Augustinian Canons - Origin of The Canons

Origin of The Canons

From the 4th and 5th Centuries, early Christian diocesan clergy were living in common with their bishops in monastic life. These clergy were called 'canon' because their names were kept in a list known as a 'kanon', a Greek word meaning 'rule'. Over time, behaviour amongst the clergy deteriorated, leading to public scandals and attempts were made at reformation by Charlemagne, who urged that all clergy should be either monks or canons living in common, as prescribed by the Council of Aix la Chapelle, in 789, and Mainz, in 813. St Augustine of Hippo is also regarded by the Canons as their founder. Ives, bishop of Chartres promoted the Augustinian order in Italy through the newly founded congregation of Blessed Peter de Honestis, and elsewhere through the congregation of St. Rufus.

During the eleventh century Pope Gregory VII's reformation of the church extended to canonical life, resulting in a distinction being made between the clerics who lived in separate houses and those who still preserved the old discipline. The former were called canonici saeculares, or Secular Canons and the latter canonici regulares, or Canons Regular. In the year 763 Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, assembled the clergy of his cathedral around him, led with them a community life, and gave them a rule taken from the statutes of ancient orders and canons, a discipline also recommended shortly after by the Councils of Aix-la-Chapelle and Mainz.

The is some scholarly argument over whether St Augustine of Hippo instituted the canons regular or simply provided a rule that helped to reinvigorate the system. Eusebius, the historian, relates that St. Mark, the disciple of St. Peter, established this discipline at Alexandria, as did St. Crescentius in Gaul, St. Saturninus in Spain, and St. Maternus in Germany. St. Eusebius introduced it at Vercelli in Italy, and St. Ambrose at Milan. Popes Urban I (A.D. 227), Paschal II (1099), Benedict XII (1334), Eugenius IV (1431), Sixtus V and Pius V in various Letters and bulls, are quoted by the historians of the order, to prove distinctly that St. Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, only restored, or caused to reflourish, the order of canons regular, which was first instituted by the Apostles.

St. Antoninus, Vincent of Beauvais, Sigebert, Peter of Cluny and Prospero Fagnani all state that the canonical order traces back its origin to the earliest ages of the Church. Suarez sums up the case, after having stated that the Apostles taught by Christ formed the first order of clerics, and that the order did not perish with the Apostles, but was preserved by continuous succession in their disciples, as proved by letters of Pope St. Clement and Urban I (though these letters are Pseudo-Isidorain in character): 'The Life of St. Augustine says when he was made priest, he instituted a monastery within the church and began to live with the servants of God according to the manner and rules constituted by the holy Apostles.'

Many therefore suppose that the Order of Regular Clerics, or Canons Regular, was not instituted by St. Augustine, but was either reformed by him or introduced by him into Africa and furnished with a special rule. Pius IV maintains that the Order of Regular Clerics was instituted by the Apostles, and this Benedict XII confirms in his preface to the Constitutions of the Canons Regular. There is no question as regards the continuance of this state from the time of St. Augustine to this time, although with great variety as far as various institutes are concerned.' When a controversy arose between the Benedictine monks and the canons regular with regard to precedence, the question was settled by Pius V in favour of the canons, on account of their Apostolic origin.

Cardinal Pie, addressing the Canons Regular of the Lateran congregation, says: 'These that are clothed in white robes, who are they, and whence come they? Come, I shall tell you. Their origin is nothing else but the society and the common life of Jesus and the Apostles, the original model of community life between the bishop and his clergy. On that account they chiefly come from Hippo and from the home of Augustine, who has given them a Rule, which they still glory to observe.'

The name Austin (or Augustinian) Canons is commonly used instead of Canons Regular, and there are some who erroneously think that Austin Canons are so styled because they were instituted by St. Augustine, but St. Augustine did not found the order of canons regular, not even those who are called Austin Canons, there were canons regular before St. Augustine as various authorities prove; all St. Austin did was to induce his clergy to live secundum regulam sub sanctis Apostolis constitutam, which he had seen practised at Milan, adding to the Apostolic Rule hitherto observed by clerics living in common, some regulations, afterwards called the "Rule of St. Augustine."

Or, in the words of Pope Paschal II in a Bull quoted by Pennott, "Vitæ regularis propositum in primitiva ecclesia cognoscitur ab Apostolis institutum quam B. Augustinus tam gratanter amplexus est ut eam regulis informaret" (A regular mode of life is recognized in the Early Church as instituted by the Apostles, and adopted earnestly by Blessed Augustine, who provided it with new regulations) -- Hist. Tripart., Lib. II, c. iv, 4. These regulations which St. Austin had given to the clerics who lived with him soon spread and were adopted by other religious communities of canons regular in Italy, in France and elsewhere. When, in and after the eleventh century, the various congregations of canons regular were formed, and adopted the Rule of St. Augustine, they were usually called Canonici Regulares Ordinis S. Augustini Congregationis, and in England Austin Canons or Black Canons, but there have always been canons regular who never adopted the Rule of St. Augustine. Giraldus Cambrenisis mentions some in his day in England. In a word, canons regular may be considered as the genus, and Austin Canons as the species; or we may say that all Austin Canons are canons regular, but not all canons regular are Austin canons.

If further proofs of the Apostolic origin of the canonical order are desired, many may be found in the work of Abbot Ceasare Benvenuti, who century by century, from councils, Fathers, and other ecclesiastical sources, proves that from the first to the twelfth century there had always been clerics living in common according to the example of the Apostles. It will be enough to citehere the authority of Döllinger who, after saying that from the time of the Apostles there have been in the Church, virgins, laymen, and ecclesiastics named ascetics, continues:

At Vercelli, Bishop Eusebius introduced the severe discipline of the Oriental monks among his clergy both by word and example. Before the gate of Milan was a cloister for monks under the protection of St. Ambrose. St. Augustine, when a priest, founded a cloister at Hippo, in which with other clerics he lived in humility and community of goods. (Eccl. History, tr. by the Rev. E. Cox, II, 270). To this again may be added, among many others, the words of popes Benedict XII, Eugenius IV, Pius IV and Pius V, in their bulls, all asserting almost in as many words, what has been here said. The following words, taken from the Martyrologium for canons regular and approved by the Congregation of Sacred Rites, will suffice for the purpose: Ordo Canonicorum Regularium, qui in primaevis Ecclesiae saeculis Clerici nominabantur utque ait S. Pius V. in Bullâ (Cum ex ordinum 14 Kal. Jan., 1570): 'ab Apostolis originem traxerunt, quique ab Augustiono eorum Reformatore iterum per reformationis viam mundo geniti fuere', per universum orbem diffusus innumerabilium SS. agmine fulget.

(The order of canons regular, who in the early ages of the Church were called clerics, and who, as St. Pius V says in the Bull Cum ex ordinum, 1570, derived their origin from the Apostles, and who later were born anew to the world through a process of reformation, by their reformer, Augustine, being spread throughout the universe, are renowned for an army of innumerable saints).