from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
BREVIA JUDICIALIA. Subsidiary process issued pending a suit, or process
issued in execution of the judgment. They varied, says the author of Fleta,
according to the variety of the pleadings of the parties and of their
responses. Lib. 2. c. 13, Sec. 3; Co. Lit. 73 b, 54 b. Many of them,
however, long since became fixed in their forms, beyond the power of the
courts to alter them, unless authorized to do so by the legislature. See 1
Rawle, Rep. 52; Act of Pennsylvania, June. 16, 1836, Sec. 3, 4, 5.