Definition
In old English law, *festa in cappis* (literally, "feasts in caps") referred to grand or solemn holidays on which cathedral and collegiate choirs wore their ceremonial caps as part of the formal observance. These were distinguished feast days within the ecclesiastical calendar that carried procedural significance in English legal and court administration, particularly regarding the suspension of ordinary legal business.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is primarily a term of ecclesiastical and legal calendar history rather than substantive doctrine. Researchers encounter it most often in early English legal sources when tracing the historical practice of dies non juridici — days on which courts did not sit and legal proceedings could not be conducted. The ecclesiastical calendar directly regulated court schedules in medieval and early modern England; understanding which days qualified as solemn feasts helps explain gaps or delays in early court records. If a researcher is working with plea rolls, year books, or other pre-modern English court documents and encounters unexplained procedural pauses, the feast-day calendar, including festa in cappis, may supply the explanation. The term will not appear in modern legal materials and has no operative legal meaning in any contemporary jurisdiction.
Historical Dictionary Support
Both editions of Black's Law Dictionary give identical substantive content: "Grand holidays, on which choirs wore caps," with attribution to Jacob (Giles Jacob's *Law Dictionary*, a standard reference source for both Black editions). The second edition appends the related maxim *Festinatio justitiæ est noverca infortunii* — "Hasty justice is the stepmother of misfortune" — drawn from Hobart 97, which appears to have been placed in proximity to this entry by alphabetical accident rather than conceptual connection. Neither edition develops the term beyond a single sentence, reflecting its status as a historical curiosity preserved in legal dictionaries rather than a working legal concept. Jacob's original entry, as filtered through Black's, supplies no procedural detail about which specific feast days qualified or what legal consequences attached to them. Researchers requiring fuller treatment should consult ecclesiastical history sources and medieval English court calendar scholarship rather than relying on the legal dictionary tradition alone.
Jurisdictional Note
Specific to old English ecclesiastical and court practice. No parallel usage exists in American law, and the term carries no operative meaning in any modern common law jurisdiction.