Yet another conducts the services of the holy week known as the Voice of Our Lady of Chartres, and acts as precentor; and some find employment as the Bishop's officials.

Each one, in short, has a struggle to earn his food and lodging." "What exactly is a Canon; what are his functions, and the origin of his office ?" "The origin?
It is lost in the night of ages.

It is supposed that Colleges of Canons existed in the time of Pepin le Bref; it is at any rate certain that during his reign Saint Chrodegang, Bishop of Metz, assembled the clerks of his cathedral and obliged them to live together, in a house in common, as though it were a convent, under a rule of which Charlemagne makes mention in his Capitularies .-- A Canon's functions?
They consist in the solemn celebration of the Canonical services, and the direction of all processions.

As a matter of conscience every Canon is required in the first place to reside in the town where the church is situated to whose service he is attached; then to be present at the Canonical hours when Mass is said; finally to sit on the meetings of the Chapter on certain fixed days.

But to tell the truth, their part has almost fallen into desuetude.