A new order for Banqueroupts.  
Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vinetree by Thomas Dawson, for Thomas Charred.  
1582.   

A notable decree of the Lords of the Parliament house of Paris, bearing date the 26. of june, 1582. Pronounced against William Buhigue, containing a punishment for Banquerouptes, namely the wearing of a green Cap or Hat.  
BEfore I come to the setting down of the sentence pronounced by the Lieutenant of La val, one of the jurisdiction of the presidentall seat of Poytow▪ either of the confirmative decree of the Parliament house of Paris, ratifying the said sentence, I thought it good (gentle reader) in few words, to describe the part of a creditor towards his debtor, as also the charge of a debtor towards him that have been beneficial unto him by relieving his want with his goods, whether gold, silver, or other commodity, to the end, by this brief collection and advertisement, each party may consider his office and duty, and so, better late than never, reconcile himself to God and his neighbour, during his pilgrimage in this vain and transitory life, which being ended, our God will (as all men know) require an account how every one hath dealt in his vocation and office, how simple so ever it hath been, and in the latter day of judgement, yield the reward due to his deserts, except by speedy repentance before the said judgement he reconcile himself. For God being just and perfect goodness, extendeth his mercy upon thousand generations of those that unfeignedly do love him and obey his commandments which he hath left, and willed his faithful servants and Apostles to preach unto us, and punisheth only to the fourth generation such as of set purpose do disobey & transgress his precepts, for more acceptable is obedience than sacrifice, & better it is to obey God then man. The part therefore of a creditor toward his debtor, consisteth in lending unto him that thing whereof he standeth in need, and which the creditor may with least loss best spare, without looking for any amends, or requiring any reward for the time of the lone thereof, therein putting in practice that Christian charity, which by God and his Church is taught in these words, Mutuum dantes, nihil inde sperantes, lend looking for nothing again, together with many other places of the old & new Testament, and Canonical & Apostolical epistles, continued in the doctrine of many learned fathers of the Christian Church, both old and new, whereunto every man is bound to conform himself, in case he be endued with any jot of judgement, or beareth any dutiful affection unto his salvation.  
But such is the malice of our days, that creditors in their lending, will so greatly regard their own commodity, that if they lend, it shallbe to the end, of their debtor to receive double the value, as in delivering but mean commodities, & to receive again the best: In delivering of rye, oats, or barley, to claim again pure and clean wheat: either to deliver their old wines full of all sorts of dregs, yea for the most part sour or foystie, and again, to require that which shall be new and of a perfect good vintage.  
They sell their clothes and other wares at a high and dear price, when in troth they be but little worth, giving their debtors so short days, as to their undoing, they be forced again to sell them, yea for the most part by brokers to those of whom they first bought them, for little or nothing.  
Others there are that deliver forth money, or other commodities from fair to fair, from 3. months to three months, after ten in the hundred or more, to the utter impoverishing of their debtors. To be brief, the Devil and his supposses in the shape of men, have by their subtlety invented infinite kinds of usury: wherewith like ravening wolves they still devour their poor debtors, that are driven to submit themselves to their faith and charitable courtesies, who in the end are thereby brought to utter beggary, and undoing without redemption, which is a woeful and lamentable case. Yea, in the good towns and other places, each one maintaineth those people, and cloak their offences, or at the least dare not speak of them for fear of being stung by the like villainous vipers whereof the world is full: for usually those be the soon preferred to honours and dignities whereof in truth they be utterly unworthy: therefore for those that are manifestly known to be such letters forth of goods, there were no reason their debtors should incur the sentence and decree hereafter rehearsed, especially when it is evident wherein the debtors have by such ravening wolves and their detestable brood been circumvented, deceived and entangled with debt upon debt unto the full value and extent of all their goods. Oh poor, miserable, and wretched sheep, who having yielded fleze, skin and flesh, do hardly reserve the bare bones, which rattle up and down the Cities, Towns, and villages, where they remain within the reach of such wild & cruel beasts, as encroach up the whole world.  
Howbeit as such debtors are by justice, to be relieved and defended against that kind of people, who in every City and town do bear the whole sway both in wealth, honour, and dignity, so must we not therefore maintain a number of subtle shifters, which using all fair pretences & colourable flattering speeches, do abuse and deceive both here and elsewhere, many well meaning merchants, such as being of a frank, good, & upright disposition do think that all others do resemble them. These crafty conveyars by borowing reiterated and renewed ofter than need requireth, and that in sundry places, and of divers persons for fear of descrying, yea & in greater sums than their power or ability will bear, one creditor nothing knowing of another, when the days of payment draw on, will not find wherewith to satisfy even she smallest sum wherewith they have been helped: but then to avoid imprisonment, (therein counterfeiting the glutted and drunken Ape, which after drink hoppeth up & down) do leap from place to place, and according to the proverb, come to set their tails upon the stone, which by law & justice is appointed for the session & delivery of all their goods to their creditors, whom to the same intent, they cause to be summoned to the sight of that their miserable benefit: which interdiction of law, tending to the relief of the good & not to the boulstering up of such fraudulent debtors, as are last mentioned, is founded upon the edict of Orleans, though in that respect but simply executed throughout most part of this land, where every one indifferently, which seeketh to deceive his creditor, is upon his own only petition, admitted to the benefit of session of goods, bringing in for the true value thereof, no other witness than himself can choose among his friends or favourable neighbours, without other circumstance or solemmity, then during the sitting to assist & hold plea barehead upon the said stone.  
