best general account of the Free State in convenient size. The
history section includes a valuable summary of the work of exploration
in the Congo basin from the days of David Livingstone
up to 1893. L’État indépendant du Congo, by A. J. Wauters (Brussels,
1899), is a book of similar character to that of Chapaux. Both
Chapaux and Wauters deal with ethnology and zoology. Sir H. H.
Johnston, George Grenfell and the Congo . . . (2 vols., London, 1908),
largely geographical, historical, anthropological and philological
studies based on the work of Grenfell. For geology see J. Cornet,
“Observations sur la géologie du Congo occidental,” Bull. soc. géol.
belg. vols. x. and xi. (1896–1897); ibid. “Les Formations post-primaires
du bassin du Congo,” Ann. soc. géol. belg. vol. xxi. (1893–1894);
G. F. J. Preumont, “Notes on the Geological Aspect of some
of the North-Eastern Territories of the Congo Free State,” Quart.
Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. lxi. (1905). The economic aspect of the colony
is dealt with in Congo, climat, constitution du sol et hygiène . . . by
Bourguignon and five others (Brussels, 1898). The Fall of the Congo
Arabs, by S. L. Hinde (London, 1897), is an account of the campaigns
of 1892–1893 by an English surgeon who served as a captain
in the state forces. The Congo State, by D. C. Boulger (London,
1898), Droit et administration de l’état indépendant du Congo, by
F. Cattier (of Brussels University) (Brussels, 1898), and L’Afrique
nouvelle, by E. Descamps (professor de droit des gens at Louvain
University) (Paris, 1903), are treatises covering all branches of the
state’s activity, from the standpoint of admirers of the work of
Leopold II., in Africa. Professor Cattier in a later work, Étude sur
la situation de l’état indépendant du Congo (Brussels, 1906), severely
criticized the Congo administration. Other indictments of Congo
State methods are contained in La Question congolaise, by A. Vermeersch
(Brussels, 1906); Il Congo (Rome, 1908), by Captain
Baccari; Civilization in Congoland, by H. R. Fox Bourne (London,
1903); and King Leopold’s Rule in Africa (London, 1904); Red
Rubber (London, 1906); and A Memorial on Native Rights in the
Land . . . (London, 1909), by E. D. Morel. Ten Years in Equatoria,
by Major G. Casati (London, 1891), contains much information
concerning the peoples, zoology, &c., of the north-eastern parts of
the state. (F. R. C.)
CONGREGATION (Lat. congregatio, a gathering together,
from cum, with, grex, gregis, a flock, herd), an assembly of
persons, especially a body of such persons gathered together
for religious worship, or the body of persons habitually attending
a particular church, hence the basis of that system of religious
organization known as Congregationalism (q.v.) Apart from
these, the more general meanings of the word, “congregation”
is used in the English versions of the Old and New Testaments
to translate the Hebrew words ‛ēdāh and kāhāl, the whole
community of the Israelites and the assembly of the people.
The words “assembly” and “congregation” have been to a
certain extent distinguished in the Revised Version, “congregation”
being kept for ‛ēdāh and “assembly” for kāhāl. The
Septuagint generally translates the first by συναγωγή, the second
by ἐκκλησία (see J. H. Selbie, in Hastings’s Dict. of Bible, s.v.
