CONCORDANCE, a dictionary or index to the Bible, wherein all the leading words are ranged alphabetically, and the books, chapters, and verses wherein they occur, referred to, to assist in finding out passages, and comparing the several significations of the same word. The earliest attempt at a Concordance is the collection of parallel passages in the margin of the 5th volume of the Complatensian Polyglot. The first English Polyglot was published by John Merbeck, or Marbeck, a celebrated English musician, in 1550.
Of English Concordances, Cruden’s is well known and valued by every biblical student.
Crutwell’s “Concordance of Parallels” is useful, but the number of parallel passages referred to, and sometimes the slightness of their connexion, renders the work less useful on ordinary occasions than the marginal references in our Bibles.
Gastrell’s “Christian Institutes,” Locke and Dodd’s “Common-place Book of Scripture,” Strutt’s work with the same title, and Matthew Talbot’s “Analysis of the Holy Bible,” all assume the character of a concordance. The best Hebrew concordance is Calasios. For the Septuagint, Trommius, for the Greek Testament, Schmidt, (a very beautiful 12mo edition of which was edited by Mr. Greenfield in 1830,) and for the Vulgate, Cardinal Hugo’s Concordance may be consulted.
CONCORDAT. An instrument executed in 1801, between Bonaparte and Pope Pius VII., to which the present Gallican Church owes its origin, in a much stronger sense than any in which the Romanist can refer the origin of the Church of England to the Reformation. For an account of this concordat the reader is referred to the article on the Church of France. (See Church.)
CONCORDAT. There is also a much earlier agreement between the crown of France and the pope, generally known by the same name, viz. the agreement of Francis I. with Pope Leo X. in 1516, to abolish the Pragmatic Sanction; and here we must observe, that Clothaire II. issued an edict in 615, approved by all the bishops of his kingdom, assembled at the fifth Council of Paris, by which he ordered that no bishop, though chosen by the clergy and people, should be consecrated if the king did not approve of him: and he that should be nominated by the king should be accepted, if the metropolitan found no just cause to reject him. Now King Charles VII., in the Council of Bourges, in 1439, established the Pragmatic Sanction, whereby part of the clergy, without consulting with the people or the archbishops, or other bishops of provinces, chose their bishops, leaving the king the privilege of consenting to and confirming the election if he liked it. This the court of Rome resented; the court first desired, and afterwards in the Lateran Council cited, this king and the clergy of France to appear and give their reasons, why they did not abolish that ordinance; whereupon King Francis I. made this agreement, called a Concordat, with Pope Leo X., whereby the king had the power to nominate such as he thought fit for bishops, &c.; and the pope, if he found no fault, either in respect of the capacity or life of the person in nomination, was to issue the papal bull for the consecration. The parliament, clergy, and the university of Paris were much against registering this agreement; and, though they consented to it at last, yet they solemnly protested, that they did it only in obedience to the king’s repeated commands. This concordat differed from that of Clothaire, that the pope, by this, had no power to examine the ability of the person elected; so that, in his time, they consecrated their bishops, without troubling themselves to send to Rome for bulls. (See Pragmatic Sanction.)
CONCORDAT, GERMANIC, or the Concordat of Germany. A treaty relating to ecclesiastical affairs, made in 1488, between Pope Nicholas V. and the emperor Frederick III., confirmed by Clement VIII. and Gregory XIII. It comprehended four parts; in the first of which the pope reserved to himself the conferring of all vacant benefices at Rome, and 100 days’ journey from it, of whatever degree, either secular or regular, which before went by election, without exception of cardinals or other officers of the holy see. The second concerns the elections that are to be confirmed by the pope, as metropolises, cathedrals, and monasteries, depending immediately on the pope, and having the privilege of canonical election. The third concerns livings that are successively given by the popes and their proper patrons; that the pope has the privilege to confer both secular and regular livings, for the months of January, March, May, July, September, November; and the bishop or archbishop within the district of their dioceses during the other months. The fourth and last part speaks of the annates or first-fruits, after the death or removal of the incumbent.
CONDIGNITY and CONGRUITY. Terms used by the schoolmen to express their peculiar opinions relative to human merit and deserving. The Scotists maintain that it is possible for man in his natural state so to live as to deserve the grace of God, by which he may be enabled to obtain salvation; this natural fitness (congruitas) for grace, being such as to oblige the Deity to grant it. Such is the merit of congruity. The Thomists, on the other hand, contend that man, by the Divine assistance, is capable of so living as to merit eternal life, to be worthy (condignus) of it in the sight of God. In this hypothesis, the question of previous preparation for the grace which enables him to be worthy, is not introduced. This is the merit of condignity.
Article XIII. “Works done before the grace of Christ, and the inspiration of his Spirit, are not pleasant to God, forasmuch as they spring not of faith in Jesus Christ, neither do they make men meet to receive grace, or (as the school-authors say) deserve grace of congruity: yea, rather, for that they are not done as God hath willed and commanded them to be done, we doubt not but they have the nature of sin.”
CONDUCT. A name given to chaplains of colleges in the university of Cambridge and at Eton; meaning a “Capellanus conductitius.” (See Chaplain.)