, means the whole body of residents and next to nobody else.
1870. Stat. Univ. Oxon., X. iii. 1. For the purpose of giving increased efficiency to the proceedings of the Congregation … and to give power of amending statutes in Congregation. Ibid. (1885), X. iii. 8. The Members of Congregation shall upon every occasion, on which any question whatever is submitted to Congregation, have the right to speak thereon in the English tongue.
1883. Manch. Exam., 1 Dec., 4/7. At a congregation held in the Senate House, Cambridge, the report … was offered for confirmation.
1886. Oxf. Univ. Calendar, 51. Full Term begins on the Sunday after the first Congregation, that is on the Sunday after the first day of Term.
1891. Oxf. Univ. Gaz., 3 March, 333. In a Congregation holden on Tuesday, March 3, the following business was submitted to the House. Ibid. In a meeting of Convocation, to be followed by a meeting of the Congregation of the University, to be holden on Tuesday, March 10. Ibid., 336. Ancient House of Congregation.—Congregations will be holden for the purpose of granting Graces and conferring Degrees in Hilary and Easter Terms, on the following days.
† 4. A collective body of colleagues, a company. (Cf. COLLEGE 1, 2.) Obs.
14[?]. Prose Leg., in Anglia, VIII. 157. Þe congregacyon of holy maydenes.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 27. What may all this represent or signifye, but the congregacyon of the holy apostles.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., III. (1702), I. 177. Least the anger of that terrible Congregation [the Long Parliament] should be kindled against them.
5. In English versions of the Bible, applied in the O.T. to the collective body of the Israelites in the wilderness, and to a public solemn assembly of the people or nation: so congregation of the Lord, etc.
Here it is put for two distinct Heb. words עדה sēdāh and קהל qāhāl, the original difference between which was app: that עדה meant the collective body or community, and קהל an actual assembly that had met and would disperse again; but in application the two were necessarily often identical; the assembly consisted of or represented the community. By the LXX עדה is, with rare exceptions, rendered συναγωγή; קהל is rendered 70 times ἐκκλησία, 37 times συναγωγή, 10 times by ὅχλος or other word. The Vulgate has for both words a great variety of renderings, e.g., multitudo, cœtus, populus, turba, congregatio for both; also plebs, vulgus, globus, caterva, synagoga for עדה; concio, ecclesia, exercitus for קהל. Wyclif has congregacioun only in the few places in which congregatio appears in the Vulgate; but in the 16th-c. versions, congregation became the predominant rendering of both words; in the 1611 version it occurs 124 times for עדה, eigthy-six times for קהל. (In a relatively small number of cases, both words are rendered company, and assembly.) The Revised Version of 1885 has distinguished עדה and קהל in the Heptateuch as congregation and assembly, but elsewhere has usually continued the indiscriminate use of ‘congregation’ found in the earlier version.
1382. Wyclif, Num. i. 2. Take ȝe the sowme of all the congregacioun of the sones of Yrael.
1535. Coverdale, Micah ii. 5. No man to deuyde the thy porcion, in the congregacion off the Lorde.
1611. Bible, Lev. iv. 21. It is a sinne offering for the Congregation [1885 Rev. V. assembly]. Ibid., Ex. xii. 6. The whole assembly of the congregation of Israel. Ibid., Deut. xxiii. 1. Shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord [1885 assembly]. Ibid., 1 Chron. xxviii. 8. In the sight of al Israel, the congregation of the Lord [So 1885].
b. Hence, in O. T. language, in certain phrases, e.g., the congregation of saints, of the wicked, of evildoers, of hypocrites, etc. = whole body, company.
1382. Wyclif, Ps. cx[i]. 1. In counseil of riȝtwis men and congregacioun [1388 in the counsel and congregacioun of iust men].
1535. Coverdale, Ps. xxv[i]. 5. I hate the congregacion of the wicked [Wyclif chirche of wariende men]. Ibid., cxix. 61. The congregacions of the vngodly haue robbed me. Ibid., cxlix. 1. Let the congregacion of sayntes prayse hym [Wyclif chirche of halewis].
1539. Bible (Great), Ps. lxxxii. 1. God standeth in the congregacion of princes [LXX. συναγωγή, Vulg. synagoga, Wyclif synagoge of godis].
1611. Bible, Job xv. 34. The congregation of hypocrites shall be desolate.
† 6. Used by Tindale to translate ἐκκλησία in the N. T., and much used by the Eng. Reformers of the 16th c. instead of CHURCH (on account of the current restriction of the latter term to the clergy or clerical order):
[Cf. 1529. More, Dyaloge, III. viii. (1530), 97 b.
1530. Tindale, Answ. to More, § 2. In as much as the clergy … had appropriat vnto themselues the terme [Church] that of right is common vnto all the whole congregation of them that beleue in Christ … therefore in the translation of the new Testament where I found this word Ecclesia, I enterpreted it by thys word congregation.
