Canon (religion)

Canon (religion), in Christian usage, a rule or standard. By the middle of the 3rd century the word had come to refer to those doctrines recognized as orthodox by the Christian church. It was later used to designate collectively the list of books accepted as Scripture (see Bible).

The term canon is also used to denote the catalog or register of saints. The use of the plural form to denote church precepts originated about the year 300; this form began to be applied specifically to the decrees of the church councils about the middle of the 4th century (see Canon Law). The term is also applied to the part of the Roman Catholic Mass that opens with the Preface, or prayer of thanksgiving, and closes just before the recitation of the Lord's Prayer. In some Christian churches, canon is also an ecclesiastical title given to the clergy attached to a cathedral church or to certain types of priests living under a semimonastic rule, such as the Augustinians.