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. Paschier 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 colleges, 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 κανών, 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.

Domincillary 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 canonries to which they belonged. To these were opposed mansionary 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 acephalous 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 Adelwold, 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.

an ecclesiastical sense, is a law or rule, either of doctrine or discipline, enacted especially by a council, and confirmed by the authority of the sovereign.

Canons are properly decisions of matters of religion; or regulations of the policy and discipline of a church, made by councils, either general, national, or provincial. Such are the canons of the councils of Nice, Trent, &c.

There have been various collections of the canons of the eastern councils; but there are four principal ones, each ampler than the preceding. The first, according to Usher, A.D. 380, containing only those of the first ecumenical council, and the first provincial ones; they were only 164 in number. To these, Dionysius Exiguus, in the year 520, added the fifty canons of the apostles, and those of the other general councils. The Greek canons in this second collection end with those of the council of Chalcedon; to which are subjoined those of the council of Sardica, and the African councils. The fourth and last collection comes down as low as the second council of Nice; and it is on this that Balsamon and Zonaras have commented.

Apostolical Canons are those which have been usually ascribed to St Clement, Bellarmine, Baronius, and others, will have them to be genuine canons of the apostles. Caesarius observes that they cannot be ascribed to the apostles or Clement, because they are not received with other books of Scripture, are not quoted by the writers of the first ages, and contain many things not agreeable to the apostolic times. Hincmar, de Marca, Beveridge, and others, believe them to have been framed by the bishops who were the apostles' disciples in the second or third century; S. Basnage is of opinion that they were collected by an anonymous writer in the fifth century, but Daille and others maintain them to have been forged by some heretic in the sixth century; and S. Basnage conjectures that some of them are ancient; and others not older than the seventh century. The Greek church allows eighty-five of them, and the Latin only fifty; though there are eighty-four in the edition given of them in the Corpus Juris Canonici.

Canon is also used for the authorized catalogue of the sacred writings. See Bible.

The ancient canon, or catalogue of the books of the Old Testament, was made by the Jews, and is ordinarily attributed to Ezra, who is said to have distributed them into the law, the prophets, and the hagiographa, to which our Saviour refers, Luke, chap. xxiv. ver. 44. The same division is also mentioned by Josephus (Cont. Appian.)

This is the canon allowed to have been followed by the primitive church till the council of Carthage; and, according to St Jerome, it consisted of no more than twenty-two books, answering to the number of the Hebrew alphabet, though at present they are classed into twenty-four divisions, containing Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the twelve minor prophets, the Psalms, the Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, comprehending the book of Nehemiah and the Chronicles. However, this order is not universally observed either among Jews or Christians; nor were all the books above enumerated admitted into the canon in Ezra's time. It is most likely, says Dr Prideaux, that the two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Malachi, were added in the time of Simon the Just, when the canon was completed. But that council enlarged the canon very considerably, taking into it the books which we call apocryphal; which the council of Trent has further enforced, enjoining all these to be received as books of Holy Scripture, upon pain of anathema, and being attainted of heresy. The Romanists, in defence of this canon, say that it is the same with that of the council of Hippo, held in 393, and with that of the third council of Carthage, in 397, at which were present forty-six bishops, and among the rest St Augustin, who declared that they had received it from their fathers.

Their canon of the New Testament perfectly agrees with ours. It consists of books that are well known, and some of which have been universally acknowledged, such as the Gospels, and acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of St Paul, one Epistle of St Peter, and one Epistle of St John; and others, concerning which doubts were entertained, but which were afterwards received as genuine, such as the Epistle to the Hebrews, that of James, the second of Peter, the second and third of John, that of Jude, and the Revelation. These books were written at different times; and they are authenticated, not by the decrees of councils, or infallible authority, but by such kind of evidence as is thought sufficient in the case of any other ancient writings. They were very extensively diffused; they were read in every Christian society; they were valued and preserved with care by the first Christians; they were cited by Christian writers of the second, third, and fourth centuries, as by Irenaeus, Clement the Alexandrian, Tertullian, Origen, Eusebius, and others; and their genuineness is proved by the testimony of those who were contemporary with the apostles themselves, and by tradition. The four Gospels, and most of the other books of the New Testament, were collected either by one of the apostles, or some of their disciples and successors, before the end of the first century. The catalogue of canonical books furnished by the more ancient Christian writers, as Origen about the year 210, Eusebius and Athanasius in 315, Epiphanius in 370, Jerome in 382, Austin in 394, and many others, agrees with that which is now received among Christians.

