Cape (writ)

In archaic English law, a cape was a judicial writ concerning a plea of lands and tenements; so called, as most writs are, from the word which carried the chief intention of the writ.
The writ was divided into "cape magnum", or the "grand cape", and "cape parvum", or the "petit cape". While they were alike in their effect, as to taking hold of immovable things, they differed in the following circumstances: first, in that the "cape magnum" lay before, and the "cape parvum" after; second, "cape magnum" summoned the defendant to answer to the default, in addition to answering to the plaintiff, while "cape parvum" only summoned the defendant to answer to the default. It might have been called "petit cape", not because of small force, but because it was contained in few words.
"Cape magnum" was defined in the "Old Natura Brevium" as follows:
"Cape parvum" was defined was thus defined, Ibid.
"Cape ad valentiam", a species of "cape magnum" so called from the end to which it tends, was thus described,