Page:C. Cunningham- "The Institutional Background of Spanish American History".djvu/12

Rh than juristic, and in order to remedy this defect the Catholic Monarchs added more lawyers (togados) in 1480 and relegated most of the nobles to the category of military and honorary members (de capa y espada). The council participated in both administrative and legal matters. The monarch nominally gave one day a week to personal attendance on the sessions of this tribunal. After 1480, the Council met in various sections or salas, one for the consideration of general administrative affairs, one for judicial matters, another for provincial administration, and one for financial affairs. Another tribunal of importance which was founded during this epoch was the Supreme Council of the Inquisition, and this came to have jurisdiction ultimately over subordinate commissaries and tribunals both in Spain and in the Indies. The Royal Council continued, as reformed by Ferdinand and Isabella, until 1586, when it was modified by Philip II., who raised the legal requirements for membership and added as an adjunct to the tribunal in 1588, the important Cámara of Castile. This was "a special Council of persons of whose zeal and Christianity there is much satisfaction", who were to have special jurisdiction over judicial and ecclesiastical affairs. In the words of the royal decree, this council was given authority over "all the affairs pertaining to my royal patronage of the church, in these my royal dominions of Castile, and in the kingdom of Navarre and the Canaries, of whatsoever character they may be, matters of justice as well as of grace, and also that which pertains to the provision and nomination of persons for the places of my councils, of the chanceries and other audiencias of these dominions and of their functions of justice". The Cámara was empowered to intervene and suspend the trial of a case before the audiencia, a thing which it rarely did, and it exercised jurisdiction over recursos de fuerza against ecclesiastical judges; it had the right of trying cases appealed from audiencias, it settled conflicts of jurisdiction and boundaries between provinces, had charge of appointments to offices and it examined and passed finally upon the autos de residencia of corregidores, alcaldes mayores and of other royal officials.