Canon Fidei

Quiet, careful software for people who read slowly.

Canon Fidei is the house that Bible Standard is built in. One person, in the evenings, in France, without a company behind it. The aim is narrow and does not change: put Scripture, the historic confessions, and the divines in front of a reader, and then get out of the way.

Bible Standard first · The rest is being built

What is made here

Bible Standard, a reader for iPhone and iPad. Twelve works and growing: the 1644 and 1689 London Baptist Confessions, the Westminster Confession, the Larger and Shorter Catechisms, the Baptist Catechism with Beddome’s exposition, Calvin’s complete commentary, the works of John Owen, and the first three volumes of the Ante-Nicene Fathers. Highlighting with the citation already formed, cross-references and lexicon entries in place, and search that works with the aeroplane mode on.
The community layer. The part readers keep asking for, and the reason this page exists. Not built yet.

What it looks like now

The app as it stands today, on an iPhone. Nothing on this page's roadmap appears in these — none of it is built.

Today. A verse, a catechism question, a quote, and where you left off in a plan.
Any verse, and what was written about it. Calvin on John 3:16, one tap from the text.
Your library. Owen, Beddome, Calvin, the confessions. On the device, offline.
The proofs, in place. The 1689 with its Scripture proofs read out in full.
The catechism. Every reference a link, not a number you go and look up.
At night. Warm, not flat black. Set by the phone, not by a switch you hunt for.

What is being built next

In the order it will arrive. Each one works on its own, and ships before the next is started.

Your library, on every device. The books you keep, your highlights, your place in a plan, carried across your own iPhone and iPad through your iCloud. No account, no sign-in.
A profile. A name, a picture, and, only if you choose to say so, your city and your tradition. Private by default. Never guessed at, never required.
A verse of the day worth returning to. The same verse for everyone that day, with a quiet count of who sat with it.
Friends. Asked for and accepted, both ways, the way it works when you actually know someone. With reporting, blocking, and a person reading the reports on day one.
Reading together. A plan taken with a friend, a highlight shared because you meant to share it, and a page of what the people you know have been reading.

What it will not be

Off unless you turn it on. One switch. Off means no profile anyone can see, no friends surfaces, no counts, nothing. The reader stays exactly as it is.
No strangers by default, and no numbers on people. Counts belong to a verse, not to you. There is no follower count to grow.
Your highlights and notes stay yours. They are shared one at a time, by you, on purpose. Never in a stream.
No ads, and your reading is not the product. What you read is used on your own phone to suggest a book you might want next. It is not sold, and it is not handed to anyone.
You can leave with your hands full. Delete the account, keep the app and everything on your device.

Why the next part costs money

The reader runs on your phone and costs nothing to run. The moment people can find each other, there is a database, a sign-in, storage, and someone answering reports. That is a bill every month, whether ten people show up or ten thousand.

A small database and a sign-in: Sized for a real congregation of readers, not for an imaginary million. It starts on a free tier and moves up only when the readers do.
Storage and traffic: Profiles, friend lists, the daily counts. Small records, kept carefully.
Moderation: A queue, and the time to work it. Anything with a report button needs a person behind it.
The time to build it: Written by one person, in the evenings. This is the largest cost by far.

Partners

The presses whose work sits alongside this one.

Berith Press Republishing the finest work of the First and Second Reformations — Puritan, Reformed, and Covenanter. We are working together.

Supporters

The people paying for this to exist. Named here with their permission, and removed the moment they ask.

Ivo Muller
Phil Mallon

If you would like this to exist

Supporting is a gift, not a purchase. It does not buy app features, early access, a badge, a place at the front of the queue, or anything else inside Bible Standard. Whatever gets built here is built for everyone alike, at the same time, at the same price. What your gift buys is the time and the servers to build it at all.

€5 / month: Reader. Coffee money. It adds up, and it helps.
€10 / month: Bookbinder. Covers a meaningful share of a month’s costs.
€25 / month: Patron. Materially changes how fast this gets done.

Support monthly Give once

Monthly can be changed or stopped whenever you like, from a link in your receipt. Giving once is one payment and nothing after it — no account, no renewal, no reminder. Both help; neither buys anything.

What supporters get: my thanks, and the work itself

Your name on the supporters list above, if you want it there.
An email every so often about what has been built and what is next, with the honest version of what is late.
A say in the open questions: what a profile should show, what a plan read together should feel like. Read carefully, and not binding.

That is the whole list. Anything the app can do, it will do for everyone.

Not in a position to give?

That is completely fine. Leave your email and you will hear when there is something to see.

Email me when it opens