Multum in parvo: OR, A SUMMARY NARRATIVE (Not hitherto revealed to public view) on behalf of Prisoners captived for Debt, and of all concerned Natives: Faithfully extracted out of the Fundamental Common-law of this Nation, as well in its Original unalturedpuritie and genuine sense, as in recital of and relating to the abusive practice of divers Innovated Laws since repealed, repugnant to the Great Charter (being the Abstract or Compendium of the Common-law, and of the people's Birthrights, Liberties, and Privileges) confirmed by above 30 subsequent Acts and Statutes, Parliamental in force and unrepealed (which unfold (velamine levato) the misprision and illegallity of arresting, outlawing, & imprisoning the Body for Debt. Now in these opportune Times, (professing Reformation and Regulation of the Laws and general Grievances) presented (for timely redress) to the clement propitious consideration of His Excellency the Lord General CROMWELL, His Right Honourable the Counsel of State; and others in Authority; in the pensive Van and mournfullest March of public grievances and calamities, no sorrows being equivalent to these.  
LONDON: Printed for J. H. and are to be sold at the Royal Exchance in Corn-Hill.  
1653.   

Observations Legal.  
BY the Fundamental or Common-Law equally composed and digested between Prince and People, Creditor and Debtor, the body or person of man is exempt from Arrest, Outlawry & Imprisonment for Debt, as well before as after Judgement, and the Debtors Lands from being extended in Execution, the Common Law knowing no such course of personal Imprisonment, except in Criminal Causes or Trespasses committed with Force and Arms: it having been so resolved by all the Judges of England, as appeareth in Sir William Herbert's Case cited in the Lord Cooks third Reports.  
That neither in Process or Execution for Debt any Capias did lie against the body, this sage Judgement & result being derived and rightly grounded upon the Law of the Great Charter, Cap. 29. which doth caution and provide, That no Free man shall be taken, imprisoned, or outlawed, but by the Law of the Land then in use. Magna fuit quondam magnae reverentia Chartae. The manifest legall-motives hereof were: 1. In respect that by positive Law, the Goods Chattles, and profits of Debtors Lands, are sovert and liable to these two coercive Writs in force, (that is to say) A Fiery Facias against the Debtors Goods, and Chattles, and a Levary Facias against the profits increasing bpon the Lands of the Debtor, until satisfaction of the debt and damage recovered.  
So there is no positive Law for issuing the Capias or Exigent against the body or person in mere civil causes.  
Further Inducives of these provisional Laws probably were.  
1. First to the end, that the creditor might at his own election be rightly secured and satisfied his just debts, where the same is properly due and recoverable in the Debtors Estate real or personal, there being no other means cogitable and consistent with Law and Reason for satisfaction of Debts and Demands pecuniary; the Body, Blood, Indignity, Thraldom, and precious Liberty, and Life of Man, being an inconsistent illegal pledge or security for debt.  
2. To the end, That the person or body of man, being a participant living Member of the common wealth, may not be severed and secluded from it as a withered branch, by thraldom and incarceration for debt at the insatiate vindicture humour and passion of merciless malevolent creditors, enemies to humane-moderation, it being incongruous petulant arrogance in them to excercise and inflict such barbarous cruelty and domination over their debtors their even-christians, whether solvent or insolvent, concerning any usurious penal or pecuniary matters; violence extorted profit, by ruin or damage of others being Turpe lucrum, a vile ignominious Jewishgaine.  
3. To the end, That the body or person might always remain at liberty to exercise and intent the necessary affairs and accommodations of life and livelihood for support and subsistence of themselves, their Wives, Children, Families, and Vocations.  
4. To the end, That the body or person might be constantly in free readiness and capacity according to their best faculties & qualifications, to serve their native Country, either in Peace or War, as useful Members thereof, and the Commonwealth not be surprised of that right and privilege, and the natives untimely bereft of humane dignity and all consolations of life, through the deteiner and restraint in the living Sepulchre of a Prison, & by that means become disesteemed, like telluris onus et inutile pondus, an unprofitable burden to the earth, and a Map of misery to himself, folded after the fancy and furey of mavevolent cruel creditors.  
5. To the end, That the necessary approved Calling, consonant to the creators a wfull-ordinance imposed on lapsed man, to earn his living sudore vultus by industry and labour, principally consisting in seasonable acting and advancing tillage and agriculture, (not to be effected without toil and sweat of the most sternuous laborious rurall-people) might not by reason of personal restraint for Debt, be intercepted and discouraged in their painful endeavours for their own and the common utility and tillage approved by God and man, be impeached or suffered to decay to the helpless, ruin of the entrhalled Debtor, and all his and the unspeakable prejduce of the common wealth.  
