Canon regular

Canons regular are priests who live in community under a rule (Latin: regula and κανών, kanon, in Greek) and are generally organised into religious orders, differing from both secular canons and other forms of religious life, such as clerics regular, designated by a partly similar terminology.

At times, their orders have been very popular: in England in the 12th century, there were more houses of canons than monastaries of any order of monks or friars.