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 moveables 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 κανων, 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.
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, pretending to 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.
Canons are of various kinds; as,
Cardinal Canons, who were those attached, and, as the Latins call it, incardinati, to a church, as a priest is to a parish.
Domicillary Canons, young canons, who, not being in orders, had no right in any particular chapters.
Expectative Canons, or such as, without having any revenue or prebend, had the title and dignities of canons, a voice in the chapter, and a place in the choir, till such time as a prebend should become vacant.
Foreign Canons, or such as did not officiate in the canonsries to which they belonged. To these were opposed missionary canons, or canons residentiary.
Lay or Honorary Canons, who are those among the laity who have been admitted, out of honour and respect, into some chapter of canons.
Regular Canons, who are canons that still live in community, and, like religious, have in process of time added the solemn profession of vows to the practice of their rules. They are called regulars, to distinguish them from those secular canons who abandon living in community, and at the same time the observance of the canons made as the rule of the clergy for the maintenance of the ancient discipline. The canons subsisted in their simplicity till the eleventh or twelfth century, when some of them, separating from the community, took with them the name of canons, or accephalous priests, because they declined to live in community with the bishop; and those who were left thenceforth acquired the denomination of canons regular, and adopted most of the professions of the rule of St. Augustin. This order of regular canons of St. Augustin was brought into England by Adelwald, confessor to Henry I., who erected a priory at Nostel in Yorkshire, and obtained for them the church of Carlisle as an episcopal see, with the privilege of choosing their own bishop. They were singularly protected and encouraged by Henry I., who gave them the priory of Dunstable in 1107; and by Queen Maud, who, in the following year, gave them the priory of the Holy Trinity in London. It appears that under the reign of Edward I. they had fifty-three priories.
Tertiary Canons, or those who had only the third part of the revenues of the canonicate.