Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/337

 CANONS

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CANONS

tatem et clericatum". He lives in community, lie leads the life of a religious, he sings the praises of God by the daily recitation of the Divine Office in choir; but it the same time, at the bidding of bis superiors, he is prepared to follow the example of the Apostles by preaching, teaching, and the administration of the

sacraments, or l>y giving hospitality to pilgrims and travellers, and tending t lie sick. And so we find that Pope Paschal II. in his Hull addressed in 1118 to the prior and community at Colchester, tells them that their order has always been devoted to preaching. hearing confessions, and baptizing, and ready to ac- cept the care of such parishes and public chapels as might lx> entrusted to their charge. This has been pointed out by other popes, as also by St. Ives of Chartres, and by Caneellieri, who. quoting the au- thority of an ancient writer to the effect that the clerics living in common in the Lateran Basilica ob- served the regulations introduced there by Pope I lela- sius, says that "their work was the administration of the sacraments and the offering of prayer". It is the same now. From one monastery alone, that o) St. Florian, in Austria, some forty parishes are served, and those same canons who gave hospitality on the Great St. Bernard serve a number of parishes in the Canton Valais. The public prayer, or liturgical office, is celebrated with all the splendour befitting God's honour and His house. But the canons regular do not confine themselves exclusively to canonical func- tions. Nothing, unless incompatible with the duty of clerics, is rejected. To this day, as already men- tioned, they give hospitality to pilgrims and travel- lers on the Great St. Bernard and on the Simplon, and in former times the hospitals of St. Bartholo- mew's Smithfield. in London, of S. Spirito, in Rome, of Lochleven. Monymusk, and St. Andrew's, in Scot- land, and others like them, were all served by canons regular. In fact . many congregations of canons made it their chief end to work among the poor, the lepers, the insane, and the infirm. The clerics established by St. Patrick in Ireland had a Guest House for pil- grims and the sick, whom they tended by day and by night. And the rule given by Chrodegang to his canons enjoined that a hospital should be near their house that they might tend the sick. The Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (Aachen) also ordains the erection of a hospital for pilgrims over which a canon regular is to preside.

The essential and characteristic habit of canons regular is the rochet. With regard to the other parts, their dress, as a general rule, is that of other clergy, although some have added a scapular. By most the rochet is worn as part of their daily dress, though sometimes reduced to a small linen band hanging from the shoulders in front and behind. It is now so worn in Austria, on the Great St. Bernard, and at Aoeta. As to the colour of the dress there is no fixed rule, the custom and traditions of the various Congre- gations may be observed. The general colour seems to have been white as now worn by the Lateran Con- gregation. A question having been raised as to the proper habit of a canon regular, when named bishop, it was settled by a Brief of Leo X. A long disserta- tion on the dress of the canons regular was presented to the pope by a jurisconsult. Zaccaria Ferreri, who maintained that, with the exception of the rochet, the canons regular, like the secular clergy, had no fixed dress. It may be interesting to note that, in this dissertation on the authority of the "Most Rev- erend Lord Cardinal of England, and many other Prelates, and the English Ambassador", the author says, "in England the Canons Regular wore violet like the other clergy". In the Constitutions given by Cardinal Wolsey to canons regular mention is also made of this variety of habit.

Origin. — Having thus explained what a canon regular is, and what the spirit and work of the canoni- III.— 19

cal order are. it will be easier now to answer such ques- tions as these: Who was the founder of the canons regular? — Whence do they derive their origin? — When and where were they first known? Various and cont radictory opinions have been expressed to answer these and similar questions. Then' have been some writers who, like the famous Cistercian abbot, Joa- chim. Coriolanus, Marquez, and others held that the canonical order began about 1100. According to others the order dates from the time of Charlemagne, who expressed the wish that "all the clergy should be either monks or canons living in common", as pre- scribed by the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 7S9, and Mainz, in 813. The great Bishop of Hippo is also re- c. ii led by some as the founder of the canonical insti- tute. All these opinions are set aside by many other writers, and especially by the historians of the order, who almost unanimously trace back the origin of the canons regular much farther in antiquity. Their in- stitute, they maintain, was founded by Christ Him- self, ami dates from the time of the Apostles. These writers and historians begin by saying that, although it lie i nie that there was a great revival, or general reformation and spreading of the order in the twelfth century, in France and elsewhere through the zeal of Ives. Bishop of Chartres. in Italy through the newly- founded congregation of Blessed Peter de Honestis, and elsewhere through the congregation of St. Rufus. yet this (.Iocs not imply that the order took its origin at that epoch, but rather— since it needed reforming — that it had already existed for some time. History, in fact, tells us that about the eleventh century the regular or canonical life hitherto observed almost even-where by the clergy was given up in many churches, and thus a distinction was made between the clerics who lived in separate houses and those who still preserved the old discipline, living under rule and having all things in common. The former were called dares, the latter canonici regidares, by which name they have been known ever since. It is also true that in the year Tti". Chrodegang, Bishop of Mctz, assembled the clergy of his cathedral around him, led with them a community life, and gave them a rule taken from the statutes of ancient orders and canons, a discipline also recommended shortly after by the Councils of Aix-la-Chapelle and Mainz; but in doing this he was only following the example of St. Augustine, who had introduced among his own clergy the manner of life which he had seen practiced at Milan. And that is why the members of the canoni- cal order regard St. Augustine not as their founder, but only as their reformer, or lawgiver; because to the clergy who lived with him he had given certain special regulations, which were in course of time adopted by almost all the canons regular, who were on that account called "Canons Regular of St. Augustine".

Those who believe in the Apostolic origin of the canonical institute, support their contention by the authority of popes, theologians, and church histo- rians. There is abundant evidence, they say, that Christ Himself instituted a perfect religious state, and that it was embraced by the Apostles and many of their disciples from the very beginning of the Church. It is also certain that from the time of the Apostles there have always been in the Church clerics who, following the ej i primitive Christians,

living "secundum regulain sub Sanctis Apostolifi COn- stitutam" (according to the Apostolic Rule), had all things in common. Eusebius, the historian, relates that St. Mark, the disciple of St. Peter, established this discipline at Alexandria, a- did St. Crescent ins in Gaul, St. Saturninus in Spain, and St. Maternus in Germany. We know that St. Eusebius introduced it at Vercelli in Italy, and St. Ambrose at Milan. Pope Urban I (a. d. 227 . Paschal II (1099), Benedict XII (1334), Eugenius IV (1431), Sixtus V, and Pius V. in