Today one goes into a man’s house to summon him to stand trial ; that could not be done among the Romans. [1]

The call to stand trial was a violent act, [2] and like a sort of corporal constraint [3] ; and you could no more enter a man’s house to summon him to trial than you can seize a man today in his house when he is condemned only for civil debts.

Roman laws [4] and ours equally admit the principle that the house of every citizen is his asylum, and no violence must be done to him there.