Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/113

xcv ARAGON. xcv The Aragonese cortes was composed of four section branches, or arms;^^ the ricos hombres, or great '■ — barons: the lesser nobles, comprehending; the tureofAr- ' ' J. o agon. knights ; the clergy, and the commons. The no- bility of every denomination were entitled to a seat in the legislature. The ricos hombres were al- lowed to appear by proxy, and a similar privilege was enjoyed by baronial heiresses. The number of this body was very limited, twelve of them con- stituting a quorum. ^^ The arm of the ecclesiastics embraced an ample delegation from the inferior as well as higher cler- gy. ^° It is affirmed not to have been a component of the national legislature until more than a century and a half after the admission of the commons. ^^ Indeed the influence of the church was much less sensible in Aragon, than in the other kingdoms of the Peninsula. Notwithstanding the humiliating concessions of certain of their princes to the papal see, they were never recognised by the nation, who uniformly asserted their independence of the temporal supremacy of Rome ; and who, as we 28 Martel, Forma de Celebrar 30 Capmany, Practica y Estilo, Cortes, cap. 8. — " Bragos del rei- p. 12. no, porque flirflfflTi, y tienen en si." 3i Blancas, Modo de Proceder, — The cortes consisted only of fol. 14, — and Commentarii, p. three arms in Catalonia and Valen- 374. — Zurita, indeed, gives repeat- cia ; both the greater and lesser ed instances of their convocation in nobility sitting in the same cham- the thirteenth and twelfth centu- ber. Perguera, Cortes en Cataluna, ries, from a date almost coeval with and Matheu y Sanz, Conslitucion that of the commons; yet Blancas, de Valencia, apud Capmany, Prac- who made this subject his particu- tica y Estilo, pp. 65, 183, 184. lar study, who wrote posterior to 29 Martel, Forma de Celebrar Zurita, and occasionally refers to Cortes, cap. 10, 17, 21, 46. — him, postpones the era of their ad- Blancas, Modo de Proceder en mission into the legislature to the Cortes de Aragon, "(Zaragoza, beginning of the fourteenth cen- 1641,) fol. 17, 18. tury.