CANON (nar4v), a rule. The seve ral senses in which this word is used are all derivatives from its first original sense : and this sense it appears to have acquired, as itself a derivative from canna, (we use the Latin form, though in fact both canna and canon are Greek terms transplanted into the Latin language,) which signifies a reed or cane; such a plant as produced straight, round, smooth and even shoots, adapted to the pme of a rule; or as we say, a ruler, used in drawing straight lines. The word cannon is the same with canon, and is applied to the instrument of war so called on ac count of its resemblance to a rale. The word canon is used in mathematics and in music: and also to express certain grammatical rules formed by the critics. But it is more particularly appropriated in the sense of a rule in respect of things ecclesiastical. The word was so used by Saint Paul (Gal. vi. 16). And as many as walk according to this rule (canon), peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God.' The rule here spoken of was the Chris tian rule, the rule or law of the Christian church : and as these rules became ex plained or amplified in subsequent times by popes, bishops, councils, whether ge neral or particular, these new rules or explications of the fundamental rules of the Christian church were designated by the term canons or canons. The col lected body of these canons forms what is called The Canon Law, which must be distinguished from the civil law. The civil law is the Roman law as now re ceived in various countries of Europe.
Law.] A doctor of laws in Great ritain is a doctor of both civil and canon law.
Canon is also used for the rule of per sons who are devoted to a life strictly religious : persons who live according to (religions) rule, such as praying at certain hours, and for a certain length of time, keeping themselves from marriage, eating particular kinds of meat, periodical fast ings, and the like. It is applied to the book in which the rale was written, and which was read over to such professed persons from time to time : and since in such a book it was not unusual to enter also the names of persons who had been benefactors to the community, which names were recited from time to time with honour, and they were held and re puted to be holy persons or saints (eafled) : the entry of such names formed what is meant by canonization, though in later times, when it was found that saints mul tiplied too fast, when every small reli gious community added any benefactor to their list, the term became confined to such persons as bad their names enrolled in the great volume of which the pope, the head of the church, was the sole guar dian. It was also applied to persons who
lived under a rule : as the Augustinian canons, persons who adopted the role of Saint Augustine. And here the distino don is to be observed of regular and seas lar canons. The regular canons were persons who were confined to their own monasteries, where they practised their rale ; the secular canons were persons living indeed a refigious life, or one ac cording to some prescribed Christian form and order, but who nevertheless mixed more or less with the world, and discharged the various offices of Christi anity for the edification of the laity. This was the species of canons that are found in the cathedral churches, or in other churches called conventual, as at Sonthwell in Nottinghamshire, which were all churches of very antient founda tion. the centres of Christianity through out an extensive district There they lived a kind of monastic life under the presidency generally of a bishop ; but went out occasionally to introduce Chris tian truth into districts into which it had not before penetrated, or to instruct the persons lately received into the church, and to perform for them the various ordinances of Christianity. As parish churches arose, the necessity for such visits from the canons in the cathedral churches was diminished. But the insti tution remained : it was spared at the Reformation, and continues to the present day. These canons are sometimes called prebendaries, a name derived from their being endowed with land or tithe, as many of them are to a greater or less extent, which endowment is called a pre bend. [PREBEND.] The canons have stalls in the cathedral churches, which are generally called prebendal stalls. They form the chapter in the expression the dean and chapter, and are still no minally what they actually once were, the council of the bishop for the adminis tration of the affairs of his diocese.