Canoness

Canoness (canonica). The title of canoness was given at the close of the 8th century to a class of women living in common under a somewhat laxer rule than that of nuns, and originating in the Frank empire in imitation of the chapters of canons then recently instituted. They took the vows of chastity and obedience, but not that of poverty, and were not cloistered, though they had a common table and dormitory, and were bound to the recitation of the breviary, as were nuns. Their occupations were chiefly education of girls, transcription and embellishment of church office-books, and embroidery of vestments. The advantages of such institutions as asylums in a rough age were soon visible, and they multiplied in consequence, but as in many houses the religious motive had little to do with entrance, a distinction was drawn ere long between canonesses regular and secular. The secular canonesses were for the most part members of princely or noble families, practised much state and luxury, and retained none of the rule save the common dormitory and the recitation of the Hours in choir. In Germany, several abbesses of canonesses were princesses of the empire, kept up feudal state, and furnished contingents to the imperial army from their vassals; and at the Reformation some chapters adopted the new opinions, and subsist to the present day as Protestant foundations, enjoying the revenues, and admitting to membership only ladies of noble birth or daughters of distinguished members of the military and civil services, whose sole obligation is celibacy during membership. The institute never spread beyond the limits of the empire, and the non-German houses were chiefly in Hainault, Flanders, and Lorraine.