Some of the fathers distinguish the inspired writings into three classes; proto-canonical, deuterocanonical, and apocryphal.

Paschal Canon, a table of the movable feasts, showing the day of Easter, and the other feasts depending on it, for a cycle of nineteen years.

The paschal canon is supposed to be the calculation of Eusebius of Cesarea, and to have been done by order of the council of Nice.

monastic orders, a book in which the religious of every convent have a fair transcript of the rules of their order, frequently read among them as their local statutes. This is also called regula, as containing the rule and institution of their order. The canon differs from the missale, martyrologium, and necrologium.

Canon, again, is used for the catalogue of saints acknowledged and canonized in the Romish church.

Canon is also used, by way of excellence, in the Romish church, for the secret words of the mass, from the preface to the Pater; in the middle of which the priest consecrates the host. The common opinion is, that the canon of the mass commences with Te igitur, &c. The people are to be on their knees, hearing the canon, and are to rehearse it to themselves so as not to be heard.

the ancient music, is a rule or mode of determining the intervals of notes. Ptolemy, rejecting the Aristoxenian way of measuring the intervals in music, by the magnitude of a tone, which was supposed to be formed by the difference between a diapente and a diatessaron, thought that musical intervals should be distinguished according to the ratios or proportions which the sounds terminating those intervals bear to one another, when considered according to their degree of acuteness or gravity, which, before Aristoxenus, was the old Pythagorean way. He therefore made the diapason consist in a double ratio, the diapente in a sesquialterate, the diatessaron in a sesquitertian, and the tone itself in a sesqui octave, and all the other intervals according to the proportion of the sounds that terminate them; wherefore taking the canon, as it is called, for a determinate line of any length, he shows how this canon is to be cut accordingly, so that it may represent the respective intervals; and this method answers exactly to experiment, in the different lengths of musical chords. From this canon

Ptolemy and his followers have been called Canonici, as those of Aristoxenus were called Musici.

modern music, is a kind of fugue which they call a perpetual fugue, because the different parts beginning one after another repeat incessantly the same air.

See Music.

Geometry and Algebra, a general rule for the solution of all cases of a similar nature to that from which it is primarily deduced. Thus every last step of an equation is a canon; and, if turned into words, becomes a rule to solve all questions of the same nature with that proposed.

Canon Law is a term used to denote the ecclesiastical law sanctioned by the church of Rome, and possessing more or less direct influence in all countries which acknowledge the authority of the pope. The word canon signifies a rule, and this word was not at first considered as too feeble to express the claims of the church to the obedience of her children; but, in the progress of priestly usurpation, the successor of St Peter began to arrogate a more ample and definite jurisdiction, and to extend his regulations to many causes which are not strictly ecclesiastical. The stupendous fabric of papal dominion attained its full height in the eleventh century, under the auspices of Hildebrand, who was elected in the year 1073, and assumed the name of Gregory VII. It was one of his dictates, that the church of Rome has never erred, and, according to the testimony of Scripture, never shall err; and after this maxim was fully admitted, nothing remained to obstruct the progress of spiritual arrogance. What had formerly been described as a rule, was now dignified with the name of law; and from this period, a period of the deepest ignorance and superstition, the canon law obtained great influence in most countries of Europe. After the foundation of those seminaries of learning which we denominate universities, it acquired a distinguished place among the other faculties; and a knowledge of the canon law became a common road to the highest honours. It is a maxim of the commentators, that a Doctor of the Canon Law is to be preferred to a Doctor of Divinity in such dioceses as do not contain many heretics.

