Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Canonic?

\Ca*non"ic\, Cannonical \Can*non"ic*al\, a. [L. cannonicus, LL. canonicalis, fr. L. canon: cf. F. canonique. See {canon}.] Of or pertaining to a canon; established by, or according to a, canon or canons. ``The oath of canonical obedience.'' --Hallam. {Canonical books}, or {Canonical Scriptures}, those books which are declared by the canons of the church to be of divine inspiration; -- called collectively the canon. The Roman Catholic Church holds as canonical several books which Protestants reject as apocryphal. {Canonical epistles}, an appellation given to the epistles called also general or catholic. See {Catholic epistles}, under {Canholic}. {Canonical form} (Math.), the simples or most symmetrical form to which all functions of the same class can be reduced without lose of generality. {Canonical hours}, certain stated times of the day, fixed by ecclesiastical laws, and appropriated to the offices of prayer and devotion; also, certain portions of the Breviary, to be used at stated hours of the day. In England, this name is also given to the hours from 8 a. m. to 3 p. m. (formerly 8 a. m. to 12 m.) before and after which marriage can not be legally performed in any parish church. {Canonical letters}, letters of several kinds, formerly given by a bishop to traveling clergymen or laymen, to show that they were entitled to receive the communion, and to distinguish them from heretics. {Canonical life}, the method or rule of living prescribed by the ancient clergy who lived in community; a course of living prescribed for the clergy, less rigid than the monastic, and more restrained that the secular. {Canonical obedience}, submission to the canons of a church, especially the submission of the inferior clergy to their bishops, and of other religious orders to their superiors. {Canonical punishments}, such as the church may inflict, as excommunication, degradation, penance, etc. {Canonical sins} (Anc. Church.), those for which capital punishment or public penance decreed by the canon was inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy.