\Ca*non"ic\, Cannonical \Can*non"ic*al\, a. [L.
cannonicus, LL. canonicalis, fr. L. canon: cf. F. canonique.
See {canon}.]
Of or pertaining to a canon; established by, or according to
a, canon or canons. ``The oath of canonical obedience.''
--Hallam.
{Canonical books}, or {Canonical Scriptures}, those books
   which are declared by the canons of the church to be of
   divine inspiration; -- called collectively the canon. The
   Roman Catholic Church holds as canonical several books
   which Protestants reject as apocryphal.
{Canonical epistles}, an appellation given to the epistles
   called also general or catholic. See {Catholic epistles},
   under {Canholic}.
{Canonical form} (Math.), the simples or most symmetrical
   form to which all functions of the same class can be
   reduced without lose of generality.
{Canonical hours}, certain stated times of the day, fixed by
   ecclesiastical laws, and 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, this name is also given to the hours from 8 a. m.
   to 3 p. m. (formerly 8 a. m. to 12 m.) before and after
   which marriage can not be legally performed in any parish
   church.
{Canonical letters}, letters of several kinds, formerly given
   by a bishop to traveling clergymen or laymen, to show that
   they were entitled to receive the 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 the clergy, less rigid than the
   monastic, and more restrained that 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, etc.
{Canonical sins} (Anc. Church.), those for which capital
   punishment or public penance decreed by the canon was
   inflicted, as idolatry, murder, adultery, heresy.