{ Ca‐non″ic (kȧ‐nŏn″ĭk), Ca‐non″ic‐al (kȧ‐nŏn″ĭ‐kal), } a. [L. canonicus, 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, orCanonical 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.