The Institutio canonicorum Aquisgranensis was a text disseminated in 816 at a church council gathered at Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle) by Emperor Louis the Pious, which sought to distinguish canons from monks and to provide canons with a rule, called the Regula canonicorum or Rule of Aix. The Institutio consists of a prologue, a collection of texts from Church Fathers, and the rule itself. Similar to Chrodegang's Rule, it differed on certain points. It was, for instance, more insistent on canons living a common life, eating and sleeping together. Yet canons were allowed to hold private property, and, with their bishop's permission, even have their own houses.