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Canon () is a Christian title usually used to refer to a member of certain bodies in subject to an canon law.
Originally, a canon was a cleric living with others in a clergy house or, later, in one of the houses within the precinct of or close to a cathedral or other major church and conducting his life according to the customary discipline or rules of the church. This way of life grew common (and is first documented) in the 8th century AD. In the 11th century, some churches required clergy thus living together to adopt the rule first proposed by Saint Augustine that they renounce private wealth. Those who embraced this change were known as Augustinians or Canons Regular, whilst those who did not were known as Secular clergy canons.
One of the functions of the cathedral chapter in the Latin Church was to elect a vicar capitular (now named a diocesan administrator) to serve during a sede vacante period of the diocese. Since the 1983 revision of the Code of Canon Law, this responsibility belongs to the college of , unless the national bishops conference decides that the functions that canon law ascribes to the college of consultors, including this one, are to be entrusted to the cathedral chapter.
Generally speaking, canons in Anglican churches are either canons residentiary (working at the cathedral, and few in number) or honorary canons (non-cathedral clergy given the title as a mark of honour—often many of them): either may wear a violet or violet-trimmed cassock. In some Church of England dioceses, the title prebendary is used instead of canon when the cleric is involved administratively with a cathedral. Honorary canons are members of the chapter in name but are non-residential and receive no Remuneration. They are entitled to call themselves canon and may have a role in the administration of the cathedral.
Canons may be members of the diocesan or bishop's staff rather than the cathedral staff, such as in the United States Episcopal Church, where a diocese's "Canon to the Ordinary" is a senior priest who works directly for the diocesan bishop (ordinary).The Episcopal Diocese of New York (2019). "Episcopal Church Terminology". DioceseNY.org. Retrieved 24 November 2019.
Honorary canons within the Catholic Church may still be nominated after the Second Vatican Council. Also, priests (and honorary chaplains) of the Sovereign Military Order of Malta and the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre are, in fact, titular or honorary canons of these respective Orders and have the right to the honorific title of "Canon" and "Monsignor" in addition to the choir dress of a canon, which includes the mozetta (black with purple piping for Malta and white with a red Jerusalem cross for Holy Sepulchre.Insignia according to Gammarelli and Barbiconi
Before the English Reformation, the King of England was a canon of the Basilica of Saint Paul outside the Walls.
In addition to canons who are clerics in holy orders, cathedrals in the Anglican Communion may also appoint lay persons as canons. The rank of "lay canon" is especially conferred upon diocesan chancellors (the senior legal officer of the diocese, who is usually, though not exclusively, a lay person).
Section 2 of the Church of England (Miscellaneous Provisions) Measure 1995 was passed for the express purpose of enabling Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, to appoint not more than two lay canons. One of the motivations for this provision was that, under section 6 of the Ecclesiastical Commissioners Act 1840 (3 & 4 Vict. c. 113), the position of Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History in the University of Oxford was annexed to a residentiary canonry of the cathedral, meaning that the Regius professorship could be held only by an Anglican priest. Following the death of Peter Hinchliff in 1995 the Regius professorship was held by Henry Mayr-Harting, a Catholic layman, from 1997 until 2003, and was taken up by another lay person, Sarah Foot, in Michaelmas Term 2007. Three other Statutory Professorships, the Regius Professorship of Divinity, Lady Margaret Professorship of Divinity, recently held by the famous Anglican theologian, John Macquarrie, and Regius Professorship of Moral and Pastoral Theology, are annexed to canonries of Christ Church and were until recently held only by Anglican priests.
At Durham, the canon professorships are the Van Mildert Professor of Divinity, the holder of which must be an Anglican priest, and the Michael Ramsey Professor of Anglican Studies, who must be Anglican but did not have to be ordained. Historically, the chair in Greek at the university was also a canon professorship. This canonry was transferred to the Lightfoot Professor of Divinity in 1940.
The Lightfoot professorship was attached to the canonry until 1985, when the non-Anglican James Dunn was appointed.
There are a variety of congregations of canons, some of which are part of the Confederation of Canons Regular of St. Augustine:
Many bishops endeavoured to imitate St. Augustine and St. Eusebius, and to live a common life with the clergy of their church. Rules taken from the sacred canons were even drawn up for their use, of which the most celebrated is that of St. Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz (766). In the tenth century, this institution declined; the canons, as the clergy attached to a church and living a common life were called, began to live separately; some of them, however, resisted this relaxation of discipline, and even added poverty to their common life. This is the origin of the canons regular. Pope Benedict XII by his constitution Ad decorem (15 May 1339) prescribed a general reform of the canons regular. The canons regular ex professo united Holy Orders with religious life, and being attached to a church, devoted themselves to promoting the dignity of divinity worship. With monks, Holy Orders are incidental and secondary, and are superadded to the religious life. With canons as with the clerks regular, Holy Orders are the principal thing, and the religious life is superadded to the Holy Orders.
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