The canon law is derived from many different sources. The authority of the Scriptures cannot be entirely disregarded; but the writings of the fathers and doctors of the church, the decrees of councils, and the decrets of popes, are much better adapted to the general views of the canonists. The canon is to a great extent to be considered as the spurious offspring of the civil law: what is most valuable it has derived from the Roman jurisprudence; and its own peculiar maxims and rules have all the same general tendency towards the power and aggrandizement of churchmen.

The Greek church has bequeathed various reliques, which cannot be safely neglected by those who investigate the history of the canon law, as well as the general history of the church. Its Codex Canonum is confirmed by the 131 Novel of Justinian, and is therefore considered as a portion of the civil law. From this collection the emperor borrowed those ecclesiastical constitutions which occur in the Code and Novels. We cannot however pursue this branch of enquiry, but shall merely direct the reader's attention to two very elaborate publications. The first of these is the "Bibliotheca Juris Canonici veteris: ex antiquis codicibus MSS. collectis et emendatis, Latinae fuit, et notis illustratis." Paris, 1610, 8vo.

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1 Maastricht Historia Juris Ecclesiastici et Pontificii, p. 297. Amst. 1666, 8vo. 2 Lanciotti Institutiones Juris Canonici, tom. I. p. 232. edit. Doujat. Paris, 1665, 2 tom. 12mo. 3 Codex Canonum Ecclesiae universae, a Justiniano confirmatus. Christophorus Justellus, J. C. nunc primum restitutus, ex Graecis codicibus editis et MSS. collectis et emendatis, Latinae fuit, et notis illustratis. Paris, 1610, 8vo. For the other we are indebted to Dr Beveridge, the very learned bishop of St Asaph: "Zuööööö, sive Pandectae Canonum SS. Apostolorum, et Conciliorum ab Ecclesia Graeca receptorum; nec non canonarum SS. Patrum Epistolaram: una cum scholiis antiquorum singulis eorum annexis, et scriptis alis huc spectantibus." Oxonii, 1672, 2 tom. fol. This publication was followed by his "Codex Canonum Ecclesiae primitiae vindicatus et illustratus," Lond. 1678, 4to. Nor must we here neglect to mention a very recent work by Professor Bierer of Berlin: "De Collectionibus Canonum Ecclesiae Graecae Schediasma litterarium." Berolini, 1827, 8vo.

Of the rules or laws received by the Latin church, there were many ancient collections. Dionysius Exiguus, an abbot who flourished about the beginning of the sixth century, formed two different compilations, one of the canons of the church, another of the decrets of the bishop of Rome; and this was the earliest collection of decrets. These were followed by the collections of Fulgentius Ferrandus, who flourished soon afterwards; of Isidorus Hispalensis, who was bishop of Seville from 595 to 636; of Cresconius, who flourished about the year 690; of Isidorus Mercator, otherwise called Peccator, who wrote about the year 800, and is described as "impostor nequissimus;" and of various other compilers, whose labours we have not at present an opportunity of reviewing. Burchardus, who was bishop of Worms from 996 to 1025, formed a compilation of the canon law, described as "Magnum Decretorum Volumen," and divided into twenty books. Ivo Carnotensis, bishop of Chartres from 1092 to 1115, was the author of a similar compilation, which bears the title of Decretum; and to him is ascribed another work on the canon law, sometimes called Pannonia, and sometimes Pannormia. Both these works have been repeatedly printed.

