a female beneficiary of a religious college. In the
8th century chapters of canons were instituted in the Frankish empire,
and in imitation of these certain women took common vows of obedience
and chastity, though not of poverty. Like nuns they had common table and
dormitory, and recited the breviary, but generally the rule was not so
strict as in the case of nuns. The canonesses often taught girls, and
were also employed in embroidering ecclesiastical vestments and
transcribing liturgical books. A distinction was drawn between regular
and secular canonesses, the latter being of noble family and not
practising any austerity. Some of their abbesses were notable feudal
princesses. In Germany several foundations of this kind (e.g.
Gandersheim, Herford and Quedlinburg), which were practically secular
institutions before the Reformation, adopted the Protestant faith, and
still exist, requiring of their members the simple conditions of
celibacy and obedience to their superior during membership. These
institutions (_Stifter_) are now practically almshouses for the
unmarried daughters of noble families. In some cases the right of
presentation belongs to the head of the family, sometimes admission is
gained by purchase; but in modern times a certain number of prebends
have been created for the daughters of deserving officials. The
organization of the _Stift_ is collegiate, the head bearing the ancient
titles of abbess, prioress or provostess (_Probstin_), and the
canonesses (_Stiftsdamen_) meet periodically in _Konvent_ for the
discussion of the affairs of the community. The ladies are not bound to
residence. In many of these _Stifter_ quaint pre-Reformation customs and
ceremonies still survive; thus, at the convent of St John the Baptist at
Schleswig, on the day of the patron saint, the room in which the
_Konvent_ is held is draped in black and a realistic life-size wax head
of St John on a charger is placed in the centre of the table round which
the canonesses sit.

CANONIZATION, in its widest sense, an act by which in the Christian
Church the ecclesiastical authority grants to a deceased believer the
honour of public _cultus_. In the early Church there was no formal
canonization. The _cultus_ applied at first to local martyrs, and it was
only in exceptional circumstances that a kind of judiciary inquiry and
express decision became necessary to legitimate this _cultus_. The
peculiar situation of the Church of Africa exp