something that belongs to, or partakes of, the nature of a rule or canon.

CANONICAL Hours are certain stated times of the day, consigned, more especially by the Romish Church, to the offices of prayer and devotion. Such are matins, lauds, sixth and ninth respers. In our country the canonical hours are from eight to twelve in the forenoon, before or after which marriage cannot be legally performed in any parish church.

CANONICAL Obedience is that submission which, by the ecclesiastical laws, the inferior clergy are bound to pay to their bishops, and other religious orders to their superiors.

CANONICAL Sins, in the ancient church, those which were deemed capital or mortal. Such especially were idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy, and schism.

CANONICAL Punishments are such as the church may inflict; as excommunication, degradation, and penance, &c.

CANONICAL Life, the method or rule of living prescribed by the ancient clergy who lived in community. It was a kind of medium between the monastic and the clerical. Originally the orders of monks and clerks were entirely distinct; but in process of time pious persons instituted colleges of priests and canons, where clerks brought up for the ministry, as well as others already engaged therein, might live under a fixed rule. This was called the canonical life, and those who embraced it canons. Authors are divided about the founder of the canonical life. Some maintain that it was founded by the apostles; others ascribe it to Pope Urban I. (about 1230), who is said to have ordered bishops to provide such of their clergy as were willing to live in community with necessaries out of the revenues of their churches. It is generally attributed to St Augustin, who instituted a monastery within the episcopal palace. According to Onuphrius Panvirus, Pope Gelasius I. about A.D. 495, placed the first regular canons of St Augustin in the Lateran church.

CANONICAL Letters, in the ancient church, were a sort of testimonials of the orthodox faith, which passed between the bishops and clergy, to keep up the Catholic communion, and distinguish orthodox Christians from Arians and other heretics.