Ivo was followed by Gratian, whose Decretum forms the first and most ample part of the Corpus Juris Canonici. He was a native of Clusium, or Chiusi, near Florence; and, according to a very improbable account, was the brother of Petrus Lombardus and Petrus Comestor. One of these three individuals was a native of Tuscany, another, as his name denotes, of Lombardy, and the third of France; but, in order to remove the difficulty which arises from this variety in the places of their nativity, some writers do their mother the honour of supposing that her three distinguished sons were the fruit of her unlawful intercourse with three different fathers, at different periods, and in different places. Gratian was a Benedictine monk of the monastery of St Felix and St Nabor at Bologna. His work has long been commonly known by the title of Decretum, but is more correctly described as "Decretorum Collectanea;" and it is remarked by the very learned archbishop of Tarragona, that the old manuscripts scarcely ever bear the former title, but generally that of "Concordia discordantium Canonum." According to the usual account, it was compiled in the year 1151: this may indeed have been the period of its completion, but it evidently was not the labour of a single year. Cardinal Bellarmine has endeavoured to reconcile two conflicting authorities, by supposing that Gratian commenced his work in 1127, and completed it in 1151, thus allowing a period of twenty-four years for its composition. The Decretum was presented to his holiness Eugenius III, who is said to have testified his approbation by conferring upon him the bishopric of Chiusi. It never obtained the formal sanction of the pope; but although it is thus to be regarded as the work of a private individual, it speedily secured, and has ever since maintained, a degree of authority which makes a near approach to that which belongs to written law. The principal sources from which his compilation is derived, are the sacred Scriptures, the spurious work described as the Apostolical Canons, the decisions of ecumenical and local councils, the decretal epistles, partly genuine and partly spurious, of seventy-eight Roman pontiffs, the works of the Greek and Latin fathers and other ecclesiastical writers, the Theodosian Code and the Corpus Juris Civilis, the capitularies of kings of France and the rescripts of emperors. It is divided into three parts; of which the first and third are subdivided into distinctions, and the second into causes and questions. Gratian, who wrote in an unenlightened age, is chargeable with many errors of ignorance or inadvertence, which the canonists have not scrupled to detect and expose. Augustinus has composed a series of dialogues De Emendatione Gratiani, in which the reader will find much learned and curious disquisition; and many other writers, editors as well as commentators, have endeavoured to rectify errors and supply defects. "To the compilations of Isidore and Gratian," says a catholic lawyer, "one of the greatest misfortunes of the church, the claim of the popes to temporal power by divine right, may in some measure be attributed. That a claim so unfounded and so impious, so detrimental to religion, and so hostile to the peace of the world, should have been made, is strange—stranger yet is the success it met with."

The second collection which appears in the body of the canon law is entitled Decretalium D. Gregorii Papae IX. Compilatio. It was formed under the direction and authority of this pontiff, who filled the chair of St Peter from 1227 to 1241. He is himself commended for his skill in jurisprudence, and in the execution of this plan he employed Raymundus de Penyafort, a learned Spaniard, who was afterwards enrolled in the catalogue of saints. The work is divided into five books, and each book into various titles. "Epistola decretales" are recripts of the popes, in answer to prelates or other individuals by whom they have been consulted. They are sometimes called Decretalia, but commonly Decretales, the words Rescripta and Epistle being respectively understood. The work however is not strictly conformable to its title; for although the greater part of it is composed of decretals, the compiler has had recourse to various other authorities.

Gregory's decretals are followed by Liber sextus Decretalium D. Bonifacii Papae VIII. which, notwithstanding the general title, is divided into five books. It was intended as supplementary to the other collection, and was compiled under the authority of Boniface, whose pontificate extended from 1294 to 1303. Besides the decretals of Boniface himself, and of preceding popes, ascending to Gregory IX., it includes decrees of the two general councils held at Lyons in 1245 and 1274.

The next work in the series bears the title of Constitutio Clementis Papae V. in Concilio Viennensi edita, and is likewise divided into five books. Clement, whose residence was at Avignon, presided in the council of Vienne in the year 1312; and in addition to the constitutions there enacted, his collection comprehends some other constitutions and decretals which he himself divulged before or after the holding of that council. After his death, these Clementinae were promulgated in the year 1817 by his successor John the Twenty-first, otherwise called John the Twenty-second.

