CHAPTER, a principal division or section of a book, and so applied to acts of parliament, as forming "chapters" of the legis lation of a session. The name is also given to the permanent body of canons of a cathedral or collegiate church and to the meet ings of the monks of a particular monastery ("conventual") or of the members of the order in a province ("provincial"), or of the whole order ("general"). This use of the word is said to be de rived from the custom of reading a chapter of the regula at such meetings. The title "chapter" is similarly used of the assembled body of knights of a military or other order. Chapter is a shortened form of chapiter, a word still used in architecture ; Fr. chapitre, Lat. capitulum, diminutive of caput, head. (See also CANON; CATHEDRAL; DEAN.)