Regular canon

At the time contemporary, a regular canon is a catholic monk alive in religious community and following very generally the rule of saint Augustin. A contrario, a secular Chanoine is not a monk but is a priest diocesan which received this title of sound bishop. With the Middle Ages, the distinction is not also clear, since exists a whole panorama of situations between the canons known as secular, submitted to tiny Community observances, and the regular canons, of which some, like Prémontré, can be close to the monks cistercians, of which they took again part of the observances. The reasons of this confused situation are to be sought in the successive reforms applied to the clergy of the cathedrals and the large basilicas, which sometimes brought the canon closer to the monk, sometimes on the contrary tempted to mark the distinction.

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