Cf. 1532. More, Confut. Tindale].
a. in sense of the whole body of the faithful, the Church of Christ.
Cf. Luther’s use of Gemeinde instead of Kirche, to express the Church as the congregation or community of the saints or saved people. Also Article xix. of Ch. or Engl. ‘The Visible Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful Men.’
1526. Tindale, Matt. xvi. 18. Apon this roocke I wyll bylde my congregacion.
1529. More, Dyaloge, I. Wks. 120/2. The hole church, that is to wit, not the clargie only, but the hole congregacion of all christen people.
1549. (Mar.) Bk. Com. Prayer, Collect Symon & Jude. Almightie God, whiche hast builded the congregacion upon the foundacion of the Apostles and prophetes.
1555. Eden, Decades, Pref. (Arb.), 50. Added to the flocke of chrystes congregation.
1558. Q. Kennedy, Compend. Tract., in Wodr. Soc. Misc. (1844), 100. The congregatioun swa deirlie bocht be the blude and deth of Jesu Christe.
1568. Bible (Bishops’), Heb. xii. 23. The congregation of the firste borne whiche are written in Heauen [Wyclif, Rheims, 1611 church].
1583. Fulke, Defence, v. 228.
b. in sense of a particular local assembly or society of believers, a ‘church’ (in the Congregational sense).
1526–34. Tindale, 1 Cor. xvi. 19. The congregacions of Asia salute you. Aquila and Priscilla salute you … and so doeth the congregacion that is in their house [Wyclif, Rhem., 1611 church].
1621. Baynes, Diocesans’ Trial, 13. All churches were singular congregations, equal, independent of each other.
1625. J. Robinson, Just & Necess. Apol., i. The Apostle Paul doth entitle the particular Congregation, which was at Corinth, ‘the body of Christ.’
1641. T. Edwards (title), Reasons against the Independent Government of Particular Congregations.
1661. Crt. of Mass., in Holmes, Ann. of Amer. (1829), I. 322. This matter hath been under the Consideration of a synod, orderly called, the result whereof our last general court commended to the several congregations.
1679. Penn, Addr. Prot., II. v. (1692), 148. What is this Church or Congregation rather (as Tindal everywhere translates it).
1708. [see CONGREGATIONALIST].
c. A body of Christians, a denomination.
1826. Scott, Prov. Antiq. (1834), 274. The modern Calvinists no longer mingle with their own religious zeal, any animosity against those of other Congregations.
7. A body of persons assembled for religious worship or to hear a preacher. (The most common modern use.)
1526–34. Tindale, Acts xiii. 43. When the congregacion was broken uppe, many … followed Paul and Barnabas [so 1611; Genev. churche, Rhem. synagogue].
1599. Shaks., Much Ado, III. iii. 173. Hee would meete her … next morning at the Temple, and there, before the whole congregation shame her.
1609. Holland, Amm. Marcell., XXVII. iii. 308. In the great Hall of Sicininus where there is holden a congregation and meeting of Christians.
1688. Act 1 Will. & M., c. 18 § 16. If any person or Persons … do maliciously or contemptuously come into any Cathedral or Parish Church, Chapel, or other Congregation and disquiet or disturb the same.
1701. De Foe, True-born Eng., I. 4. Wherever God erects a house of prayer, The devil always builds a chapel there; And ’twill be found, upon examination, The latter has the largest congregation.
1754. Richardson, Grandison, Let. 16 Nov. The whole congregation were hushed and silent, as if nobody were in the church.
1829. Southey, Ode Bp. Heber. Whose eloquence Held congregations open-ear’d.
1844. Kinglake, Eöthen, xvii. The church-going bells … calling the prim congregation … to morning prayer.
b. The body of persons who habitually attend or belong to a particular place of worship.
In the Episcopal and Presbyterian systems, a local organized body of worshippers, in contrast to the collective body or ‘Church,’ composed of these congregations.
In the Congregational system, the whole local body of worshippers, as distinguished from the ‘church’ or company of communicants.
1597. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., V. lxxx. § 2. Till at the length we descend unto several congregations termed parishes. Ibid., § 3. Divided into their special congregations and flockes.
1609. Bp. Hall, Cases Consc., III. x. 347. As Pastors of Congregations.
1641. Hinde, J. Bruen, xxviii. 87. Having provided for the publike congregation a worthy Preacher.
1688. Act 1 Will. & M., c. 18 (Toleration Act, § 8). Any Preacher or Teacher of any Congregation of Dissenting Protestants.
1854. H. Miller, Sch. & Schm., xviii. The minister of an attached provincial congregation.
1855. Thackeray, Newcomes, xi. The rich silk cassock presented to him by his congregation at Leatherhead.
1867. Smiles, Huguenots Eng., vii. (1880), 116. They formed themselves into congregations for the purpose of worshipping together.
c. In the New England colonies in which Congregationalism was established: The community of a settlement, town, or ‘parish,’ having its particular place of worship, as distinguished from the ‘church,’ or body of communicants, within the same. Now called the ‘society.’
