View source for A Motion Against Imprisonment (1642)

{{Artifact
|Title=A Motion Against Imprisonment
|Artifact type=Pamphlet
|Creator/author=Thomas Grantham
|Imprint/call number=Thomason / E.151[4]; Wing (2nd ed.) / G1559. London: for Francis Coules, 1642.
|Keywords=Pamphlet; Debt; Imprisonment for debt; Charity; Commonwealth; Gospel; Prison
|Date=1642
|Start date=
|End date=
|Period=Stuart
|City and country of origin=London, England
|Latitude=51.5074
|Longitude=-0.1278
|Coordinates=51.5074, -0.1278
|Current location=British Library
|Economic theme=Debt imprisonment; Charity; Poor relief; Moral economy
|Practice/technology=Printed polemical pamphlet; scriptural argument
|Capitalism status=
|Religious context=Scriptural Protestant critique of imprisonment for debt
|Legal/political context=Printed argument against imprisonment for debt in civil and moral terms
|Labor context=
|Related artifacts=
}}

A MOTION AGAINST Imprisonment, Wherein is proved that Imprisonment for debt is against the Gospel, against the good of Church, and Commonwealth MATTHEVV 18. 29.



Have patience and I will pay thee all.

By Thomas Grantham, Master in Arts; Curate of Eston, neere Tocester in Northampton-sheire.

PRINTED at London for Francis Coules 1642.

A Motion against Impriso n men t.

AMongst the great abuses of this age, I have taken into Consideration, that cruell, and inhuman act of imprisoning men for debt: and my harty wishes are: that this Tyrany may no longer raigne, for these reasons.

First it is against the law of God Deu: 24. 12 if the man be poore thou shalt not sleepe with his pledge, in any case thou shalt deliver him the pledg againe, when the sunne goeth downe, but imprisonment is a farr greater affliction, or torment, then keeping of a pledge, therfore if I ought not to doe the lesser, I ought not to doe the greater, a man was bound by the l•w of God to lend his brother sufficient for his need, although he was sure to loose it Deut: 15. 7. 8. and in the 9 verse, It was sinn unto him, if he did it not then how great sinne shall it be: to deprive his Brother of all wayes to live by imprisoning of him?

Then every seaventh yeare was a yeare of rel•ase a free forgivenesse of all debts Deu. 15. 1. then every fifteth yeare was a Iubile, every mans posse•si•n returned to him againe Leviticus 25. 10. Gods law was full of mercy to the very strangers that dwelt amongst them Deu: 24. 19. the lost sheafe was for the stranger, Fatherlesse and widdow, then verse the 20. of that Chapter the Olive tree was to be beaten but once, & the remnant to be left for the stranger, Fatherlesse and widdow, and in the next verse he was to do so when he gathred the grapes of his vinyard He that takes the nether milston, takes a mans life to pledge Deut: 24. 6. but he that imprisons a man takes not only the nether milstone, but the upper, he takes away all courses of liveing for a man, hath no wayes to grind or labour for his living then he was not to take the widdows rayment to pledge much lesse her body Deut: 24. 27. Gods law is full of mercy, Exodus 22. 25. 29 27. and Deut. 15. 13. 14 15. and many other places.

Then this Tyrany of imprisonment is against the Gospell, our saviour tels you Mat: 8. 32. how hee was vsed that tooke his fellow servant by the throat and cast him into prison, and in this last verse he tells you his heavenly father will do so to those who will not forgive their debtors, the Apostle saith Romans 13. 10. that love is the fulfilling of the law, and he gives there the reason because it workes not ill to his neighbour, now how farr is that man from obeying Gods law that doth so great a hurt to his neighbour as to imprison him, Saint Iohn saith, Iohn 1. 3. 17. how can the love of God dwell in that man who shutts vp his bowels of compassion from his needy Brother? but what shall we say of that man who is not only farr from reliveing his brother, but imprisons him and forces him to all neede and affliction, where hunger withers him, diseases lick up his blood, and swarmes of care and trouble sting him and torment him; Saint Ambrose saith of the coveteous rich man, est panis famelici quem tu •enes, quem nos parer•s, occidisti: and Cyprian saith the like in his sermon de Elemosin•y if any man starve at thy dore, or by thy means that is for want of thy assistance thou shalt answer for it, & the Digddi•n•es Theologi (as Bishop Davenant calls them in his book de pace ecclesiae) the p•l•mi••ll divines say, the altitude of a sinne is taken as it doth depart or is distant from Charity, the further a sinne is from Charity, the greater it is, and what greater uncharitablenes can there be then to lay a man in prison, where he is deprived of wife, Children, Freinds, Trade, profession, where he is deprived of all manner of helpe or comfort.

