CONGRESS, in a judicial sense, the trial made by appointment of a judge, before surgeons and matrons, in order to prove whether or no a man be impotent, before sentence is passed for the dissolution of a marriage solicited upon such a complaint.
Neither the civil nor canon law makes any mention of the trial of virility by congress: it had its origin in France, from the boldness of a young fellow, who, in open court, having been hard pressed by his wife, demanded the congrès. The judge, surprised with the novelty of the demand, found it could not be denied, as being the surest evidence that case could admit of. In time it became a branch in the French jurisprudence, and was authorized by decrees and arrests. It obtained for about 120 years; and was annulled by an arrest of parliament in 1677, as being found precarious; some having failed under the experiment out of mere modesty and shame, which is found to have the same effect with actual impotency.