Hereunto hath this court at this time had great & diligent respect, to the end, hereafter to cut off such shifts and wicked dealings, for the relief of honest, and in deed charitable creditors, and therefore in confirmation of the sentence of the ordinary judge of Laual, have decreed that from henceforth, every one that will sue for the admission, to the benefit of session of goods, shall wear a green Cap or Hat, which his creditors shall buy him.  
And for this time, William Buhigue to begin with the wearing of the same, which shall be provided him, by Marin the Monk, defendant and withstander of the said session of goods, to the end, as well the said Buhigue, as all other of his profession may be known, and the world thereby warned of his or their said session, which by the wise advice of the chief precedent Thou, together with the grave, learned, & experimented Senators, his assistants in the great chamber, who are not to seek in the like cases practised among the Romans, and contained in their histories and secrets of law, is commanded to be put in execution. This decree is taken a simili, namely of the ancient manner of the Romans, practised upon such as had incurred any great loss by land or by water, as piracy, drowning, fire, or robbery, or any such like, as we may in these days term those extremities, whereto our Master usurers by means and diuises aforesaid, together with infinite others, enough, if a man should stand upon them all, to replenish hole volumes, do reduce and drive the poor: whose practice at this time is so manifest, that there needeth no more but the prince's commission, directed to faithful officers, to make general inquiry thereof, lest they do hereafter as horseleeches, even suck up the marrow of the poor, and be drunken with their blood, yea the prince must use them according to the sense of the Emblem, where standing with a sponge in his hand, and wring out of every drop of the water therein, he giveth to understand, that in like manner he is to use all such as fill & enrich themselves with his treasure, or the substance of his poor commons, whom with their subtle slights and practices, catching at their goods, they wring as dry as a bone.  
The Romans I say, used plainly and at large to paint and set out the miseries, and inconveniences or losses, which such men had any way sustained, and then to cause the party endamaged, to carry up and down this table, wherein his loss was portrayed upon his shoulders, whereby every man might know his loss, and consider of his desert, and so if need were to relieve him, or otherwise to beware of committing to his hand that thing which he was not able to keep or make account of, as the satirical Poet Persius, and after him more at large his expositor Murmelius do rehearse. Upon this ground have this court at this present, in confirmation of this sentence of the aforesaid judge of La val of the jurisdiction of the seat of Poitow, determined and decreed that the Banquerupte William Buhigue shall from henceforth wear a green Cap or Hat, at the cost of Marin the Monk defendant, upon the allowance of his letters of session, and that only to the end, the said Banqueroupt may in all places be known, as were those men at Rome, which carried upon their shoulders the picture of their mishap, whereby the people might afterward know them: Such therefore is the excellency of this sentence, that it deserveth confirmation throughout all this land, against such Banquerupts, as forcing them to wear a green cap or hat, as a badge of their disorders, yea and to be for perpetuity inserted into the very heart of the civil & canon law, also by virtue of the princes perpetual & irrevocable edict, for ever to be ratified word for word, after the order & form of the said decree and sentence, as followeth.  

An abstract out of the records and ordinary register of the court & jurisdiction of La Vall.  
Between William Bughigue, prisoner in the castle of La Val, challenger of the fire of session of goods at this present, by his Attorney M. Francis Belangier Licentiate in the laws on the one part: and Marin the Monk appellant there against, personally and by his Attorney M. john Sercoul, likewise licenciate in the laws on the other part.  
The parties heard, & the said appellant by his declaration, not able to prove any concealment of goods, as by him hath been into this court intimated, we do debar and condemn in costs and damages, and in respect thereof, have amerced him at forty shillings tournois.  
Moreover, in as much as the said appellant, cannot produce sufficient cause why the said Buhigue should not be admitted to the said benefit of session, our sentence is, that presently he be dismissed out of prison, and so brought into this court personally to receive the said benefit. Hereupon the said Buhigue, being come into the face of this court▪ hath wholly resigned and made session of all his goods to his creditors, and acknowledgeth the whole sum by this appellant demanded, faithfully promising upon the bettering of his estate, to satisfy all his creditors, and affirming that he hath not any other goods whatsoever, than what presently he beareth about him. Also that fraudulently he hath not made conveyance of any away. In consideration therefore of the premises we have, and by these presents do grant the said benefit of session unto the aforenamed William Buhigue, as well for all sums demanded, as for his lodging and fees.  
