Congrua (i.e. CONGRUA PORTIO), a canonical term to designate the
lowest sum proper for the yearly income of a cleric. It is
sometimes used in the same sense as competency. Owing to the
many charges to which a benefice is liable, it became necessary
for the ecclesiastical authority to decree that first and
foremost the proper sustenance of the holder of the benefice
should be provided for, and that a minimum revenue should be
determined, below which his income was not to fall. This was all
the more necessary in cases where benefices had been
incorporated with monasteries or collegiate churches. Very often
the curate of such incorporated benefices received only one-
sixteenth of the revenue. To remedy this abuse a number of
ordinances were passed which reserved to the person having cure
of souls a decent subsistence. The Council of Trent (Sess. XXI,
c. iv, de Ref.) leaves the determination of the congrua to the
judgment of the bishop. This sum must, of course, vary with the
fluctuation of values at different tim