IX. That no one is absolved from a debt by a writ of the king which does not express the amount, even though it give the cause.
'M. Know likewise that in the affairs of the exchequer it is different than in other ones: for it is said in very many cases that what is expressed does harm, and what is not expressed does no harm: but here what is expressed helps and what is not expressed harms one. For example, if any one is bounden to the king for a hundred £, and brings to the exchequer his writ, that he is to be quit of the debt which he owes him, and even adds " the whole," and likewise expresses the reason but not the amount: he shall not be absolved on this account, but rather, through this, shall merit delay until another summons. For it should have been written in the roll: " remitted by writ of the king, to such a one N. one hundred pounds "; but since that is seen to be not altogether cancelled which is not yet expressed in the writ, he is compelled with much labour to seek the means by which he may merit to be absolved: therefore, in these matters, what is not expressed harms.
D. With all due reverence to the president and those who sit with him, it does not seem as if the mandate of the king were here fulfilled in all regards; for he is not quit whom the king, adding also the cause for which he was bounden to him, ordered to be quit.
M. Nay, a truce in these matters to the subtlety of thy scrupulous mind. Thou should' st have known, indeed, that ignorance of a law does not excuse the very men who have most to do with the law. He, therefore, who is bounden to the king, must diligently inquire how he can be fully absolved from this—that is, according to the fixed law concerning these things; but if he have not done so. he shall lay it to the charge not of the president but of himself; for the president is not allowed to change one iota of that which he brought him in the writ: since, therefore, he is not quit through this, he shall hasten to obtain what is needful.
D. I perceive that these things are observed principally on this account, that they may not be contradictory to the
