story of the body of clergy attached to the cathedral church is
obscure, and as in each case local considerations affected its
development, all that can be attempted is to give a general outline of
the main features which were more or less common to all. Originally the
bishop and cathedral clergy formed a kind of religious community, which,
in no true sense a monastery, was nevertheless often called a
_monasterium_. The word had not the restricted meaning which it
afterwards acquired. Hence the apparent anomaly that churches like York
and Lincoln, which never had any monks attached to them, have inherited
the name of minster or monastery. In these early communities the clergy
often lived apart in their own dwellings, and were not infrequently
married. In the 8th century, however, Chrodegang, bishop of Metz
(743-766), compiled a code of rules for the clergy of the cathedral
churches, which, though widely accepted in Germany and other parts of
the continent, gained little acceptance in England. According to
Chrodegang's rule the cathedral clergy were to live under a common roof,
occupy a common dormitory and submit to the authority of a special
officer. The rule of Chrodegang was, in fact, a modification of the
Benedictine rule. Gisa, a native of Lorraine, who was bishop of Wells
from 1061 to 1088, introduced it into England, and imposed its
observance on the clergy of his cathedral church, but it was not
followed for long there, or elsewhere in England.

During the two centuries, roughly bounded by the years 900 and 1100, the
cathedral clergy became more definitely organized, and were also divided
into two classes. One was that of a monastic establishment of some
recognized order of monks, very often that of the Benedictines, while
the other class was that of a college of clergy, living in the world,
and bound by no vows, except those of their ordination, but governed by
a code of statutes or canons. Hence the name of "canon" given to them.
In this way arose the distinction between the monastic and secular
cathedral churches. In England the monastic cathedral churches were
Bath, Canterbury, Carlisle, Coventry, Durham, Ely, Norwich, Rochester,
Winchester and Worcester, all of them Benedictine except Carlisle, which
was a church of Augustinians. The secular churches were Chichester,
Exeter, Hereford, Lichfield, Lincoln, St Paul's (London), Salisbury,
Wells, York, and the four Welsh cathedral churches. In Ireland all were
s