6. To the end, That neither any Vocation, Manual or Mechanike Art, Artist, Trade, Merchandise, Mystery, or Manufactory, (being as the vital pulses, nerves, and ligaments, which cymment and secure the existence of a well-composed commonwealth, might not in any wise be dismayed diverted or frustrated of their expectations, callings, and credits, at the will of the creditor, and the same become fruitless by reason of personal captivity for debt, not terminary in any year or time of Jubilee, albeit the common Law hath (as aforesaid) prescribed and providently provided for the creditor's satisfaction of Debts and Demands pecuniary by and out of the debtor's Estate real or personal.  
7. To the end, That those excellent impartial Lawmakers, might declare themselves sensible of the divine Laws, Fiats, and Santions in that behalf, and that man's privation of that perdulce bonum, precious liberty fatally opposite and destructive to the prerecited principles and inducements, nature, reason, religion, the propagation of commonwealths, and the choicest faculties and felicities of life.  
The Petitioners further remonstrate, That these provident propitious Laws for the personal freedom of the people concerning debt, did flourish & continue in violate, the space of two hundred and twenty years, after the Norman conquest, till the thirteenth year of Edw. the first, by the Statute of West. minster 2c. 11. the first capias and process of Outlawry was introduced in formality and sucgestion, merely concerning particular persons, presupposed by that Statue to be criminal, fugitive, fraudulent Accomptants, but really and intentionally, as seemed by the sudden sad concequence innovated paulatin not visibly at once, but by degrees to invade and swallow up the people's privileges and innumities, for in the face or heels of that capias and process of Outlawry, by the eighteenth branch of the same Statute, an Elegit was added against the moiety of the Debtors Lands, being never before liable to Execution either upon Judgement or Recognizance.  
That about 60 years after, and 280 years and upwards, after the Norman conquest, Anno 25 Edw. 3. by a very short, sharp, and severe Law, the like Process was granted in Debt as in Account, and this was the first fatal blow which wounded the Great Charter, and struck at the foundation of the people's Liberties, yet it is worthy observation, that there neither was, or indeed could be framed or invented any preface or introduction to manifest or express any reason, cause, or motive, to gloss or countenance that innovation, mutation and mutilation of the Great Charter, and people's personal freedom concerning debt.  
Anno 42. Edw. 3. The same King and Parliamental counsel advisedly pondering the sad consequencies of that former cruel Act of the 25 of his reign (having been existent about eighteen years) did abrogate and repeal the same, together with the Mother in law Act, or Parent which had nursed that degenerate monster, by some reserved State policy (totally if it were possible) to neneruate and exterminate the memory of the Grand Charter and legal Privileges of the people, both root, branch, and stem, before that Act of Grace, of the same King restored and revived it, with the people's Liberties, thereby explaining and declaring all precedent or subsequent Acts, tending to the violation or infringing the same to be void and null, so una eademque manus vulnus opempue tulit, the same hand that gave the wound, recured it.  
That nevertheless, that Capias and Process in debt as in account, relating indefinitely a like to the universality of the people, they were promiscuously and incongruiously included and comprehended amongst the sort of those impeached fraudulent fugitive Accomptants, being probably some few inconsiderable number; albeit the entire Class of the people were neither Receivers or Accomptants to any, & yet by reason of that mistake or misconstructions were severed, scattered, and chased away as chaff or dust before the wind, and (ex improviso) bereft of their precious liberty and freedom, without any distinction of quality or degrees.  
That notwithstanding, the then Peers and Nobility (as is probable) either by reason of their dissaslent or interposition against that destructive innovated Act of 25 Edw. 3. or in respect of those Arcana Imperii (unsafe to contrevert) or of some other indulgent caution or connivance, did continue & enjoy their personal freedoms and privileges, from arrest and imprisonment for debt, (as of old) along the various intervals and intervemencies of Time and Government, until the late Parliament eclip said their personal Privilege, Peerage, Votes, and Suffrages.  
