CONFUTATION, in Rhetoric, a part of an oration, in which the orator seconds his own arguments and strengthens his cause by refuting and destroying the opposite arguments of the antagonist. This is done by denying what is apparently false, by detecting some flaw in the reasoning of the adverse party, by granting their argument, and showing its invalidity from its consequences, or retorting it upon the adversary.
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 an 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, whenever they chanced to become vacant; investing them first per bacculum et annulum, and afterwards by his letters patent: and in course of time he made over the election 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.