well regulated

[Mark A Mandel]

On Tue, 18 Mar 2003, Page Stephens wrote:

#Regular clergy belong to orders, and are bound by vows and rules. Secular
#clergy do not belong to such orders.

I believe that "regular" in this context refers to those Rules (Lat.
regulae). OED Online:

A. adj.

    1. Eccl.    a. Subject to, or bound by, a religious rule; belonging
to a religious or monastic order. (Opposed to secular.) In early use
placed after the n., esp. in canon regular: see CANON n.2 1.

-- Mark A. Mandel