Of the same pope, who likewise resided at Avignon, there is a collection of twenty constitutions, which bear the name of Extravagantes Joannis XXII. They were so called, because for some time they wandered beyond the limits of the collection which contained the works already enumerated as belonging to the body of the canon law. The next work, which is entitled Extravagantes Communes, and is divided into five books, comprehends the constitutions of various popes, concluding with Sixtus IV., whose pontificate extended from 1471 to 1484.

These are all the different compilations which constitute what is denominated the body of the canon law. It may be proper to add that the best edition bears this title: "Corpus Juris Canonici, Gregorii XIII. Pont. Max. iussu editum: a Petro Pithoco et Francisco fratre, Jurisconsulti, ad votum codices manuscriptos restitutum, et notis illustratum." Parisiis, 1687, 2 tom. fol. Of a more recent as well as more early date, there are many other editions which we cannot here enumerate; and we shall only mention another, which was published by a protestant professor: "Corpus Juris Canonici: Justus Henningius Bochmer, J. C. recensuit, cum codicibus veteribus manuscriptis aliisque editionibus contulit, variantes lectiones adjecit, notis illustravit." Hale Magdeburg, 1747, 2 tom. 4to.

The Institutes of Jo. Paulus Lancelottus, divided into four books, are inserted in different editions of the Corpus; and this circumstance has led some individuals, superficially acquainted with the subject, to suppose that they form an essential part of the authorized collection. They are however the production of a private lawyer, and having never received the sanction of the pope, they possess no authority beyond that which belongs to the character of the author as an able interpreter of the canon law. This work was undertaken with the approbation of Paul IV.; fifteen years elapsed before its completion; and Lancelottus, having at length submitted it to the papal censors, and lingered two years in Rome, was compelled to abandon the hope of obtaining the sanction of his holiness Pius IV. The book was published in 1563, a few months before the dissolution of the council of Trent. The only favour which the author could obtain was that his Institutes might be added to the Corpus, but without any confirmation of their authority. They are sometimes inserted, and sometimes omitted; nor do they occur in that edition which we have already mentioned as the best. As they do not include the changes and modifications introduced by the council of Trent, they require the aid of a perpetual commentary. The Institutes of Lancelottus are closely modelled upon those of Justinian. His subject does not easily admit of any high degree of classical purity, but the work is at least written with much neatness and perspicuity. The notes of Doujat form a very important addition: they evidently proceed from a man of ability and learning, and are generally composed in a style of pregnant brevity.

The subsequent progress of the canon law, together with the more recent method of expounding it, must be learned from other writers. The most distinguished canonist of the last century was Dr Van Espen, professor of the canon law in the university of Louvain, whose works extend to five volumes in folio. His Jus Ecclesiasticum universum Mr Butler has described as "a work which, for depth and extent of research, clearness of method, and perspicuity of style, equals any work of jurisprudence which has issued from the press; but which, in some places, where the author's dreary Jansenism prevails, must be read with disgust." The life of the learned and conscientious author, it may be proper to state, has been elaborately written by Bellegarde. There are other two recent works on the canon law which we must recommend to the student's notice. "Caroli Sebastiani Berardi Commentaria in Jus Ecclesiasticum universum." Venetiae, 1789, 4 tom. 4to. "Joannis Devoti Institutionum Canonicarum libri IV." Florentiae, 1816-7, 4 tom. 8vo. Neither of these is the earliest edition. Those who have any wish to ascertain how the canon law is now taught by the catholics of Germany, may consult the following works: "Mauri de Schenki Institutiones Juris Ecclesiastici communi: editio emendata et valde aducta a Josepho Scheill." Landshut in Bavaria, 1830, 2 tom. 8vo. "Fundamenta Juris Ecclesiastici Catholicorum: in usu scholasticos conscripsit Jos. Anton. Sauter." Rotwile, 1825-6, 2 tom. 8vo. The canon law was ably illustrated by some of the German protestants, particularly by Ziegler, Thomasius, and Böhmer. Such was the reputation enjoyed by the last of these individuals, that difficult and intricate processes were frequently transmitted from Italy, to be decided by the law-faculty of the university of Halle, during the period when Böhmer was dean. Nor is this study neglected by the protestants of our own age. Dr Walter, professor of law in the university of Bonn, is the author of a work, published for the fourth time, under the title of "Lehrbuch des Kirchenrechts aller Christlichen Confessionen." Bonn, 1829, 8vo. And a similar work has more recently been published by Eichhorn of Göttingen, well known for his history of the German law.

