Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Obedience \O*be"di*ence\, n. [F. ob['e]dience, L. obedientia,
   oboedientia. See {Obedient}, and cf.{Obeisance}.]
   1. The act of obeying, or the state of being obedient;
      compliance with that which is required by authority;
      subjection to rightful restraint or control.

            Government must compel the obedience of individuals.
                                                  --Ames.

   2. Words or actions denoting submission to authority;
      dutifulness. --Shak.

   3. (Eccl.)
      (a) A following; a body of adherents; as, the Roman
          Catholic obedience, or the whole body of persons who
          submit to the authority of the pope.
      (b) A cell (or offshoot of a larger monastery) governed by
          a prior.
      (c) One of the three monastic vows. --Shipley.
      (d) The written precept of a superior in a religious order
          or congregation to a subject.

   {Canonical obedience}. See under {Canonical}.

   {Passive obedience}. See under {Passive}.

Canonic \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.