Capitation or Poli/-tax, ammg ike Jewt, Moses ordained (Exod. xxx, 13) that every Israelite should pay half a shekel /br hie toul, or person, as a redemp- tion, ** that there might be no plague among the peo- ple, when they were numbered." Many interpreters are of opinion that this payment was designed to take place as often as the people were numbered ; and that this payment of the half shekel per head being evaded when David numl)ered his subjects, God punished the neglect with a pestilence (2 Sun. xxiv, 1). But it is more generally thought that Moses laid this tax on all the people, payable yearly, for the maintenance of the tabernacle, for the sacrifices, wood, oil, wine, flour, habits, and subsistence of the priests and Levites. In our Saviour's time the tribute was punctually paid. See Didrachma. The Israelites, when returned fhmi Babylon, paid one third part of a shekel to the Temple, being disabled, probably, at that time, by poverty, from doing more (Nehem. x, 8!2). The rabbins observe that the Jews in general, and even the priests, except wom- en, children under thirteen yean of age, and slaves, were liable to pay the half shekeL The collectors de- manded it in the be^^ning of Nisan, but used no com- pulsion till the Passover, when they either constrained its payment or took security for it After the de- struction of the Temple, the Jews were compelled to pay the half shekel to the temple of Jupiter Capitoli- nus. — Calmet See Assessment.
Capito,WoLFOANO Fabriciits, an eminent coad- jutor of (Ecolampadius and Bucer in the Reformation, was bom at Haguenau in 1478, studied medicine, and afterward theology, and became D.D. at Freiburg^ 1606. His father's name was Kdpfsteln, and he was a blacksmith, whence the name Fabricios. For a while he was lecturer in the University of Freiburg, and in 1612 he became parish priest at Bruchsal, where he studied Hebrew with a converted Jew, made the ao- qaintance of (Ecolampadius, and was led to the study of Luther's writings. Called to the cathedral at Biu sle, he there became intimate with Erasmus ; and in his lectures to the students on Romans he showed re- formatory tendencies. In 1620 he became chaplain to Albrecht, elector and archbishop of Mayence, whom he defended, gently, against one of Luther's attacks, on account of the traflic in indulgences. Luther (Jan. 17, 1622) sharply rebuked Capito as a time-server. Stung, and perhaps convicted, Capito abandoned Mayence (1623), and took up a prebend there which Leo X had
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CAPPEL
giten him. At Stnsbarg Capitols prodenoe led him to , modente tiie seal of Zell and other reformers ; but he soon became himMlf ardent and earnest in the cause. Fnm that time on he was one of the .most efficient of all the coadjutors of Luther. In 1524 he married. In 1590 he took part in preparing the Confeatio TetrapoU- tam (q. v.). Hb timidity, however, often drew on him the leproaches of Luther. In 1586 he had an interview with Calvin, at which he endeavored to bring about inch a modification of the Genevan views on the sub- ject of the Lord's Supper as might lead to a better un- dostanding with the Lutherans. He died of the plague in 1541. He wrote many wwks, among them a Vila (Eeolampa£ij EmtmUionei ff» Hahacuch et Hoteam (Stnsb. 1526 and 1528), and Besponsio de mtfta, ma- trmom>d jure maffutraiut in reU^t<mem (1597), Capito wu a very learned man, and was in advance of his contemporaries also in toleration. See Baum, Capito imd BuUer^ Strastburg't Rrformaioren (8d vol. of £e- hen wd amgewdhUe Schryien der Vdter der reform. Kireke [Elbcrfeld, I860]); Adami, Vit, Theolog. 41; Henog, Real-Encffhhpddie^ 11, 561 ; Middleton, Evan- yBad Biography, i, 147 ; BibUoth, Sacra, Jan. 1861.
Capitnlaries (capUulOy chapters), a term applied especially to the statutes of the Prankish kings made in the assemblies of bishops and lords of the kingdom, and called capiiula because published in chapters. The bishops reduced into the form of articles such rules as they deemed necessary, taken for the most part from the canons. The temporal lords also drew up on their part ordinances taken from the civil laws and customs, which the king afterward ratified and confirm- ed. These capitularies were in force throughout the iungdom. Those best known are the capitulars of Chariemagne and Louis le Debonnaire, which were first collected by Ansegis (q. v.) A.D. 827. The work is divided into four books, to which, about 845, Bene- dict, a deacon of Bfayence, added some which Ansegis had omitted, together with the capitulars of Carloman and Pepin. In the eighth and following centuries, biahops were accustomed to give the names of capitu- laries to the rules which they drew up from the can- ons of councils for the regulation of their dioceses. Such capitularies had no force beyond the particular diocese for which they were made, except they were confirmed by a provincial synod, which made them bfaiding on the whole province. Other prelates, how- erer, sometimes adopted the capitularies of particular biahops. An edition of the early capitularies was printed by Baluze (Paris, 1677, 2 vols. 4to), reprinted and re-edited by Chiniac, 1780; the latest and best editbn is found in Pertz, Momtm, Germ, Hist, (Legwn), 1 1, ii (Hanover, 1885-1887).— Farrar, Ecd, Did. s. v. ; Henog, Beai-Encyldopadk, ii, 563.