1852. Bancroft, Hist. U.S., IV. 149. There [in Connecticut and Massachusetts Bay in 1754] each township was also substantially a territorial parish; the town was the religious congregation.
1887. G. P. Fisher, Hist. Chr. Ch., VIII. xii. 465. At Salem, the ministers … were first elected by the congregation, answering to the parish, as its ministers, and then chosen by the church to be its overseers in spiritual things. Ibid., 476. In New England … the congregation of the town (or of the parish, when the town was so large that there was more than one place of worship) acted concurrently with the church in the choice and dismissal of ministers.
8. Scottish Hist. The designation given to the party of Protestant Reformers during the reign of Mary. (Also C. of Christ, of the Lord.) The term appears to have originated in the language of the National Covenant, subscribed 3 Dec. 1557, in which the word occurs eight times in the sense ‘church,’ as in 6 a). Also, b. A local section or body of the Reforming party. c. Lords of the Congregation: the nobles and other chief men who subscribed the National Covenant.
1557. National Covt., in Knox, Hist. Ref., I. 117. We … shall with all diligence continually apply our whole power … to maintaine, set forward, and establish the most blessed word of God and his congregation … Vnto the which holie word and congregation we do ioyne vs … and also dois renunce and foirsaik the congregatioun of Sathan. Ibid. (1559), II. 313. Item the sayd Lords of the congregation and all the members therof shall remaine obedient subiects to our soueraigne Lord and Ladies authoritie. Item the said congregation nor none of them shall not trouble or molest a Church-man. Ibid. (a. 1572), 138 (an. 1559). The Congregation of the West Country, with the Congregatioun of Fyfe, Perthe, Dundee, Angus … being convenit in the toun of Perthe.
1659. B. Harris, Parival’s Iron Age, 31. Elizabeth … strengthned so well the party of the Congregation, that the Queen of Scotland … was fain at length to betake her self to flight.
1717. De Foe, Hist. Ch. Scot., i. 10. The Protestant Nobility … had ever since the Association … been called The Lords of the Congregation: And the Protestants in general, as then united, were called The Congregation.
1759. Robertson, Hist. Scot. (1817), I. II. 394.
9. R. C. Ch. A community or order bound together by a common rule, either without vows (as the Oratorians), or without solemn vows (as the Passionists, Redemptorists, etc.). Extended, esp. in France, to lay associations of men or women, having a religious end in view, and devoting themselves to some work of instruction or charity (as the Brothers of the Christian Schools). Cf. CONGREGANIST.
1488. Caxton, Chast. Goddes Chyld., xvi. 42. In that olde tyme … whan there was but lityll ony congregacion of monkes.
1450–1530. Myrr. our Ladye, 115. Eche congregacion oughte to lyue vnder one gouernoure.
1706. trans. Dupin’s Eccl. Hist. 16th C., II. IV. xi. 450. This Age was very fruitful in Congregations of Regular Clerks.
b. A group of monasteries belonging to some great order, which agree to unite themselves together by closer ties of doctrine and discipline (as the great congregation of Cluny, that of St. Maur, and that of La Trappe).
1885. Catholic Dict.
10. The name given to several permanent committees of the Roman College of Cardinals of which eleven are of primary importance, each having charge of a certain department of the business of the Church. Sometimes specifically applied to the Congregation de propaganda fide. Also a temporary committee of cardinals and ecclesiastics, constituted a special congregation, to clear up or decide a matter that has arisen.
1670. G. H., Hist. Cardinals, I. III. 87. Out of this Colledge of Cardinals, there are several Congregations formed, that are call’d … the Congregations of Cardinals.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 5, ¶ 4. By a solemn Act of the Congregation of Cardinals.
1723. R. Millar, Propagat. Chr., II. viii. 368. The Congregation has sent Missions thither.
1839. C. H. Timperley, Dict. Printers & Print., 216. The compilers of the catalogues or indexes of prohibited books, are still continued, and called the congregation of the index.
1845. S. Austin, Ranke’s Hist. Ref., III. 313. Clement VII. laid the demand before a congregation which he had appointed to settle matters of faith.
1877. Blackie’s Pop. Encycl., II. 497/2. To these belong the Inquisition (congregation of the holy office) … the congregation de propaganda fide.
b. At a General Council, a committee of bishops appointed for drawing up rules for the dispatch of business, and preparation of questions for debate, etc.
1885. Catholic Dict.
11. Comb. Congregation-house, house of assembly, spec. of a University, as e.g., the Senate-House at Cambridge.
1631. Weever, Anc. Fun. Mon., 230. The congregation-house at Cambridge.
1655. Fuller, Hist. Camb. (1840), 95. The archbishop personally visited the collective body of the University in the Congregation or Regent-house.
1656. Trapp, Comm. Matt. xxviii. 7. That panegyris or congregation-house of the first-born enrolled in heaven.
