CANONESS. At the close of the 8th century the title of canoness was given to a class of women who took the vows of chastity and obedience, but not that of poverty, and were not cloistered, though they had a common table and dormitory, and were bound to the recitation of the breviary, as were nuns. They derived their name from their being enrolled in the canon or official list of the Church. Their occupations were chiefly education of girls, transcription and embellishment of Church office-books and embroidery of vestments. The advantages of such institutions as asylums in a rough age were soon visible, and they multi plied in consequence, but as in many houses the religious motive had little to do with entrance, a distinction was drawn ere long between canonesses regular and secular. The secular canonesses were for the most part members of princely or noble families, practised much state and luxury and retained none of the rule save the common dormitory and the recitation of the Hours in choir. In Germany, several abbesses
of canonesses were princesses of the empire, kept up feudal state and furnished contingents to the Imperial army from their vassals; and at the Reformation some chapters adopted the new opinions, and subsist to the present day as Protestant foundations, enjoying the revenues, and admitting to membership only ladies of noble birth or daughters of distinguished mem bers of the military and civil service, whose sole obligation is celibacy during membership. The institute never spread beyond the limits• of the empire, and the non-German houses were chiefly in Hainault, Flanders and Lorraine.