That during that short chasm or space of Time, wherein that inniovated Act of 25 Edw. 3. had been vigent and exercised, that dulce venenum or sweet poison of lucre exhausted from wealthy wilful Creditors, & drilled or extorted from imprisoned or bailed Debtors, had so enchanted or infested the a varitious a petites of some eminent persons, otherwise grave & judicious; & likewise the covetous desires & apprehensions of some then practic Attorneys, Under-Sheriffs, Prison-keepers, Arresting-Bayliffs, and other Officers & Agents then newly elected & actuating in City & Country, to pursue & perplex as well solvent as insolvent debtors. That those wily craftsmen (unwilling to relinguish that Golden gain, and spoil) so cunningly and cautiously contrived that Spyderlike Web, to catch and ensnare the wrongfully dispriviledged people: That the same usurped illegal course and proceed for Arresting, Outlawing, and Imprisoning the body for debt, became a constant cruel practice and custom amongst them; and it is humbly offered to your prudent considerations, whether or no partly by reason of the supernumerary swarms and swervings of some covetous modern titulary Attorneys, and illiterall ignorant Solicitors, and other inconsiderable Agents (who like Wasps or Hornets blast and venom many causes and clients they grasp or seize on) some pestilent or more pernicious spirit then those of past ages do not still range & rage amongst us; animating factious people to undertake impertinent litigious Suits, & wilful wealthy Creditors to exercise tyranny to the life, against solvent or insolvent debtors, under colour of the said abusive practice and custom.  
The Petitioners humbly conceive, that no illegal innovated practice or custom, can be so ancient and authentic as law, neither aught any inconsiderate inadvertence or misconstruction of law, though flourished with specious splendid pretences, (or shadowed and obscured under the cloud or false courtaine of ample antiquity) to be fancied and admitted to create or approve that to be Law, which revera is not law, but e contra (as in this distressed case) a mere usurped abusive practice and fallacy opposite unto, and unwarrant by any just incorrupt law, equity, sense or conscience.  
For these, and the precedent movies, the Petitioners humbly hope and beseech further, That your Excellency and Honours, will think meet and declare,  
1. That all the said abusive usurped practices, customs, and manifold evil & destructive effects, in any wise preceding or proceeding by that means, may henceforth be abolished, cease, and determine, together with all relation, force or use of those obsolete pernicious Acts, from whence they have rudely and violently flowed (without ebb or abatement) as from  streams polluted and consisting of many corrupt and troubled waters.  
2. That you Wisdoms (having elected for your Objects, the most excellent ends of Reformation, and Regulation of the law, & insufferable encroached practice and abuses thereof) will vouchsafe to declare, That the Great Charter being (as aforesaid) the Epitome of the law, rightly distinguishing between the then regal legal prerogative power, and the Subject's Rights and Privileges, together with all the affirmative laws and Statutes for maintenance, ratification, and establishment thereof, and of the people's liberty may remain and continve inviolably in force, the rather for that it doth legally and clearly appear thereby, and especially by the Act of 42 of Edw. 3. That all repugnant Statutes in any wise infringing the Great Charter, or the people's liberties, or which gave the Capias or Exigent in debt as in account, to be repealed, abrogated, and held for null and or none, they being indeed the murdering-pieces or engines wherewith the sly & wily Engineeres of those times, durst and did attempt to batter and invade the liberties, peace, & tranquillity of the people.  
3. That the fundamental primitive laws of this land, being the primitive results of the venerable conscript lawmakers, who deservedly enjoyed the palm and priority in compyling apt and equal laws for steering and regulating Prince and people from swerving astray to the right hand or the left, may continue as things sacred andinviolable; and the pre-eminence and meliority of their judgements who made them not suffer eclipse, but that the interpretation thereof, in their original genuine sense, being as the virgin-voice or Oracle of the law may be durable and permanent to posterity, all inter accidents or innovated practices, pretences, and evil customs whatsoever to the contrary notwithstanding.  
The divine innocence and verity itself, having thus differenced custom from truth. Ego sum veritas, non consuetudo. I am Truth, not Custom.  
4. Finally, that it is merely the innovated, injurious, evil practices and customs, relating to void repealed Acts, exercised and intruded against the prerecited provisional Common Common laws, Magna Charta, and other unrepealed Acts in force, against the laws divine and humane, which doth beget and multiply these grievances and crying complaints which the Petitioners and all therein concerned humbly pray may be forth with regulated and redressed, as your prudence and piety shall seem meet, unto whose benignity and goodness herein, they prostrate and present the same, with their lowly Petitionary Request hereunto annexed: Of which favour they presume the rather for that the timely rectification and reformation of this general grievance will be acceptable in the sight of God and all pious minded people, and probably silence and bury in Oblivion, many other crying Grievances derived from this occasion, as the Petitioners can manifest whensoever themselves, their Counsel, or Agents shall be appointed personally to attend and be heard viva voce in your Honour's presence, and admitted by further additional inducement, or otherwise to defend and maintain their humble proposals on behalf of themselves the concerned people, and the true inadulterous law on that behalf.   

