CAPPA. – Originally, it was a wide sleeveless cloak, often provided with a hood, covering the entire person; it was used from antiquity through the entire Middle Ages as an outer garment against the elements and for travel, both by laypeople and ecclesiastics.
For laypeople, it indeed became almost a mark of serious persons, when young men adopted tight-fitting garments, particularly during wartime.
When the mendicant Orders arose, they wore it open at the front with a large hood that draped around the shoulders, forming a kind of short cape. Both laypeople and ecclesiastics wore it trimmed with fur around the head and shoulders. While monks used the cowl as their choir habit, other religious wore either the surplice, the *cappa*, or simply the habit of their Order.
The popes, before the use of the mozzetta with a hood over the rochet was introduced in Avignon, used in the Middle Ages a *cappa* of red serge trimmed with ermine, which was worn until Pius VI only during the Matins of the Sacred Triduum and Good Friday; while on solemn occasions they wore the great mantle, broader and more precious than the simple cope.
Cardinals wear the *cappa* of ceremony entirely identical to that of bishops: it consists of a long train with a large hood that drapes around the shoulders in the form of a short cape, closed at the front; in winter, a second short cape of white fur is placed over the hood, also trimming II.
The mantle is entirely closed except for a single longitudinal opening at the front of the chest through which the hands may pass; thus, to use the arms more freely, the *cappa* was sometimes rolled up on the forearms. To distinguish cardinals from other prelates, they were granted the use of a *cappa* of red-purple color; this occurred under Paul II (or, according to others, even from the time of Boniface VIII); however, during Advent, Lent, vigils, and days of strict penance, the color of the *cappa* is violet. The fabric is always of watered silk (*amoena*); of violet wool on Good Friday and days of strict penance. Cardinals elected from monastic or mendicant Orders wear a *cappa* of wool in the color of their Order; those from the regular clergy wear purple and violet *cappae* like their colleagues, but always of wool.
Bishops in their dioceses wear a violet *cappa* of the same form as that of cardinals, of wool or silk, while the upper part, when not covered by fur, is always of cream-colored silk; in the Curia, they wear either the *cappa* in the manner of prelates or the mantelletta. Religious wear the *cappa*, like the cassock, mantelletta, and mozzetta, in the color of their Order; until recently, they did not use the rochet except by special concession, but now such concession is widely granted.
Prelates also wear the *cappa* over the violet cassock and rochet; however, it is never worn loose but is wrapped around the body, passed under the left arm, and held in place by a ribbon hanging from the shoulders beneath the short cape. This is how it is worn by prelates of the court and Curia: the vice-camerlengo, auditor, and treasurer of the Apostolic Chamber (prelates of the *fiocchetto*); the protonotaries *de numero* and *supra numerum*, the clerics of the Chamber, domestic prelates, canons of the patriarchal basilicas, the voters and referendaries of the Segnatura, and even bishops present in the Curia. By papal concession, canons of certain metropolitan or cathedral churches, particularly those assimilated to protonotaries, and canons of some of the minor Roman basilicas, also wear this *cappa* in their dioceses. However, chamberlains and secret chaplains do not have this right, for whom the solemn ceremonial garment is the *crocchia*.
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CAPPADOCIA. – A Roman province situated on the Anatolian plateau, with its capital at the free city of Caesarea (today Kayseri). Its borders were Galatia, Pontus, Armenia, Cilicia, and Lycaonia.
There were Jews from Cappadocia among those who heard the first sermon of St. Peter (Acts 2:9), and the same apostle addresses his first letter to the faithful of Cappadocia, which may have been evangelized by St. Paul during his journey to Galatia. In the 2nd century, the Legio Fulminata, which included Christian soldiers, was stationed in Caesarea. This city was already a bishopric by at least the year 200, since at that time its bishop Alexander, a former disciple of Pantaenus and Clement in the School of Alexandria, was arrested during the persecution of Septimius Severus. The influence of the Alexandrians was further strengthened by the fact that Firmilian, bishop of Caesarea (d. 264), was a disciple of Origen. This explains why the theology of the three great Cappadocians bears such affinity with that of Alexandria. Another contributing factor was that the paternal grandmother of St. Basil, Macrina, had been a disciple of St. Gregory Thaumaturgus, another ardent follower of Origen.
In the 4th century, Cappadocia was exposed to the controversies of the Arian dispute. After Diogenes and Eusebius, St. Basil the Great (q.v.) was consecrated bishop of Caesarea in 370, and with his brother St. Gregory of Nyssa and his friend St. Gregory of Nazianzus, he constitutes the most brilliant glory of Christian Cappadocia. Basil’s stance in favor of orthodoxy and against the machinations of the Arians provoked the wrath of Valens, who spent the winter of 371–72 in Cappadocia and vainly sought to intimidate Basil through the prefect of the East, Modestus. Basil became the focal point of orthodoxy throughout all of Asia Minor. In spite and to diminish his influence, Valens divided the province of Cappadocia, creating a second province with its capital at Tyana, whose bishop sought to escape the metropolitan jurisdiction of Caesarea. Basil then multiplied the number of episcopal sees in his province. Centuries of Turkish domination have completely obliterated Christianity in Cappadocia. Only the paintings of the ancient rock-hewn churches remain.
Monastic life, which began in Cappadocia through the efforts of Eustathius in the 4th century, was later practiced by St. Basil, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and other monks for whom St. Basil composed rules that for the first time legislated on cenobitic monasticism.