Canon

Canon (Lat. canonicus), an ecclesiastical dignitary (so called as living under a rule, or as following the rule or canon of divine service, or again, most probably, as inscribed on the canon or roll of ecclesiastical officers) holding a prebend in a cathedral or collegiate church. His office is of no great antiquity. According to Pasquier, canons are mainly divided into Canons Regular and Canons Secular. This, however, is not precisely true, for the term canon was applied in the 4th century to cenobites living under a common rule; and the office of canon is supposed by some antiquaries to have been introduced by Baudin or Baldwin, Archbishop of Tours (546–52) under Clothaire I., but was more probably first instituted by Chrodegang, or Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, in 763. It is at least certain that he was the author of the oldest canonical rule, which was simply an adaptation of the monastic rule commonly but erroneously attributed to St Augustine, to the priests and 'clerks' specially attached to the service of a cathedral or other church, but differing therefrom chiefly by omitting the vow of poverty, and allowing canons to retain a life-interest in private property. It enjoined on the canons manual labour, the practice of silence at certain times, confession twice a year, and other duties needless to specify. The canons formed the council of the bishop, and assisted him in the government of his diocese. They lived in a house called a monastery, slept in a common room, ate at the same table, and were originally supported out of the episcopal revenues. This institute was encouraged by Charlemagne, under whom provisions concerning it were enacted at the Councils of Aix-la-Chapelle in 788, and Mentz in 813. In 816 Louis the Pious induced the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle to draw up a general rule of 147 articles for the whole body of canons. Canons found their way not long afterwards into England, Scotland, and Ireland. Various reforms of canons were made in the 11th and beginning of the 12th century, notably the institution for the canons regular of rules for community of life and abolition of private worship imposed by Pope Nicolas II. in 1059, and by Alexander II. in 1063, and the foundation of the Austin canons by Gervase, Archbishop of Rheims, in 1067, followed up by Ivo, Bishop of Chartres (1090–1115). Although the so-called rule of St Augustine was adopted in various places, it was not till 1139 that Innocent II. decreed, and the Council of Lateran, that all canons regular should be bound by that rule, and from that time they took generally the title of canons regular of St Augustine, or Austin Canons (see AUGUSTINIANS). They were further dealt with in a reform enforced by a bull of Benedict XII. in 1339. Gradually, however, many began to emancipate themselves from the restrictions of monastic life, and to live independent of any rule, which is not at all surprising, for the canons were wont to keep apart from the 'lower clergy,' as they called parish priests and others who really laboured to impart religious instruction. They were often of noble families, loved titles—at Lyons, one of the 'noble chapters,' every member of which had to prove several descents of nobility in the case of both his parents, they were called counts—and in general were men of the world rather than true churchmen. Most of these reformed or remodelled canons were called Black Canons, from wearing a black cassock; others, White Canons, from wearing a white habit, like the Premonstratenses of Picardy in France, and the canons of St Victor at Paris and Marseilles. In England, while there is some ground for holding that the clergy established by Augustine at the church of Canterbury were rather canons regular than monks, there is no positive evidence of the introduction of canons regular till the beginning of the 12th century, when they appear at Gloucester, and somewhat later in London. They were reformed by Cardinal Wolsey in 1519, in virtue of a bull of Leo X., but shared in the general fall of monastic institutions in 1539. The class of secular canons, whose manner of life was not conventional, and who therefore escaped destruction in England when the monasteries were abolished by Henry VIII., probably originated in a tendency to relax the severity of rule enjoined on the regulars, which indeed was hardly less strident than in the case of ordinary monks. Secular canons still exist in the Anglican Church, and their duties—making allowance for the difference between the Roman Catholic and Anglican religions—are much the same in kind as they were before the Reformation. See CATHEDRAL.