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CHAP. X.: That Laws which seem contrary, proceed sometimes from the same Spirit. - Charles Louis de Secondat, Baron de Montesquieu, Complete Works, vol. 2 The Spirit of Laws [1748]

Edition used:

The Complete Works of M. de Montesquieu (London: T. Evans, 1777), 4 vols. Vol. 2.

Part of: Complete Works of Montesquieu, 4 vols.

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CHAP. X.

That Laws which seem contrary, proceed sometimes from the same Spirit.

IN our time we give summons to people in their own houses; but this was not permitted among the Romans.

A summons was a violent action, and a kind of warrant for seizing the body; hence it was no more allowed to summon a person in his own house, than it is now allowed to arrest a person in his own house for debt.

Both the Roman§ and our laws admit of this principle alike, that every man ought to have his own house for an asylum, where he should suffer no violence.

[]Leg. 18. ff. de in jus vocando.

[]See the law of the twelve tables.

[]Rapit in jus, Horace, satire 9. hence they could not summon those to whom a particular respect was due.

[§ ]See the law 18. ff. de in jus vocando.