By the Rev. Canon W. H. Rich Jones. 



157 



canons. Clergy, in olden times were divided into " Regulars 33 and 

 " Seculars." The former were those who belonged to monasteries 

 or similar religious houses and were bound by the " regula" or 

 " rule " of such institutions. The latter were those who lived in 

 the world and much as other people did, and of this class were 

 the canons whom Osmund appointed for his Cathedral. You 

 must dismiss from your mind at once the idea that there was 

 anything of the strictly monastic character about them. They 

 were bound by no religious vows ; in fact, if any canon became a 

 " Regular 33 he ceased at once to be a member of the Cathedral body. 

 They were, of course, bound to observe the " statutes and laudable 

 customs 33 of the Cathedral, but otherwise they were free ; they 

 lived each in their own houses and many of them, such at all events 

 as were in minor orders, were married men. And the provision for 

 their maintenance came from two sources — (1) from their "prebend/ 3 

 of which I have already spoken, and (2) from the <f communa 33 or 

 " common-fund/' arising from certain estates with which the cathe- 

 dral itself was endowed, and certain offerings and fines, of which 

 each canon shared according to his residence and performance of 

 given duties. 



Now without all doubt the idea that lay at the root of a cathedral 

 institution such as you had at Sarum — and that was the normal 

 English type — was that it should be a centre of religious life to the 

 diocese. It was in truth to be a distinctly missionary organization, 

 gathering together as though in one centre all the rays of light and 

 causing them to radiate again throughout the diocese. As it has 

 been well put by that distinguished man, who has, I rejoice to say, 

 been elevated to the primacy of all England, there was a "centrifugal 33 

 as well as a " centripetal 33 force in cathedrals ; they attracted to 

 themselves as to a religious home all the elements of holy worship 

 and life, and then scattered these same elements over all the prebendal 

 parishes which formed the endowments of the several canons of the 

 cathedral. 



Of course, as a centre of religious life, the cathedral was to be 

 the model of worship for the diocese. There was to be the Precentor, 

 always in residence, directing its various services \ there, too, the 



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