CANON

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. 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 twelfth century. By degrees these communities of priests, shaking off their dependence, formed separate bodies, of which the bishops, however, were still heads. In the tenth 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 kanon, which signifies three different things; a rule, a pension or fixed revenue to live on, and a catalogue or matricula, all which are applicable to them.

(n. n.)