OF.
CANONS OP THE PBOTESTANT EPISCOPAL CHUBCH (of America), the law or discipline of that Church. The canons are of two kinds : (1.) ** The con- stitution and canons of the General Convention, form- ing a code for the uniform government of every dio- cese and every church;" (2.) "The constitutions and canons of the several dioceses, of force only within their several precincts, and generally subordinate to the power of the General Convention." The canons are liable to be repealed or altered by the successive Conventions. They are given by Hammond, Definiir tions of Faith and Canons ofDist^Mne (N^Tork, 1844, p. 288 sq.). There is also a Diffut of the Canom by Dr. Hawks and Judge Ho Anan (N, Y. 1860) ; see also HoAnan, Treatise on the Law of the Proteetant Epiaco^ pal Church (N. York, 1850); Digut of the Canons for the Government of the Protestant Episcopal Church, adopt- ed in the General Conventions of 1859, 1862, and 1865 (Boston, 1866, 8vo). See Pbotbstaiit Efisgopal Church.
CANONS BEGULAB, a class of monastic orders in the Boman Catholic Church. The class comprises those canons (q. v.) who not only live in common, and under the saipe rule, but also bind themselves by either simple or solemn vows, and who therefore really consti- tute what is called in the Boman Church a '* religious" order (see Ordeb, Bslioious). The ** canons" owe their origin to Chrodegang (q. v.), who established them on, a monastic basis ; but after the tenth century the common life began to cease among a large portion of them. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries many
CANONESSES
90
CANONIZATION
Canon ReguUtr oi KngUind.
attempts were made to restoie their monastic charac- ter, and a number of congregations were founded. The most important among them were the Premon- stratenses (q. ▼.), the congregation of St Genoveva (q. v.), St. Rufiis (q. v.), and of St. Victor (q. v.) in France, the Gilbertine canons (q. y.) in England, and the canons of the Holy Cross, or sometimes also called canons of the Holy Sep- ulchre, at Jerusalem. All the congregations followed either the rule of St. Augustine, or com- posed their rule out of those of Augustine and Benedict. They were very numerous hi Eng- land, where they were introduced about 1106, and where they had, at the time of their disso- lution, 176 houses (ixt eluding those of the can- onesses). Their habit was a long black cas- sock, with a white roch- , et over it, and over that a black doak and hood. In 1519 cardinal Wol- sey undertook the ref- ormation of all the con- gregations of regular canons existing in England, in virtue of a bull of Leo X. He ordered them to hold general chapters every third year, and to restore a rigid discipline. A few years after they were suppressed, together with all other English monasteries. In Ireland the regular canons were so numerous that they counted as many houses as all other orders together. One of the most celebrated reformers of the order in France was bishop Ivo of Chartres (f 1115) ; yet he did not found an mde- pendent congregation. The Congregation ofSULcao- rence^ near Oulx, in the Dauphin^, which was founded in 1050 by Gerard Charbrerius, spread especially in Savoy and south-eastern France. At the end of the eighteenth century they had nearly disappeared. The superior of the monastery of St. Lawrence, which still existed, bore the title of provost, possessed episcopal jurisdiction in his provostry, and was only dependent on the pope. The Congregation ofMarhach^ in Alsace, was established about 1100 by Manegold de Lutem- bach, and is said by some writers to have had, at one time, about 800 monasteries. Very numerous was the Congregation of Aroumte^ established about the same time by three hermits, one of whom was made a cardi- nal. It spread over England, Scotland, Flanders, and Poland. A reformed congregation of the Regular Can- one of Lorraine (called the "Congregation of our Sav- iour") was established by Pierre Fourier in 1624, but many of the other congregations reftised to recognize it. The most celebrated and numerous of the congre- gations in Italy, next to that of Lateran (see Later- al), was the Congregation of our Saviour (of Bologna), founded by Stephen Cioni in 1408, which possessed, in the eighteenth century, three monasteries in the city of Rome. Few orders of the Roman Church have been oftener and more generally pervaded by gross abuses and corruptions than the regular canons. The greater number of the French congregations were extinguished by the French Revolution. A new congregation of jegular canons "of the Sacred Heart*' (generally call- ed, after the street in Paris in which they had their first house, the Congregation of Picpue) was founded in 1828 by abb6 Coudrin (see Picpus, Congregation of). See Helyot, Ordres EeUgieux, i, 761 sq. ; Fehr, Geechiehte der Mdncheorden, i, 56 sq. ; ii, 27 and 408. Canonesses (CanonitecB), a class of female orders the Roman Church, organized after the model of the
regular canons (q. v.), observing the mle of St. Au^ gustine, and living in common. Th«y are first foand in the seventh century. They took no solemn vowa, but were to remain unmarried, were generally gov- erned by an abbess, and were under the spiritual di- rection of the canons. These female societies, like the canons (q. v.), fell into irregularities ; gave up the common life, and their property fell mostiy into the hands of the nobility, who provided for some of their daughters by canonical livings. Reformed congrega- tions were firequently instituted, sometimes following the reformed congregations of the canons, sometimee being independent of them. Reformatory movements were particularly extensive at the close of the twelfth century, when the Beghards (q. v.) and Beguines (q. V.) made their appearance in many towns of the NeUi- erlands. Those who did not bind themselves by a monastic rule were called secular canonesses (CanomB' $m secuiaresj or also DomioeUa^j and they were almost exduuvely found in the institutions of noble ladies. Many of them married and then resigned their bene- fices. The Reformati<m in Germany did not abolish the houses of the canonesses, but changed most of them into asylums for the unmarried daughters of the Pro- testant nobility. Celebrated houses ("stifter") of this class were at Gandersheim, Herford, Qnedlinburg, Gemrode, etc, and aft^r their model even new I¥o- testant houses were founded at Halle, Altenbnrg, Frankfort, and in other places, especially in Mecklen- burg and Westphalia. See Helyot, Ordres Be&gieux (Paris, 1847), i, 789.