{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.