Canon Law (1917) on Religious
Source: iuscangreg.it
Canons 487 to 681 on Religious.
Canon 487
The religious state is a stable manner of living in common, by which the faithful take up, besides common precepts, also the evangelical counsels of observing by vow obedience, chastity, and poverty, [and it] must be held in honor by all.
Canon 488
In the canons that follow [the following definitions apply]:
1.° Religious [institute] is a society approved by legitimate ecclesiastical authority in which the members, according to the laws of their own institute, pronounce public vows, perpetual or temporary, to be renewed upon the elapse of time, and who tend to evangelical perfection;
2.° An order is a religious [institute] in which solemn vows are pronounced; monastic Congregation is a joining of several independent monasteries among themselves under the same Superior; exempt religious is a religious [institute], whether of solemn or simple vows, removed from the jurisdiction of the local Ordinary; religious Congregation or simple Congregation is a religious [institute] in which only simple vows, whether perpetual or temporary, are given out;
3.° Religious [institute] of pontifical rite is a religious [institute] that has secured approval or at least a decree of praise from the Apostolic See; of diocesan right, refers to a religious [institute] erected by the Ordinary that has not yet obtained a decree of praise;
4.° Clerical religious [institute] is a religious [institute] in which most of the members are priests; otherwise it is lay;
5.° A religious house is the house of any religious in general; a regular house is a house of Orders; a formal house is a religious house in which at least six professed religious are present, of whom, if it concerns clerical religious, at least four must be priests;
6.° A province is a joining of several religious houses among themselves under the same Superior, constituting a part of the same religious [institute];
7.° Religious refers to those whose vows are pronounced in any religious [institute]; religious of simple vows, when they are in a religious Congregation; regulars, when they are in Orders; sisters, when they are religious women of simple vows; nuns, when they are religious women of solemn vows or, unless it is established by the nature of the thing or the context of the words, religious women whose vows are
8.° Major Superiors [are] Abbots Primate, Abbots Superior of monastic Congregations, and Abbots of independent monasteries, even though they belong to a monastic Congregation, the supreme Moderator of a religious [institute], a provincial Superior, and their vicars having power like that of a provincial.
Canon 489
Rules and particular constitutions of individual religious [institutes] not contrary to the canons of this Code retain their force; but those that are opposed are abrogated.
Canon 490
What is established concerning religious, even if expressed in masculine vocabulary, applies by equal law to women, unless it is shown otherwise by the context of the words or the nature of the thing.
Canon 491
§ 1. Religious precede laity; clerical religious [precede] lay religious; canons regular [precede] monks; monks [precede] other regulars; regulars [precede] religious Congregations; Congregations of pontifical rite [precede] Congregations of diocesan rite; among those of the same sort, the prescription of Canon 106, n. 5 is observed.
§ 2. But a secular cleric precedes both laity and religious outside of their churches and even in their churches if it concerns lay religious; but a Chapter, whether cathedral or collegial, takes precedence over these in any place.