Then it is against the good of Church and common-wealth, one man may be worth ten Thousand men, as the people said to David 2▪ Samuel 18. 3. such an one as Ioseph may be a Steward for a Kingdome, as Eliah whose fiery spirit, consumes the false prophets, why should that fiery▪ spirit be smothered and buried in a Cave. God himselfe calls him out twice 1. Kings 19. 10. 14. what dost thou heare Eliah? what should Iohn Baptist to whom all Iudea came out and they of Ierusalem doe in a prison? what should M•chaiah do in a prison who opposes all the fals Prophets? Paule spake many languages, was effectuall in his preaching, he could make Felix tremble and Agrippa become halfe a Christian, but this man could beget but one Onesimus in his bonds, Philemon 10. whereas it he had beene at liberty, he might have begot Thousands as Peter did at one sermon.

Then it is against the good of a private family for how are the members greived, if the head ake.



It is against the nature of man to be imprisoned his soule is actus Corporis, his mind is continually in action all wayes thinking of somthing never idle, his thoughts run swifter then the sun in a superior or be ready to overtake Eternity, some translations reade that 5. verse in 8. Psalme thou hast made him little lower then God, not little lower then the Angels, but little lower then God, and Estius maintaines this translation in his second booke of his sentences, the first distinction, the verses following (saith hee) proue this translation, thou hast made him to have dominion of the workes of thy hands, thou hast put all thinges in subiection under his feet the fowles of the Aire, Fishes of the Sea, for that he is saith Estius Microtheos a divine God, a little God, I have said ye are Gods Psalme. 82. 6▪ and although man be not the highest God, yet he is the Image of the highest God and will any man fetter him that carries such an Image livery.

In som cases the scripture doth approve a Prison as for blasphemy Leviticus 24. 12 for Sabath breaking Numbers 15. 14. for Davids Concubines that were defiled by Absolom 2. Samuel 20. 3. and so we grant it for a seditious man for, a man that will make away him selfe, for a quarrellar, a prodigall, a Rover but for debt altogether unlawfull.

A good action produces a good effect. Aquinas in prima secundae questione 18. Articulo 1. in corpore. but this hath an ill effect as the starving, pining, griving of his Neighbour.

And as in nature saith he whatsoever is deficient in generation is a fault, so in morality whatsoever causes thy Neighbour to be deficient is a fault.



Aquinas in his Secund: Secunda questione ••. Articulo 3. saith every imprisonment must be in Penamuel in Cantelum, either for punishment or to make a man an example. Now for a man to say he will punish his debt or because he is not able to pay him and that he will make dice of his bones, is not Christianity.

Then it cannot be for a warning, or to make a man an example to others frō runing into debt, for what tradsman will say I will make this man an example for running into debt, I will make men take heed how they runn into my debt, that man would have little custom that should say thus, they rather protest they never arrested man, they will not doe a Gentleman that wrong, and thus they flatter men into their debts, if any man shall say I neither arrest him to punish him, nor to make him an example, but for my money I confesse thats allowed of, if he have money to pay, but if he have it not, tis Diabolicall, for divines doe hold that whatsoever is a mans owne is his neighbours in case of necessitie, quo az proprietatem thine, quo ad usum thy Neighbours, if he want it tis his as well as thine, but he that imprisons instead of releife adds affliction.

Who can but greive to see a mans cattle looke leane like Pharoahs leane Kine, his Carts drive heavily like Pharoahs troopes, follow fast after him, and he ready to be drowned in a Sea of misery.

And if the voyce of Neighbours, a miserable and beggarly living, the want of meanes to put forth his children, proclaime a man insuffitiant I say and have proved, it is super-Diabolicall to imprison this man.



But will some reply you dispute against the law, the law allowes imprisonment.

I answer the law supposes a man is able to pay and upon that ground does admit an imprisonment, but when a man is not able and hath neither able, nor willing freinds, he ought not to be imprisoned, for Ra•io stanima legis saith Sir Francis Bacon reason is the soule of the law, and there is no reason, to imprison a man because he payed not when he is unable.

Then reason tells us bona Corporis are better then bona fortunae, a mans body is of more value then his estate, and why should the better suffer for the worse, there is no Corrispondency.

I conclude all with this. Christ bids some goe into everlasting torments because they did not feed him, when he was hungry, nor visit him in prison, and if this be the doome of those that would not give releife, what shall be the doome of those that have beene the cause of their brothers hungring, and starveing, and if he shall becast into everlasting torments, who did not visit, surely his torments shall be great, who was the cause of casting men into prison.

And thus will I end this little treatise, which because of my great occasions, I have writ Currente calamo, for he that knowes me, knowes, it was as much for me to spare this little time, as it was for the Widdow of Zar•pta, to spare Elias a Cake out of her little barrell of oyle 1. Kinges 17. 12. but rather then Elias should want, I have cast in this little mite.

FINIS

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