Ca-nōn'ic or Ca-nōn'ic-al, a.

a. [Lat. canonicus, and L. Lat. canonicalis, from Lat. canon; Fr. canonique and canonical. See CANON.] Pertaining to a canon; according to the canon or rule. “The oath of canonical obedience.” Hallam.

Canonical books, or canonical Scriptures, those books of the Scriptures which are admitted by the canons of the church to be of divine origin. The Roman Catholic church admits the apocryphal books to be canonical; the Protestants reject them. — Canonical epistles, an appellation given to those epistles of the New Testament which are called general or catholic. — Canonical hours, certain stated times of the day, fixed by the ecclesiastical laws, 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, these hours are from eight o'clock to twelve in the forenoon, before and after which marriage can not be legally performed in any parish church. — Canonical letters, letters which formerly passed between the orthodox clergy, as testimonials of their faith, to keep up the catholic 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 clerks, less rigid than the monastic, and more restrained than 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, &c. — Canonical sins (Anc. Church), those for which capital punishment was inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy, &c.