CONGE d'élire, in ecclesiastical policy, the king's permission royal to a dean and chapter in the time of a vacancy, to choose a bishop; or to an abbey, or priory, of his own foundation, to choose their abbot or prior.
The king of England, as sovereign patron of all archbishops, bishops, and other ecclesiastical benefices, had of ancient time free appointment of all ecclesiastical dignities, whensoever they chanced to be void; investing them first per bacculum et annulum, and afterwards by his letters patent; and in course of time he made the election over to others, under certain forms and limitations, as that they should at every vacation, before they choose, demand the king's congé d'élire, and after the election crave his royal assent, &c.