clerics regular were represented by the regular canons who under the name of the Canons Regular or Black Canons of St. Augustine, the Premonstratensians, (known also as the White Canons or Norbertines), etc., shared with the monks the possession of large abbeys and monasteries all over Europe.

It was not until the 16th century that clerics regular in the modern and strictest sense of the word came into being. Just as the conditions obtaining