Definition
A writ of English ecclesiastical and common law origin, directed to the sheriff, commanding the arrest and delivery of an apostate — a member of a religious order who had abandoned or violated the rules of that order — into the custody of the relevant abbot or prior. The writ functioned as an instrument of enforcement for monastic discipline, allowing ecclesiastical superiors to reclaim runaway or disobedient members of religious houses through the coercive machinery of royal authority. It is entirely obsolete.
Common Confusion
APOSTATA CAPIENDO is sometimes encountered in proximity to the writ DE APOSTATA CAPIENDO, which is the fuller form of the same writ. Burrill's cross-reference confirms this relationship. Researchers encountering either form in historical sources should treat them as referring to the same instrument. The truncated form (apostata capiendo) appears in some register entries and secondary references; the full style (de apostata capiendo) is more common in formal writ collections and pleading records.
Why It Matters in Research
This term appears almost exclusively in historical sources predating the Reformation. Its practical relevance collapsed with the dissolution of the English monasteries under Henry VIII in the 1530s and 1540s, which eliminated the religious houses whose discipline the writ was designed to enforce. Any researcher encountering apostata capiendo in a primary source is almost certainly working with pre-Reformation ecclesiastical or common law records.
The writ illustrates a broader category of medieval English law that treated monastic vows as legally cognizable obligations enforceable through royal courts — a jurisdictional arrangement that has no modern counterpart. Researchers tracing the intersection of ecclesiastical authority and common law process in the medieval period will find this writ useful as an example of cooperation between church governance and crown enforcement, a dynamic that changed fundamentally after the Reformation.
The Registrum Omnium Brevium (Reg. Orig.) cited by Black's is the authoritative register of original writs and is the primary source for the writ's formal text and usage. Researchers working through historical writ registers should note that entries for ecclesiastical writs of this type are scattered across multiple sections and are not always indexed under modern search-friendly headings.
Because Burrill's entry is truncated (pointing only to the fuller form of the writ without substantive explanation), researchers relying solely on Burrill's may underestimate the writ's discrete identity in the historical record. Black's provides the more complete treatment for initial orientation.
Historical Dictionary Support
Black's Law Dictionary is the more informative of the two sources here. It identifies the writ's addressee (the sheriff), its command (delivery of the apostate), its recipient (the abbot or prior), and its controlling authority (Reg. Orig. 71, 267), with supplementary references to Jacob and Wharton. This is a functionally complete description of the writ's mechanics.
Burrill's Law Dictionary provides only a cross-reference to DE APOSTATA CAPIENDO and adds no independent analysis. This is consistent with Burrill's general approach of consolidating variant forms under the fuller writ name, but it means Burrill contributes little beyond confirming the relationship between the two forms.
Neither dictionary engages with the historical context that gives the writ meaning — namely, the legal status of monastic vows in medieval England, the jurisdictional relationship between ecclesiastical courts and common law courts, or the writ's disappearance following the Reformation. Researchers should not expect the historical dictionaries to supply that context; it must be drawn from legal histories of the medieval church and the common law.
Jurisdictional Note
This writ is specific to the English common law tradition and has no counterpart in American law. It never formed part of the law of any American jurisdiction. Researchers in comparative ecclesiastical law may encounter analogous mechanisms in canon law sources, but those are distinct instruments governed by different authorities.
Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia: Ecclesiastical Writs; Monastic Law and Royal Courts; Dissolution of the Monasteries and Legal Consequences.