We do also at the instance of the appellant, the Monk aforesaid, decree and ordain, that for the manifest knowledge hereof, the said William Buhigue shall from henceforth in all places, and at all times wear a green Cap or hat, which the said the Monk shall provide for him. Also that when, or wheresoever the said Buhigue shallbe found without the said Cap or Hat, after that the aforesaid, the Monk shall have made delivery thereof to him, it shall be lawful for the said the Monk, or any other his creditors to commit him to prison, commanding our chief usher, upon reasonable request to see this our decree fully and in all parts executed according as is most requisite, and thereto do give him full power and authority.  
Given at La Val, in the presence of us, Francis Tartrous, Licentiat in the laws, and Lieutenant general in the jurisdiction of the said place, this 9 of September. 1580. Thus signed. Morayne.  
FInally, this court by decree hath disannulled all appeals here against, without costs or damages, and do ordain that notwithstanding whatsoever appeal, the said sentence shall stand in full force and power.  
Given in full plea the 26. of june. 1582.   
Hereby it is evident that Annuells, 
Annuells & Quinquenelles are yearly, and five yearly protections for debts.  Quinquennells, and cessions of goods ought not slightly to be granted, or permitted to every one that will sue for the same before a judge, for the causes and considerations before mentioned: for Annuels' and Quinquennels, are no other but the two steps whereby debtors do climb to Banqerouptshippe, or session of goods; endeavouring by such devices and privileges to defeat their wretched creditors of such commodities, as simply and on good faith they have lent them. Also under such cloaks, shadowing their false intentes, and maintaining their credits to the uttermost: which is an easy matter to do, unless the green Cap or Hat be to the same conjoined, as an evident token thereof, according as by the sentence is provided, which together with the decree, confirmative thereof, deserveth perpetual remembrance and honour, as the mean whereby the posterity may know such as look so simply to their affairs, or fraudulently seek to defeat their creditors of their right, that they be forced to submit themselves to the dishonourable wearing of a green Cap or Hat under pain of imprisonment on the behalf of their creditors, so often as they be found destitute thereof.  
Which nevertheless is not meant to tend to any such note of infamy as thereby to be debarred or rejected from lawful witnessing, or bearing such office or authority, as otherwise they might be capable of, in case all other their behaviour were correspondence. Neither ought any Annuels', Quinquenelles, or session of goods to be otherwise taken, tolerated and allowed, then for mischances happening through fire, water, wars, or such like, when without doubt, by some inevitable inconvenience, the loss of all or most part of a man's goods do thereto drive and enforce the petitioner, not his own manifest negligence or wilful waist, and so to have recourse to those means, yea sometimes before that debt be due, for the which they sue out the said Annuells, Quinquenelles, respites, or cessions of goods: during the allowance of which suits, they shall not be forced to put into the officers hands those sums of money which they own, except the said suit be compassed after condemnation. Neither is the suitor to be imprisoned, after he hath procured his creditors to be summoned to appear at the admission of the said Annuells, and Quinquenelles, but being so imprisoned, is to be released and set at lebertie.  
Father, a man condemned for trespass in amends, is not receivable to the Session of goods. Many other things are also to be considered before any be forced to the said session in respect of the interest that sundry creditors have thereto: and therefore it is meet that any appear at the suit commenced and prosecuted against the debtor for detaining his person, by reason he hath no goods (as is to be presupposed) wherewith to pay: but if he have any, them he ought to confess them to his creditor, to the end, be may therewith be satisfied according to reason. All which notwithstanding, it is to be noted, that a man giving up his goods in manner aforesaid, can not be taxed with any spot of infamy, rejected from witnessing on any behalf, or made incapable of bearing such office as otherwise he might, or by right aught to enjoy.  
For session of goods simply, is a favour to the poor, and by law admitted for sundry commendable respects, and therefore is not to breed contempt against those that by poverty, or other inconvenience are forced to submit themselves to such extremity of law.  
This therefore may be a sufficient warning to all creditors, wisely and christian-like, to use their duty as is before specified: also to such needy debtors, that in time they have recourse to others according to reason, before they be compelled to wear a green Cap or Hat at their creditors costs, as by this former decree, confirmative of the sentence of the abovenamed ordinary judge of La val, the day and year aforesaid, it is both learnedly, circumspectly, and wisely ordained.  
Let this therefore serve as an example to all wis●, discreet, and wary persons in every common wealth. Farewell friendly reader, and take in good worth this simple discourse: grounded upon the said sentence and decree.  
FINIS.   

Imprinted at London at the three Cranes in the Vinetree by Thomas Dawson, for Thomas Charred. 1582.