Canonsare canons a vintage of clergy in a Catholic Church who make up in community under a control Latin: regula together with are loosely organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons in addition to other forms of religious life, such(a) as clerks or clerics regular, designated by a partly similar terminology.
All canonsare to be distinguished from secular canons who belong to a resident house of priests but who take not hit public vows and are non governed in whatever elements of life they lead in common by a historical Rule. One obvious place where such(a) groups of priests were so-called was at a cathedral, where there were many Masses to celebrate and the Divine corporation to be prayed together in community. Other groups were determine at other churches which at some period in their history had been considered major churches, and often thanks to specific benefactions also in smaller centers.
As a norm, canons regular survive together in communities which take public vows. Their early communities took vows of common property and stability. As a later development, they now ordinarily take the three public vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience though some Orders or congregations of canonshave retained the vow of stability.
By 1125 hundreds of communities of canons had sprung up in Western Europe. Usually, they were quite independent of one another and varied in their ministries.
Especially from the 11th century, among the canons regular, various groupings called congregations were formed, which partly resembled religious orders in the general contemporary sense. This movement parallelled in some respects the category of bonds build between houses of monks. Among these congregations of canons regular, most adopted the Rule of St. Augustine, hence taking their name from St Augustine, the great Doctor of the Church, "for he realized in an ideal way the common life of the Clergy". They became call as Augustinian Canons, and sometimes in English as Austin Canons Austin being a form of Augustine. Where it was the case, they have also been known as Black Canons, from their black habits.
Nevertheless, there have always been canonswho never adopted the controls of St. Augustine. In a word, canons regular may be considered as the genus and Augustinian Canons as the species. Otherwise put, all Augustinian Canons are canons regular, but not all canons regular are Augustinian Canons.
In Latin, terms such(a) as Canonici Regulares Ordinis S. Augustini Canons Regular of the ordering of St. Augustine were used, whereby the term order Latin ordo returned more to a form of life or a stratum of society, reminiscent of the use of the equestrian order or senatorial order of Roman society, rather than to a religious cut in the contemporary sense of a closely organized body. Furthermore, within what we could call the pool of Augustinian Canons, some groups acquired a greater measure of distinctiveness in their style of life and organization, to the portion of being in law or in case autonomous religious orders. Examples add the Premonstratensian or Norbertine Order, sometimes known in English as White Canons, from their white habits. Yet another such order is that of the Crosiers. Encouraged by the general policies of the Holy See, particularly from the unhurried nineteenth century, some of these separate orders and congregations of Augustinian Canons have subsequently combined in some form of federation or confederation.
All the different varieties of canons regular are to be distinguished not only from secular canons but also from:
Writing at a time ago the foundation of the mendicant orders friars, Pope Urban II died 1099, said there were two forms of religious life: the monastic like the Benedictines and Cistercians and the canonical like the Augustinian Canons. He likened the monks to the role of Mary, and the canons to that of her sister, Martha.