Canon

CANONE. –

I. LAW

The word c. derives from the Greek χανών, which in its proper and original sense meant a reed, a straight rod, an instrument of measurement used by artisans, and in a figurative sense indicated a rule or norm. The word canon entered the heritage of the Latin language rather late. Cicero still uses the Greek form.

In a figurative sense, the word c. was used in grammar, in literature (canones were the classical authors), in art (the c. of Polykleitos: Quintilian, Inst. orat., X, 1, 54), with regard to faith (Gal. 6:16), with regard to morals (Phil. 3:16), and in the liturgy (St Clement, Ep. I Cor., I, 41).

The practice of considering the Sacred Books as the rule of faith, or as possessing the force of law, or as admitted by the law or rule, also led to the practice of designating them as canonical. Subsequently, their list came to be called the c. (v. BIBLIA).

The laws of the Church, insofar as they are rules of conduct, were already called κανόν, κανονικός at the beginning of the fourth century (Council of Ancyra, can. 24; Council of Nicaea, cans. 1, 2, 5, etc.), and were thus opposed to the civil laws, called νόμοι, as is evident from Justinian’s Nov. 137 and Nomocanons (v.). At first, the term was used especially to designate the decisions of the Eastern councils and the norms considered to have been given by the Apostles, and subsequently all the juridical or disciplinary norms issued by the councils, or even all ecclesiastical laws. In the Middle Ages, the individual ecclesiastical law was called ius canonicum, ius canonum, lex canonica, and the body of laws was called orda or mos canonicus (R. von Scherer, Handbuch der Kirchenrechts, I, Leipzig 1886–89, p. 111); it is in this sense that the word is used by Gratian in the work Concordia discordantium canonum, by the Decretists and the Decretalists. Innocent III contrasts c. with custom (c. 11, X, I, 2). The collections of the laws of the Church were often called Corpus iuris canonici (v.).

From the fifteenth century onward, in the councils the term c. indicated dogmatic definitions, whereas disciplinary provisions were called decrees. At the same time, the word came to be applied to universal ecclesiastical laws, in contrast with the provisions of particular councils. With the Pio-Benedictine codification, c. indicates the universal laws contained in the CIC.

Over the centuries, the term also acquired other meanings: in antiquity it designated the register in which the clerics assigned to the service of a church were listed; in the medieval period it also came to mean a monastic rule or a liturgical psalmody. Even today it also indicates a payment in money or in kind, temporary or perpetual (v. CANONI E CENSII).

C. subsequently came to signify, in both popular and religious music of the late Middle Ages and the Renaissance, a melodic line stated by one voice or part and rigorously imitated by several voices or parts, which enter one after another at given time intervals and thus give the impression of chasing one another: hence perhaps the names rota, caccia, fuga, given as early as the 13th century to certain imitative compositions.

The c. may be at the unison, octave, fifth, upper or lower third, upper or lower fourth; infinite or perpetual or circular; inverted or in contrary motion, retrograde or cancrizans, in mirror form; by augmentation or diminution, etc. In ancient times it was also customary to write c. on a single line (L'homme armé by J. Després). If the key for reading all the other parts from a single part was contained in a riddle-like phrase, it was called an “enigmatic” c. In the 15th century the infinite c. was also written in a circle. With the Franco-Flemish school, the c. reached its greatest development and attained artistic heights, even though fashion and mannerism sometimes complicated it almost to the point of absurdity. Yet very notable examples are known as early as the 13th and 14th centuries: from this arose the imitative style (mottet, canzona, ricercare, fantasia) that would develop into the fugue of the 17th and 18th centuries.

C. are extremely frequent in Palestrinian masses; they then passed into organ chorales in learned style; Bach’s entire oeuvre, both vocal and instrumental, is full of them; subsequently, the work of German composers perpetuated their use down to the present day, especially in Protestant liturgical music.