1911 Encyclopædia Britannica/Congruous

CONGRUOUS (from Lat. congruere, to agree), that which corresponds to or agrees with anything; the derivation appears in “congruence,” a condition of such correspondence or agreement, a term used particularly in mathematics, e.g. for a doubly infinite system of lines (see Surface), and in the theory of numbers, for the relation of two numbers, which, on being divided by a third number, known as the modulus, leave the same remainder (see Number). The similar word “congruity” is a term of Scholastic theology in the doctrine of merit. God’s recompense for good works, if performed in a state of grace, is based on “condignity,” meritum de condigno; if before such a state is reached, it should be fit or “congruous” that God should recompense such works by conferring the “first grace,” meritum de congruo. The term is also used in theology, in reference to the controversy between the Jesuits and the Dominicans on the subject of grace, at the end of the 16th century (see Molina, Luis, and Suarez, Francisco).