EXCURSUS ON THE USE OF THE WORD "CANON."

(Bright: Notes on the Canons, pp. 2 and 3.)

K anwn  , as an ecclesiastical term, has a very 

interesting history. See Westcott's account of it, On the New 

Testament Canon, p. 498 if. The original sense, "a straight rod" or 

"line," determines all its religious applications, which begin with St. 

Paul's use of it for a prescribed sphere of apostolic work(2 Cor. x. 13, 

15), or a regulative principle of Christian life(Gal. vi. 16). It represents 

the element of definiteness in Christianity and in the order of the 

Christian Church. Clement of Rome uses it for the measure of 

Christian attainment(Ep. Cor. 7). Irenaeus calls the baptismal creed 

"the canon of truth"(i. 9, 4): Polycrates(Euseb. v. 24) and probably 

Hippolytus(ib. v. 28) calls it "the canon of faith;" the Council of 

Antioch in A.D. 269, referring to the same standard of orthodox belief, 

speaks with significant absoluteness of "the canon"(ib. vii. 30). 

Eusebius himself mentions "the canon of truth" in iv. 23, and "the 

canon of the preaching" in iii. 32; and so Basil speaks of "the 

transmitted canon of true religion"(Epist. 204-6). Such language, like 

Tertullian's "regula fidei," amounted to saying, "We Christians know 

what we believe: it is not a vague 'idea' without substance or outline: it 

can be put into form, and by it we 'test the spirits whether they be of 

God.' " Thus it was natural for Socrates to call the Nicene Creed itself 

a "canon," ii. 27. Clement of Alexandria uses the phrase "canon of 

truth" for a standard of mystic interpretation, but proceeds to call the 

harmony between the two Testaments "a canon for the Church," 

Strom. vi. 15, 124, 125. Eusebius speaks of "the ecclesiastical canon" 

which recognized no other Gospels than the four(vi. 25). The use of 

the term and its cognates in reference to the Scriptures is explained by 

Westcott in a passive sense so that "canonized" books, as Athanasius 

calls them(Fest. Ep. 39), are books expressly recognized by the 

Church as portions of Holy Scripture. Again, as to matters of 

observance, Clement of Alexandria wrote a book against Judaizers, 

called "The Churches Canon"(Euseb. vi. 13); and Cornelius of Rome, 

in his letter to Fabius, speaks of the "canon" as to what we call 

confirmation(Euseb. vi. 43), and Dionysius of the "canon" as to 

reception of converts from heresy(ib, vii. 7). The Nicene Council in 

this canon refers to a standing "canon" of discipline(comp. Nic. 2, 5, 6, 

9, 10, 15, 16, 18), but it does not apply the term to its own enactments, 

which are so described in the second canon of Constantinople(see 

below), and of which Socrates says "that it passed what are usually 

called 'canons' "(i. 13); as Julius of Rome calls a decree of this Council 

a "canon"(Athan. Apol. c. Ari. 25); so Athanasius applies the term 

generally to Church laws(Encycl. 2; cp. Apol. c. Ari. 69). The use of 

 kanwn   for the clerical body(Nic. 16, 17, 19; Chalc. 2) 

is explained by Westcott with reference to the rule of clerical life, but 

Bingham traces it to the roll or official list on which the names of 

clerics were enrolled(i. 5, 10); and this appears to be the more natural 

derivation, see "the holy canon" in the first canon of the Council of 

Antioch, and compare Socrates(i. 17), "the Virgins enumerated 

 en    tw    ekklhsiwn   

 kan   <ss228> ni  ," and(ib. v. 19) on 

the addition of a penitentiary "to the canon of the church;" see also 

George of Laodicea in Sozomon, iv. 13. Hence any cleric might be 

called  kan  <ss228> nikos  , see Cyril 

of Jerusalem, Procatech.(4); so we read of "canonical singers." 

Laodicea, canon xv. The same notion of definiteness appears in the ritual use of the word for a series of nine "odes" in the Eastern 

Church service(Neale, Introd. East. Ch. if. 832), for the central and 

unvarying element in the Liturgy, beginning after the 

Tersanctus(Hammond, Liturgies East and West, p. 377); or for any 

Church office(Ducange in v.); also in its application to a table for the 

calculation of Easter(Euseb. vi. 29; vii. 32); to a scheme for exhibiting 

the common and peculiar parts of the several Gospels(as the "Eusebian 

canons") and to a prescribed or ordinary payment to a church, a use 

which grew out of one found in Athanasius' Apol. c. Ari. 60.

In more recent times a tendency has appeared to restrict the term 

Canon to matters of discipline, but the Council of Trent continued the 

ancient use of the word, calling its doctrinal and disciplinary 

determinations alike "Canons."