While the papal power was yet in its meridian height, this system of jurisprudence could only claim the proper force of law within the papal dominions. It maintained a very powerful and direct influence in every other country which acknowledged the bishop of Rome's supremacy; but its dictates were controlled by the legislative authority, and modified by the practice of the courts, in each of the countries where it found admission. Thus the canon law of France differed in many respects from that of Spain, and the canon law of England from that of Austria. "All the strength," says Sir Matthew Hale, "that either the papal or imperial laws have obtained in this kingdom, is only because they have been received and admitted either by the consent of parliament, and so are part of the statute laws of the kingdom, or else by immemorial usage and custom in some particular cases in courts, and no otherwise, and therefore so far as such laws are received and allowed here, so far they obtain, and no further; and the authority and force they have here is not founded on, or derived from themselves; for so they bind no more with us than our laws bind in Rome or Italy." These remarks, written in protestant times, were equally applicable during the times of popery. The influence of the canon law in countries which have long abjured the authority of the pope, renders it even there a study of occasional importance to lawyers. "So deep," says Lord Stair, "hath this canon law been rooted; that even where the pope's authority is rejected, yet consideration must be had to these laws, not only as those by which church benefices have been erected and ordered, but as likewise containing many equitable and profitable laws, which, because of their weighty matter, and their being once received, may more fitly be retained than rejected." We cannot refrain from adding, that some knowledge of the canon law, at least of its history and external form, is of no small consequence to those who wish to understand the history and literature of the middle ages. This remark we shall endeavour to confirm by one or two examples. Winton, the venerable prior of Lochleven, after having mentioned the irregular manner in which Walter Danielstoun took possession of the see of St Andrews, joins this observation:

Yeit be this electione He dyd all ministracione In juristicionne spirituale, And in all thingis temporale; All that quaille, rycht as he Had had lauchful autorite, Pretendand ay for his resown Nihil de electione.

This passage, which to most readers must appear sufficiently obscure, the very accurate and intelligent editor, Macpherson, has left without explanation or conjecture. It bears an allusion to the Decretales Gregorii IX. lib. i. tit. vi. cap. xlv. § 2. Nihil is the first word of the chapter, and de electione denotes the subject of the title, or subdivision of the book. Danielstoun, whose election had not been confirmed by the pope, evidently relied on the authority of the subsequent passage: "Ita quod interim valde remoti, videlicet ultra Italiam constituti, si electi fuerint in concordia, dispensative propter necessitates ecclesiarum et utilitates, in spiritualibus et temporalibus administrant, sic tamen ut de rebus ecclesiasticis nihil penitus alienent."

Sir David Lindsay, another Scottish poet, makes the following allusion to the inordinate pretensions of the pope:

His style at leith gif thou wald knaw, Thow maste ga luke the common law; Bain in the Sext and Clementine, His statilic style thair may be seen.

His editor, Mr George Chalmers, who was guilty of a radical error when he supposed himself to be a man of learning, has subjoined this curious annotation. "The allusion is to the works of Pomponius Sextus, the great jurist of the third century." It is first to be remarked that Pomponius did not flourish in the third, but in the second century; but if this "great jurist," of whom he speaks so familiarly, had actually written in the third century, how could he have illustrated the temporal power and splendour of the pope before Christianity was established in the Roman empire? The Sext to which Lindsay refers is manifestly the "Liber scatus Decretalium;" and the other authority which he appropriately quotes are the Clementine, or constitutions of Clement V.