CAPITOLINS, a term of reproach given to the Christians, as well by many of the heretics as by the heathens, from their receiving into their communion again, upon their sincere repentance, such as went to the Capitol to offer up sacrifices.-Bing. Orig. Eccl. b. i. c. 2, s. 3.

CAPITO, a distinguished dialectician of the thirteenth century, who, in conjunction with Albertus Magnus, Thomas Aquinas, and Bonaventura, greatly contributed by his learned labours to the reconciliation between mysticism and the philosophy of the schools.

CAPITULUM, a term used by ecclesiastical writers to denote that part of a chapter in the Bible which is read and explained. Thus they say, ire ad capitulum, to go to such a lecture. Hence the place, or apartment, in which such theological exercises were given, was denominated domus capituli.

CAPUCHINS, a religious order who adhere to the rule of St. Francis with the strictest observance. They take their name from the capuce or capuchon, a cap or cowl which they wear on their heads. The monastic orders, in the sixteenth century, having become greatly relaxed in their discipline, and their lives and morals equally corrupted, many, but for the most part fruitless, attempts were made to bring about their restoration. Among others, Matthew de Bassi, or Baschi, a religious observant of the monastery of Montefiascone, zealously applied himself to restore the original rules of the Franciscan order to their primitive austerity, pretending that he had several times been advertised from heaven to practise them to the letter. For this purpose, therefore, in the year 1525, he made application to Pope Clement VII., who gave him permission to found an order with as many others as chose to retire with him into solitude, and embrace this strict observance. In 1528 they obtained the bull of the Pope, and in the following year the order was fully established, and De Bassi elected their general. The vows taken by this order implied the greatest contempt of the world and its enjoyments, and the most profound humility, accompanied with the greatest austerity and gravity of manners. Hence its reputation and success were soon such as to excite the most bitter feelings of indignation and envy among the Franciscans in general.

The privilege of preaching was taken from the Capuchins by Pope Paul III., in the year 1543, but was afterwards restored to them by the same Pope, in 1545. They soon became very numerous; and so early as the year 1578 there were seventeen general chapters of the order; and in 1700 there appeared to be, in France alone, about six thousand Capuchins,

who were in the possession of three hundred and twenty-nine convents. The whole order has been computed to contain 30,000 souls, divided into 1800 houses, and forming thirty-eight provinces.-See Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. XVI. Part I. sect. 3.

CAPUTIATI, one of the numerous sects which arose in the twelfth century. They were chiefly known in France, and were called Caputiati from the cap or capuce they wore, as the badge of their order, and on which they bore a leaden image of the Virgin Mary.

These fanatics principally infested the province of Burgundy, where they excited great disturbance among the people, publicly declaring that their object was to level all distinctions, to abolish the magistracy, to remove all subordination whatsoever, and to restore that primitive liberty and natural equity that were the privileges of mankind. Mosheim remarks that Hugo, Bishop of Auxerre, attacked these disturbers of human society in the proper manner-employing against them the force of arms, instead of arguments.Eccl. Hist. Cent. XII. Part II.

CARAITES, a religious sect among the Jews, whose distinguished tenet and practice it is to adhere closely to the words and very letter of the Scriptures, rejecting the interpretations of the Rabbins, the Cabbala, and all traditions whatsoever. Hence a schism arose; those who maintained the Cabbala, Talmud, &c., being called Rabbinists or Talmudists, and those who rejected all these being denominated Caraites or Scripturists, from cara or micra, which signifies the pure text of the Bible.

Aben Ezra, and some others, consider the Caraites as Sadducees; but Leo de Juda calls them Sadducees reformed, from their belief in the immortality of the soul, and other scriptural doctrines, which the Sadducees denied. Others, with more probability, believe they were reproached by the rest of the Jews with the name of Sadducees, merely from their agreement with these on the subject of traditions. Caleb, himself a Caraite, makes the difference between the Caraites and the Rabbinists to consist in three points: 1. In their denying the oral law to have been derived from Moses, and their rejection of the Cabbala; 2. In their abhorrence of the Talmud; and, 3. In their more rigorous observance of the Sabbaths, feasts, &c.

CARDINAL, from cardo, a hinge, is an appellation given to any thing to mark its pre-eminence; as the four cardinal virtues, the cardinal winds, &c. But the term is more particularly applied to an ecclesiastic in the Church of Rome who is a member of the conclave, and as such has a voice

a short purple mantle, and, upon extraordinary occasions, the mozette, and a papal cap' over it. The colour of their garment is either red or violet. The red cap was first worn at the council of Lyons, in the year 1243.

By the decree of Pope Urban VIII., in the year 1630, it is directed that the cardinals should be addressed by the title of eminence, previous to which time they were styled most illustrious. They have long been esteemed as holding a rank next in order to the Pope, by whom they are frequently employed in carrying on negociations with foreign powers. They are then usually designated legates à latere; and when appointed the governors of towns, &c., their government is called by the name of legation. Claudius Saumaise has a very learned discussion on the origin of cardinals, in his book De Primitu Papæ, p. 10; see also Du Cange, Onuphrius, and Mosheim's Eccl. Hist. Cent. XI. Part II. and Cent. XVI. sect. 3, Part I.; see also article Conclave.

CARMATHITES, the disciples of Carmath, a celebrated impostor who appeared in the ninth century, and whom his followers looked upon as a prophet sent by God to overthrow the doctrines of Mahomet. Carmath enjoined and practised himself a very great austerity of life, and declared that God himself had commanded him to offer up prayers, not five times, like the followers of Mahomet, but fifty times, a-day. In opposition to the Mahometans, they ate many things forbidden by their law, and thought that all their actions were under the guidance of guardian angels, but that demons or ghosts delighted in injuring them.

CARMELITES, or THE ORDER OF OUR LADY OF MOUNT CARMEL, a religious order, being one of the four tribes of mendicant or begging friars. They take their name from Mount Carmel, celebrated in Scripture as the abode of the prophets Elijah and Elisha, from whom they pretend to have descended in an uninterrupted succession. In several ecclesiastical authors, whose zeal for the antiquity and reputation of this fraternity have induced them to adopt without hesitation the greatest and most puerile absurdities, we have histories as ridiculous as they are circumstantial of the origin, the founder, and all the revolutions of this famous order. Elias, they say, became a monk under the ministry of angels; that his first disciples were Jonah, Micah, and Obadiah; and that the wife of the last of these, having bound herself by a vow of chastity, received the veil from the hands of Elias himself, and became the first abbess of the Carmelite order. They tell us, also, that Pythagoras was a member of this order, and that he drew