CAP 
lame notion, as well as the Scaligers, Cafaubons, Erpe- 
n:us, Salmafms, Grotius, and the, Heinfii s and therefore 
it could not be faid, that Capelins introduced any novelty, 
but only better and more folidly eftubliffied an opinion, 
which had been approved of by the-nioft learned and ju¬ 
dicious Proteftants. But the true reafon why the German 
Proteftants fo warmly oppofed Capellus’s opinion, was, 
becaufe they had been accuflomed to follow that of the 
two Buxtorts, whom they confidered as oracles in Hebrew 
learning. Buxtorf the father had written a little treatife 
in defence of the antiquity of the points: and, as Bux- 
torf’s credit vvas juftly great among them, they ch.ofe ra¬ 
ther to rely upon his authority, than to examine his argu¬ 
ments, in fo abflrule an enquiry.. Buxtorf the (bn wrote 
againft: Capelins, and maintained his:father’s o,pi,nion. Ca- 
pellus, however, has been generally fuppoi'ed to,.have put 
the matter beyond any farther difputc : ; on wjpch<acqount 
liis fcholars, Bocliart, Grotius, Spanheim, .Voflius, .Daille, 
and almoi’t all tlie learned in Hebrew iin.ee, have come very 
readily into his opinion. Capellus compoled another work, 
intitled, Crltica Sacra; which fo highly ditpleafed the 
Proteftants, that they prevented tlieimpreffion of it; till 
John Capellus, his fon, got leave of the king to. print it at 
Paris in 1650. This work is a collection of various read¬ 
ings and errors, which lie thought were crept into the.co¬ 
pies of the Bible, through tlie fault of the tranferibers ; 
and it muff have been a work of prodigious labour, (nice 
the author acknowledges, that he had been thirty-fix years 
about it. The younger Buxtorf"w’rote a learned anfvver 
to it, and fome Englifh Protcftants have alfo appeared 
againft it : but Grotius, on the other (ide, very much com¬ 
mends this critique in an epiftle to the author; where he 
tells him, among other things, to be content witli the ju¬ 
dicious approbation of a few, rather than the blind ap- 
plaufe of many, readers : Contcntus cjlo, fays he, magnis po- 
tius quam muhis laudatoribus. Capellus died at Saumur in 
1658, aged aimoft eighty; having made an abridgement of 
liis life in bis work De Gente Capelloriim. 
CA'PER,/! [from caper, Lat. a goat.] A leap; a 
jump ; a fkip.—We, that are true lovers, run into ftrange 
capers ; but, as all is mortal in nature, fo is all nature in 
love mortal in folly. Shakefpeare. 
CA'PER ,f. \_capparis, Lat.] An acid pickle. See Cap- 
EARis. —We invent new fauces and pickles, which refera¬ 
ble the animal ferment in talle and virtue, as mangoes, 
olives, and capers. Floyer. 
CA'PER,/. [from -vax quod a nsv Heb. to haflen; be¬ 
caufe the hair, nails, and horns, of tlie goat are quick of 
growth. Min/hew. ] The lie-goat. 
To CA'PER, v. n. To dance froliefomely.—The truth 
js, 1 am only old in judgment ; and he tiiat will caper with 
me for a thoufand marks, let him lend me the money. 
Shakefpeare. —To (kip for merriment.—The family tript it 
about, and capered like hailftones bounding from a marble 
floor. Arbuthnot. —To dance; fpoken in contempt : 
The flage would need no force, nor fong, nor dance, 
Nor capering nionfieur from adtive France. Jlozce. 
CA'PER BEAN,/! in botany. See Zygophylltjm. 
CA'PERER,/. A dancer: in contempt. 
The tumbler’s gambols fome delight afford; 
No lefs the nimble caperer on the cord: 
But thefe are (fill infipid fluff'' to thee, 
Coop’d in a (hip, and tofs’d upon the fea. Dryden. 
CAPERNAUM, a city celebrated in the gpfpels, but 
3s no where mentioned in the Old Teffament, and there¬ 
fore it is not improbable that it was one of thofe towns 
which the Jews-built after their return from the Baby lo¬ 
ll jfh captivity. It flood on the fen-coal!, i. e. .on the coait 
of the fea of Galilee, in the borders of Zebtilon an 1 M.iph- 
talim. It took its name from an adjacent fpring of great 
repute for its clear and limpid waters, called by the natives 
Capernaum. According to Dr. Wells, it now eonfilts, of 
only; a few filhennen’s cottages. 
CAP 
GAPERO'LEANS, a congregation of religious in Italy, 
fo called from Peter'Caperole their founder, in the icth 
century. 
CAPESTANG', a town of France, in the department 
of Herauit, and chief place of a canton, in the dikridt of 
Beziers : three leagues north of Narbcnne. - 
GAPH, f. a Jeiviffi meafure of capacity, eflimated by 
Kirachi at the thirtieth part of the log, by Arbuthnot at 
the. fixte.enth part of the bin or thirty-fecond of tlie firah, 
amounting to five-eighths of an Englifii pint. The caph 
does not occur in Scripture as the name of any meafure. 
CA'PHAR,/ a duty which the Turks raife on the 
Chadians who carry or fend merchandffes from Aleppo to 
Jerufalem, and other places in Syria. This duty was firff 
impofed by the C.hriffians themfelves, when lliey were in 
poirellion of the,Holy Land, for the maintenance of the 
troops which were planted in difficult pallet toobferve the 
Arabs and prevent their incurfious. It is now continued 
and mcreafedlby the Turks, under pretence of defending 
the Chriftia-ns againft. the Arabs.' 
CAPHc/REUS, a lofty mountain and promontory of 
Euboea, toward the Hellespont, where Nauplius king of 
the country, to revenge the death of his fon Palamedea, 
(lain by Ulylles, fet a burning torch in the durknefs of the- 
night, which caufed the Greeks to be (liipwrecked on the 
conff. Virgil. 
CAPH'TOR, anciently a town or diftrict of Higher 
Egypt; and hence the people called Caphtbrim or Caphto* 
raci. Caphtor is an ifland of Egypt, Ai Caphtor, (Jere¬ 
miah-,} probably one of thofe in the Nile. Dr. Wells 
fuppofes it to be Coptos, which ftood in a (mall ifiand. 
Thence came the Caphtorim or Caphtoraei, in Paleftine ; 
who w ith the Philiftines confpired to extirpate the Hevaei; 
and whofe name was fwallowed up in that of the Philii- 
tines. 
CAPIIYL'LUS VE'NERIS,/. in botany. See Adi- 
antum. 
CA'Pl-A'GA, or Ca pi-Ag assi, aTurkifh officer who 
is governor of tiie gates of the feraglio, or grand mafter of 
tlie feraglio. The capi-aga is tlie firff dignity among the 
white eunuchs ; he is always near the perfon of the grand' 
feignior: he introduces ambalfadors to their audience : 
nobody enters or goes out of the grand feignior’s apart¬ 
ment but by his means. His office gives him the privilege 
of wearing the turban in the feraglio, and of going every 
where on horfeback. He accompanies tlie grand feignior 
to the apartment of tlie fultanas, but flops at the door 
w itliout entering. His office brings him in abundance of 
prefents ; no affair of confequence coming to the emperor’s- 
knowledge without palling through his hand. The capi- 
aga cannot be bafhaw when he quits his poff. 
CA'PIAS,/. in law, a writ or procefs of two forts; one~ 
w hereof in the Court of Common Pleas is called capias ad f 
refpondendum , before judgment, where an original is fried 
out, to take the defendant and make him anfwer the plain- . 
tirf; and the other a writ of execution, after judgment, 
being of divers kinds, as capias ad fatisfaciendum, capias , 
ut/agatum , &c. The capias ad refpondendum is drawn from 
the praecipe, which ferves both for the original and capias, 
and the return of the original is the tefte of the capias. If 
a capias be (pedal, in cafe, covenant,,&c. thecaufeof ac¬ 
tion mu ft be recited at large, and the fubftance of the in¬ 
tended declaration fet forth, as alfo in the original. This 
capias is a writ commanding the flrerift to take the body., 
of tlie defendant, if he may be found in his bailiwick or 
county, and him fafely to keep, fo that he may have him 
in court on the day of the return to anfwer to the plain¬ 
tiff of a plea of debt, trefpafs, &c. as the cafe may be. in 
cafes of injury accompanied with force, tlie law, topuniftr 
the breach of the peace, and'prevent its aifturbance, pro¬ 
vided a procefs againft the defendant’s perfon, in cafe lie 
neglected to appear on the procefs of attachment againft; 
his goods, or had no fubftance whereby to be attached ; 
fubjedling his body to imprifonment by this writ of capias 
ad refpondendum. 3 Rep. 12. Blit the immunity of the 
defendants, 
