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. Pasquier observes, that the name canon was not known before Charlemagne; at least the first we hear of are in Gregory de Tours, who mentions a college of canons instituted by Baldwin XVI. archbishop of that city, in the time of Clotharius I. The common opinion attributes the institution of this order to Chrodegangus, bishop of Metz, about the middle of the eighth century.
Originally canons were only priests, or inferior ecclesiastics, 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, &c. They even inherited his moveables, till the year 817, when this was prohibited by the council of Aix-la-Chapelle, and a new rule substituted