Even when the Crown’s bailiffs obeyed Magna Carta by leaving land alone when chattels were available, they might still wantonly inflict terrible hardship upon debtors. Sometimes they seized goods valuable out of all proportion to the debt; and an Act of 1266[439] forbade this practice when the disproportion was “outrageous.” Sometimes they attempted to extort prompt payment or to ruin their victim by selecting whatever chattel was most indispensable to him. Oxen were taken from the plough and allowed to die of starvation and neglect. The practice of the exchequer, in the days of Henry II., had been more considerate; oxen were to be spared as far as possible where other personal effects were available.[440] John’s charter has no such humane provision,[441] and the abuse continued. The Act of 1266, already cited, forbade officers to chase away the owner who came to feed his impounded cattle at his own expense. The _Articuli super cartas_[442] went further; prohibiting the seizure of beasts of the plough altogether so long as other effects might be attached of sufficient value to satisfy the debt.[443] ----- Footnote 439: 51 Henry III., stat. 4 (among “statutes of uncertain date” in _Statutes of Realm_, I. 197). Footnote 440: See _Dialogus de Scaccario_, II. xiv.: “_Mobilia cujusque primo vendantur; bobus autem arantibus, per quos agricultura solet exerceri, quantum poterint parcant_” (p. 148). Footnote 441: Cf., however, the rule as to amercements in c. 20. Footnote 442: 28 Edward I. c. 12. See also Statute of Marlborough, 52 Henry III. c. 15. Footnote 443: Henry’s reissues make two small additions explaining certain points of detail: (_a_) the words “_et ipse debitor paratus sit inde satisfacere_” precede the clause giving sureties exemption; and (_b_) the sureties are declared liable to distraint, not merely when the chief debtor has nothing, but also when he can pay, but will not, “_aut reddere nolit cum possit_.” CHAPTER TEN. Si quis mutuo ceperit aliquid a Judeis, plus vel minus, et moriatur antequam illud solvatur, debitum non usuret quamdiu heres fuerit infra etatem, de quocumque teneat; et si debitum illud inciderit in manus nostras, nos non capiemus nisi catallum contentum in carta. If one who has borrowed from the Jews any sum, great or small, die before that loan be repaid, the debt shall not bear interest while the heir is under age, of whomsoever he may hold;[444] and if the debt fall into our hands, we will not take anything except the principal sum[445] contained in the bond. ----- Footnote 444: The words “_de quocumque teneat_” include both Crown tenants and under-tenants, and suggest that only freeholders were to receive protection from this clause. Footnote 445: