CAPPEL  , a

French family which produced some distinguished jurists and theologians in the 15th and 16th centuries . In 1491, Guillaume Cappel, as rector of the university of Paris, protested against a tithe which Innocent VIII. claimed from that body . His nephew, Jacques Cappel (d . 154,), the real founder of the family, was himself advocate-general at the parlement of Paris, and in a celebrated address delivered before the court in 1537, against the emperor Charles V., claimed for Francis I. the counties of Artois, Flanders and Charolais . He left nine children, of whom three became Protestants . The eldest, Jacques (1529-1586), sieur du Tilloy, wrote several treatises on jurisprudence . Louis (1534-1586), sieur de Moriambert, the fifth son, was a most ardent Protestant . In 1570 he presented a confession of faith to Charles IN. in the name of his co-religionists . He disputed at Sedan before the duc de Bouillon with the Jesuit, Jean Maldonat (1534-1583), and wrote in de-fence of Protestantism . The seventh son, Ange (1537-1623), seigneur du Luat, was secretary to Henry IV., and enjoyed the esteem of Sully . Among those who remained Catholic should be mentioned Guillaume, the translator of Machiavelli . The eldest son Jacques also left two sons, famous in the history of Protestantism:—Jacqucs (157o-1624), pastor of the church founded by himself on his fief of le Tilloy and afterwards at Sedan, where he became professor of Hebrew, distinguished as historian, philologist and exegetical scholar; and Louis (see below) .

On the protest of Guillaume Cappel, see Du Bellay, Historia Universitatis Parisiensis, vol. v . On the family, see the

sketch by another Jacques Cappel, " De Capellorum gente," in the Cornmentarii et notae criticae in Vetus Testamentum of Louis Cappel, his father (Amsterdam, 1689) . Consult Eugene and Emile Haag, La France protestante, vol. iii . (new edition, 1881) .