To His Excellency the Lord Gen. CROMWELL, the Right Honourable Counsel of State, and others designed for regulation, redress, or abolution of public Grievances. The submissive Petition of prisoners captived for Debt, some upon feigned, false, and unjust Actions and pretences; many willing to pay their just debts, according to their ability without fraud; and others miserably poor & altogether insolvent.  
Humbly showeth and remonstrateth as by their motives annexed, they have showed and remonstrated.  
THat by the Fundamental Common-Law, and the clear intendments thereof, and of Magna Charta re-confirmed and reestablished by above 30 subsequent Parliamental Acts or Edicts in force and unrepealed, the body or person of man is exempt from Arrest, Outlawry, or Imprisonment for Debt, in respect of the provisional priopitious laws and reasons in the said motives or inducements expressed further, which may be more amply illustrated by additional motives and reasons in refutation of any opposition or obstruction: In which Case the petitioners beseech that by themselves, their Counsel or Agents, they may be heard viva voco in humble defence and maintenance of their proposulls and requests: the said grand and gracious Charter containing the breviary or Abstract of the indulterate Laws and Sanctions, being relative to and reciprocal between the Prince and people, Creditor and Debtor, plaintiff and defendant, signifficantly and exactly differencing and distinguishing the legal regent dignity, power, pre-eminence, and prerogative, by what stile of apellation soever; as also, the people's protection, privileges, innumities, and personal freadome, the benefit whereof and of the just laws and respective powers and qualifications of the same, being the prisoners and people's inseparable inherent legal right and birthright, as by the said motives is more fully explained.  
That the petitioners crying cares and calamities do still still seem more and more to increase rather than be diminished and alleviated, representing to their dismayed minds, and disconsolate apprehensions, those dangerous woes of the desolate Jews when designed to sudden slaughter and destruction, unheard and unredressed, until faithful discerning Mordecay, sensible of the general desolation & ruin intended, did bewail, unfold, and impress the true sense thereof, into the intellect of gracious Hester, and that she upon mature-perpensation of the sad consequencies which might befall, despising all dangers & dissiculties, resolved to intercede and did prosperously prevailed with the Persian Justice, clemency, & benignity, (though a pagan) to redress and recall that cruel bloody Edict, which otherwise had ex improviso, become inconsiderately and fatally destructive to the entire class or race of the Jews, wheresoever dispersed throughout his ample Dominions.  
That the pensive petitioners, in like manner humbly hope and implore, that their ceslant sights and echoes of their moans, lamentations, and lowly intercessions for timely redress of inexplicable sorrows, may become a like prosperous and prevalent with your public Spirits and intendments, like deserving mordecays and patriots of your countery, and of the people's birthrights and personal privileges and immunities; to avert, rectify, and redress these grievances, you having the apt opportunity under God, to propituate them, and exchange this their sad condition to that which may render them happy and you famous to all posteriry.  
That in their just and humble confidence and expectations, the petitioners pray as by their humble motives they instance and beseech.  
That it may seem meet to your Excellency and all concerned, (in relation to the present Government, regulation of the Law, and redresses of crying Grievances) forthwith to settle and secure the premises and the prisoners and people's pristine rights and privileges as to your Wisdoms shall seem meet, by means whereof the original authentic course and proceed punctually prescribed and intended by the Law & lawmakers on behalf of Creditors for recovery of their just debts, may be hereafter observed and prosecuted against the Estate real and personal of the debtor, in pursuance of the said warrantable provisional circumspect laws ordained for the creditor's satisfaction, & not against the body.  
And finally, that the Petitionary prisoners for debt, may be speedily enlarged and discharged from their personal imprisonment, and none hereafter imprisoned and enthralled concerning debt, under colour or pretence of any repealed, cruel, illegal, void, or voidable Act or Statute, or of any abusive innovated custom or practise thereof, or thereunto relating or deriving, or of any other recent or newdevised or invented arbitrary fancy or proposal, sinisterly contrived or insinvated by cruel malevolent Creditors for debt, for the most part not due or justifiable; such Creditors esteeming slander and calumination (for their own ends) against the oppressed Debtor, with what cruelty and injury else their malice can multiply against them neither to be sin or injurious, albeit the same is odious and abominable in the sight & light of Truth, Nature, Reason, Equity, Sense, Conscience, and all laws Divine and Humane.  
And the opportune extending of this Justice and Benignity for alleviating the cares of the concerned; and the rectification and reformation of this important grievance, and restoring the prisoners, and concerned Natives, birthrights, liberties, and personal privileges and protect will be indelibly impressed in their grateful memory, until time cease to be, which is the unfeigned prayers and invocations of the petitioners.  
FINIS.