“Congregation,” cf. “Assembly,” ib.) In the Roman Church
“congregation” is applied to the committees of cardinals into
whose hands the administration of the various departments
of the church is given (see Curia Romana). The committees
of bishops who regulate the business at a general council of the
church are also known as “congregations.” In the Roman
Church there are several kinds of associations for religious
purposes known by the generic name of “congregation”;
such are: (1) those branches of a particular order, which, for
the stricter practice of the rules of their order, group themselves
together under a special form of government and discipline,—thus
the Trappists are a congregation of the Cistercians, the monks
of Cluny and St Maur are congregations of the Benedictines;
(2) communities of religious under a common rule; persons
belonging to such communities have either taken no vows, or
have not taken “solemn” vows; of the many congregations
of this class may be mentioned the Oratorians, the Oblates and
the Lazarists; (3) in France religious associations of the laity,
male or female, joined together for some religious, charitable or
educational purpose (see France: Law and Institutions). Lastly
“congregation” in secular usage is applied to two governing
bodies at the university of Oxford, viz. the “Ancient House of
Congregation,” in whom lies the granting and conferring of
degrees, consisting of the vice-chancellor, proctors and “regent
masters,” and secondly the “Congregation of the University of
Oxford,” created by the University of Oxford Act 1854, and
consisting of all members of convocation who are “resident,”
i.e. have passed 141 nights within 2 m. of Carfax during the
preceding year. All statutes must be passed by this congregation
before introduction in convocation, and it alone has the power
of amending statutes (see Oxford). At Cambridge University
congregation is the term used of the meeting of the senate. In
Scottish history, from the fact that the word occurs, in the sense
of “church,” frequently in the national covenant of 1537, the
name of “congregation” was used of the Reformers. Generally
and similarly the title of “lords of the congregation” was given
to the signatories of the covenant.
CONGREGATIONALISM, the name given to that type of church
organization in which the autonomy of the local church, or body
of persons wont to assemble in Christian fellowship, is fundamental. Varied as are the forms which this idea has assumed
under varying conditions of time and place, it remains distinctive
enough to constitute one of the three main types of ecclesiastical
polity, the others being Episcopacy and Presbyterianism.
Episcopacy in the proper sense, i.e. diocesan Episcopacy, represents
the principle of official rule in a monarchical form: Presbyterianism
stands for the rule of an official aristocracy, exercising
collective control through an ascending series of ecclesiastical
courts. In contrast to both of these, which in different ways
express the principle of clerical or official authority, Congregationalism
represents the principle of democracy in religion. It
regards church authority as inhering, according to the very
genius of the Gospel, in each local body of believers, as a miniature
realization of the whole Church, which can itself have only
an ideal corporate being on earth. But while in practice it is
religious democracy, in theory it claims to be the most immediate
form of theocracy, God Himself being regarded as ruling His
people directly through Christ as Head of the Church, whether
Catholic or local. So viewed, Congregationalism is essentially a
“high church” theory, as distinct from a high clerical one. It
springs from the religious principle that each body of believers
in actual church-fellowship must be free of all external human
control, in order the more fully to obey the will of God as conveyed
to conscience by His Spirit. Here responsibility and
privilege are correlatives. This, the negative aspect of the
congregational idea, has emerged at certain stages of its history
as Independency. Its positive side, with its sense of the wider
fellowship of “the Brotherhood” (1 Pet. v. 9, cf. ii. 17), has
expressed itself in varying degrees at different times, according
as conditions were favourable or the reverse. But catholicity of
feeling is inherent in the congregational idea of the church,
inasmuch as it knows no valid use of the term intermediate
between the local unit of habitual Christian fellowship and the
church universal. On such a theory confusion between full
Catholicity and loyalty to some partial expression of it is minimized,
and the feeling for Christians as such, everywhere and
under whatever name, is kept pure.
The Congregationalism of the Apostolic Church was, to begin with, part of its heritage from Judaism. In the record of Christ’s own teaching the term “church” occurs only twice, once in the universal sense, as the true or Messianic “Israel of God” (Matt. xvi. 18, cf. Gal. vi. Primitive Congrega-tionalism. 16), and once in the local sense corresponding to the Jewish synagogue (Matt. xviii. 17). As Christianity passed to Gentile soil, the sovereign assembly (ecclesia) of privileged citizens in each Greek city furnished an analogy to the latter usage. These, the two senses recognized by Congregationalism, remained the only ones known to primitive Christianity. Writing of the unity of the church as set forth by Paul in Ephesians, Dr Hort (The Christian Ecclesia, p. 168) says: “Not a word in the epistle exhibits the One Ecclesia as made up of many Ecclesiae. To each local Ecclesia St Paul has ascribed a corresponding unity of its own; each is a body of Christ and a sanctuary of God: but there is no grouping of them into partial wholes or into one great whole. The members which make up the One Ecclesia are not communities but individual men. The One Ecclesia includes all members of all partial Ecclesiae; but its relations to them all are direct, not mediate. It is true that . . . St Paul anxiously promoted friendly intercourse and sympathy
