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[001] order or that of our chief justice. Witness etc.’] [And as he need not answer without
[002] writ, so he may not1 be disseised without judgment.] [It is called a writ (breve)
[003] because it formulates the matter in dispute and the demandant's claim briefly and
[004] in a few words, as does a rule of law, which expounds the matter briefly.2 It is for
[005] this reason that one ought not to bring a judicial action without a writ or libellus,
[006] lest the demandant's claim or his means of pursuing it be altered.] [Nor need the
[007] tenant answer without writ3 for appurtenances,4 as for pasture and other things,
[008] [in actions] of which [barons and] the sheriff and county court have5 cognisance, as
[009] of a plea de vetito namii for services and customs, because no matter where the plea
[010] is brought, in the courts of barons or others who have the liberty ‘of beasts taken and
[011] detained against gage and pledges,’ [or if] the plaint comes [directly] to the county
[012] court, if a dispute arises as to6 the services and customs, common of pasture or the
[013] like, which are appurtenant to the free tenement, and there is no writ, the plea will
[014] remain.7 Let the plaintiff sue by writ if he so wishes and the tenant remain in seisin,]8
[015] 9[But] since sometimes a single action lies for one against one, sometimes several
[016] against one, [or against several who hold in common or hold separately and individually,
[017] and sometimes several actions or a single action lies for the several who hold in
[018] common against one or several,] of which some are prejudicial since they ought to
[019] be decided first, according as they are criminal or civil, 10as where one is criminal
[020] and the other civil,11 or if all are criminal, as one is major and the other minor, or if
[021] all are civil, as they are in rem or in personam, or if all are in rem, as they are on the
[022] possession or the property, 12we therefore [must treat] of the order of actions and
[023] judgments and [explain] which action ought to precede another.13 14In the first
[024] place it is clear that if two criminal actions are available to one person against one or
[025] several defendants, the more serious ought to be determined first, lest wrongs
[026] remain unpunished15 and punishment be extinguished, [for] if the monor offence
[027] were dealt with first, the criminal being dead, the penalty attached to the greater
[028] would be extinguished. As may be seen where one has been accused of the crime of
[029] theft or homicide and also of lese-majesty; [if it is] proved the crime of lese-majesty
[030] is punished more severely than theft or homicide, for in the former case the criminal
[031] is drawn, broken and hanged and from the others nothing follows but simple
[032] hanging. Thus if the lesser crime should be dealt with first the



Notes

1. ‘potest’

2. D. 50.17.1: ‘Regula est quae rem quae est breviter ennaret’; infra iv, 285

3. Reading: ‘Nec debet tenens ... respondere’

4. Om: ‘non magis ... tenemento’

5. Om: ‘non’: supra 302: ‘cum non possit ... cognoscere’

6. Om: ‘terra’

7. Infra 441, 444, 445

8. Infra 411

9. Continued from 317, n. 6; Br. and Azo, 200

10-11. ‘ut (for ‘vel’) si ... civilis,’ from line 22

12. Division made here in CE, CM, MA, MB, MG, OA, OB, OC, Y. No MS. makes it at ‘Et imprimis’

13. From line 26

14. Br. and Azo, 200-2, 205

15. X. 5.39, c. 35: ‘ne crimina remaneant impunita’


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