Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 5.djvu/25

Rh When the &quot;writings are said to be of different authority some more, others less the intent of the council is violated. The Vatican council (1870) confirmed the Tri- dentine decree respecting the canon. The Greek Church, after several ineffectual attempts to uphold the old distinction between the canonical and ecclesiastical books by Metrophanes Critopulus, patriarch of Alexandria in 1625, and Cyril Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople (t 1638), came to the same decision with the Romish, and canonized all the Apocrypha. This was done at a Jerusalem synod under Dositheus in 1672. Semler (t!791) was the first scholar after the Re formation who set himself to correct the prevailing ideas respecting the canon. He had no definite principles to guide him, but judged books chiefly by their Christian value and use to the Church. Though his views are some times one-sided, and his essays ill-digested, he placed the subject in new lights, and his labours bore abundant fruit in after years. He was followed by his disciple Corrodi, by G. L. Oeder, Michaelis, Herder, Lessing, and Eichhorn, most of whom recommended their views by a freshness of style which Semler did not command. In more recent times the whole question has been subjected to very thorough discussion. We observe in conclusion that the canonical authority of Scripture does not depend on the church or its councils. The primitive church may be cited as a witness for it ; that is all. Canonical authority lies in the Scripture itself ; it is inherent in the books so far as they contain a revelation or declaration of the divine will. Hence there is truth in the statement of old theologians that the authority of Scripture is from God alone. The canonicity of the books is a distinct question from that of their authenticity. The latter is a thing of historic: criticism, the former of doctrinal i belief.

1em (Author:Samuel Davidson)  

 CANON, a person who possesses a prebend, or revenue allotted for the performance of divine service in a cathedral or collegiate church. Canons are of no great antiquity. Gregory of Tours mentions a college of canons instituted by Baldwin, arch bishop of that city, in the 6th century. The common opinion attributes the institution of this order to Chrode- gangus, bishop of Metz, about the middle of the 8th cen- turj r. When the term Canonici is met with at an earlier date, it is employed in a more vague and generic sense, either as equivalent to the clerus or clergy at large, or as comprehending all who held any ecclesiastical office what ever, even of the humblest character, as that of a chanter, porter, &c. Originally canons were only priests, or inferior ecclesi astics, who lived in community, residing by the cathedral church to assist the bishop, depending entirely on his will, supported by the revenues of the bishopric, and living in the same house as his domestics or counsellors. They even inherited his movables till the year 817. when this was prohibited by the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, and a new rule substituted in the place of that which had been appointed by Chrodegangus, and which was observed for the most part in the West till the 12th century. By degrees these communities of priests, shaking off their dependence, formed separate bodies, of which the bishops, however, were still heads. In the 10th century there were communities or congregations of the same kind established even in cities where there were no bishops ; and these were called collegiates, as they used the terms congregation and college indifferently, the name chapter, now given to these bodies, being much more modern. Under the second race of the French kings, the canonical or collegiate life had spread itself all over the country, and each cathedral had its chapter distinct from the rest of the clergy. They had the name canon from the Greek Kaviv, which signifies three different things a rule, a pension of fixed revenue to live on, and a catalogue or matricula, all which are applicable to them. In time, the canons freed themselves from their rules, the observance relaxed, and at length they ceased to live in community ; yet they still formed bodies, which through increase of wealth and the power naturally accruing to corporate societies claimed other functions besides the celebration of the common office in the church, assuming the rights of the rest of the clergy, making themselves necessary as a council of the bishop, taking upon them the administration of a see during a vacancy, and the election of a bishop to supply it. There are even some chapters exempt from the jurisdiction of the bishop, and owning no head but their dean. From the example of cathedral chapters, collegiate ones also continued to form bodies after they had abandoned living in community.

1em  CANON LAW. The law that is embodied in the Corpus Juris Canonici is termed the. The rules enacted by the early church for its relations with the secular power, its own internal administration, or the con duct of its members, were called canons (/cavdves, regulce), in contradistinction on the one hand to its articles of doctrine (So y/j.a.Ta), and on the other to the enactments of the civil lawgiver (vo/j-oi, leges). Though at first applied only to the ordinances of an assembly of the church, the term canon came to be extended to include opinions of the fathers and decretals of the popes. Any collection of such laws was 