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 intermediate form of life was of extreme difficulty. There was a constant tendency to relax the bonds of the common life, and attempts in various directions to restore it. In England, by the middle of the 10th century, the prescriptions of the canonical life seem to have fallen into desuetude, and in nine cathedrals the canons were replaced by communities of Benedictines. In the 11th century the Rule of Chrodegang was introduced into certain of the English cathedrals, and an Anglo-Saxon translation of it was made under Leofric for his church of Exeter. The turning point came in 1059, when a reforming synod, held at the Lateran, exhorted the clergy of all cathedral and collegiate churches to live in community, to hold all property and money in common, and to “lead the life of the Apostles” (cf. Acts ii. 44, 45). The clergy of numerous churches throughout Western Europe (that of the Lateran Basilica among them) set themselves to carry out these exhortations, and out of this movement grew the religious order of Canons Regular or (q.v.). The opposite tendency also ran its course and produced the institute of secular canons. The revenues of the cathedral were divided into two parts, that of the bishop and that of the clergy; this latter was again divided among the clergy themselves, so that each member received his own separate income, and the persons so sharing, whatever their clerical grade, were the canons of the cathedral church. Naturally all attempt at leading any kind of common life was frankly abandoned. In England the final establishment of this order of things was due to St Osmund (1090). The nature and functions of the institute of secular canons are described in the article.

In the Church of England, the canons of cathedral or collegiate churches retain their traditional character and functions, though they are now, of course, permitted to marry. Their duties were defined by the Canons of 1603, and included that of residence at the cathedrals according to “their local customs and statutes,” and preaching in the cathedral and in the churches of the diocese, “especially those whence they or their church receive any yearly rent or profit.” A canonry not being legally a “cure of souls,” a canon may hold a benefice in addition to his prebend, in spite of the acts against pluralities. By the Canons of 1603 he was subject to discipline if he made his canonry an excuse for neglecting his cure. By the act of 1840 reforming cathedral chapters the number of canonries was greatly reduced, while some were made applicable to the endowment of archdeaconries and professorships. At the same time it was enacted that a canon must have been six years in priest’s orders, except in the case of canonries annexed to any professorship, headship or other office in any university. The obligatory period of residence, hitherto varying in different churches, was also fixed at a uniform period of three months. The right of presentation to canonries is now vested in some cases in the crown, in others in the lord chancellor, the archbishop or in the bishop of the diocese.

Honorary canons are properly canons who have no prebend or other emoluments from the common fund of the chapter. In the case of old cathedrals the title is bestowed upon deserving clergymen by the bishop as a mark of distinction. In new cathedrals, e.g. Manchester or Birmingham, where no endowment exists for a chapter, the bishop is empowered to appoint honorary canons, who carry out the ordinary functions of a cathedral body (see ).

Minor canons, more properly styled priest-vicars, are appointed by the dean and chapter. Their function is mainly to sing the service, and they are selected therefore mainly for their voices and musical qualifications. They may hold a benefice, if it lies within 6 m. of the cathedral.

In the Protestant churches of the continent canons as ecclesiastical officers have ceased to exist. In Prussia and Saxony, however, certain chapters, secularized at the Reformation, still exist. The canons (Domherren) are, however, laymen with no ecclesiastical character whatever, and their rich prebends are merely sources of endowment for the cadets of noble families.

The Scriptures.—There are three opinions as to the origin of the application of the term “canon” to the writings used by the Christian Church. According to Semler, Baur and others, the word had originally the sense of list or catalogue—the books publicly read in Christian assemblies. Others, as Steiner, suppose that since the Alexandrian grammarians applied it to collections of old Greek authors as models of excellence or classics, it meant classical (canonical) writings. According to a third opinion, the term included from the first the idea of a regulating principle. This is the more probable, because the same idea lies in the New Testament use of the noun, and pervades its applications in the language of the early Fathers down to the time of Constantine, as Credner has shown. The “ of the church” in the Clementine homilies, the “ecclesiastical  ” and the “ of the truth” in Clement and Irenaeus, of the faith in Polycrates, the regula fidei of Tertullian, and the libri regulares of Origen imply a normative principle. Credner’s view of  as an abbreviation of , equivalent to Scripturae legis in Diocletian’s Act, is too artificial, and is unsanctioned by usage.

The earliest example of its application to a catalogue of the Old or New Testament books occurs in the Latin translation of Origen’s homily on Joshua, where the original seems to have been . The word itself is certainly in Amphilochius, as well as in Jerome and Rufinus. As the Latin translation of Origen has canonicus and canonizatus, we infer that he used , opposed as it is to apocryphus or secretus. The first occurrence of  is in the 59th canon of the council of Laodicea, where it is contrasted with  and . , “canonized books,” is first used in Athanasius’s festal epistle. The kind of rule which the earliest Fathers thought the Scriptures to be can only be conjectured; it is certain that they believed the Old Testament books to be a divine and infallible guide. But the New Testament was not so considered till towards the close of the 2nd century, when the conception of a Catholic Church was realized. The collection of writings was not called Scripture, or put on a par with the Old Testament as sacred and inspired, till the time of Theophilus of Antioch (about 180 ). Hence Irenaeus applies the epithets divine and perfect to the Scriptures; and Clement of Alexandria calls them inspired.

When distinctions were made among the Biblical writings other words were employed, synonymous with  or , such as  , <span title="hōrisména">. The canon was thus a catalogue of writings, forming a rule of truth, sacred, divine, revealed by God for the instruction of men. The rule was perfect for its purpose. (See : section Canon.)

The term “canonical,” i.e. that which is approved or ordered by the “canon” or rule, is applied to ecclesiastical vestments, “canonicals,” and to those hours set apart by the Church for prayer and devotion, the “Canonical Hours” (see ).

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