DEBTOR. In ancient times a debtor who could not pay became, with his family and his personal servants, the property of the creditor. In Jewish times children were often given up as pledges for debt, and finally handed over to slavery in payment of debt. Jesus speaks of this, in Matthew xviii: 25, as so customary a thing that it was a part of his folk teaching in a parable. And yet the Mosaic law was so far from con templating anything of the sort that it did not even permit interest to be taken from an Israelite by an Israelite, and even manumitted the whole debt on the expiry of the Sabbathical year.
The Jewish law also specified various articles of use and necessity as immune from attachment; in this particular, as in others, striving to safeguard all per sonal and property rights, while, at the same time, preserving social harmony and adherence to high morality. That these laws were subsequently perverted and misinterpreted, so as to permit of the injustices mentioned at the time of Christ, is hardly remarkable. They are
in accord with the general trend of de velopment among other nations. Among the ancient Romans the practice of en slavement for debt was an early and long-continued practice.
Imprisonment for debt was less com mon under the military regime of me dival Europe than in later times, but was for centuries a much-abused custom in England. Modern jurisprudence al lows the attachment of property of all kinds, except, in general, the tools and instruments of livelihood, but discour ages the imprisonment of the debtor, except in exceptional cases, as for the non-payment of alimony, or under other unusual cases, generally involving fraud.
A debtor, on being declared bankrupt, makes assignment for the benefit of creditors, which often represents a small percentage of his indebtedness.