The Gupta-Bleuler quantization method of QED can be generalized to canonically quantized constrained systems with quantum second-class constraints. Such constraints may originate either from the second-class constraints, already presented in the classical description of the theory, or may have their sources in quantum effects, in which case the theory is called anomalous. In this paper, I present a detailed description of how the Gupta-Bleuler ideas can be implemented in these cases and I argue that there are in principle no inconsistencies in quantum anomalous theories. Having quantized the anomalous theories canonically, I derive the path integral formulation of such theories and show that some new terms are necessarily present in this formulation. As an example, I show how the chiral Schwinger model can be quantized in the original fermionic formulation with no reference to the bosonized version used in the literature so far. * e-mail address: t18@ nikhef.nl