ued; and in the last petition, presented
by the said attorney-general, he inserted the following clause:

"In order that his Majesty may apply the needed corrective, and
remove the violence and oppression experienced by the ecclesiastical
jurisdiction; for, if one of its ministers attempts to administer
justice to a subordinate, the culprit finds shelter in the royal
Audiencia--not only to free himself from ecclesiastical justice, but
also that they may begin legal proceedings against, and even exile, his
superior and judge, who rightly desires and strives to punish him. And
all the above was made evident by the aforesaid acts; and it has come
to our knowledge through trustworthy persons that, in the petitions
which were presented for the issuance of the said decrees, the respect
due to the archbishop and to his high office was forgotten; and that,
in the investigations which were made for this purpose, inquiries
were directed into the hidden faults of ecclesiastical persons,
and attempt had been made to punish them with the first of the said
decrees, without punishing the chief authors [of those evil acts],
who were laymen. Moreover, decrees had been issued only against the
ecclesiastical judge on account of their own hidden faults, or those
of other persons, intimidating him therewith in order that he should
not administer justice in future; and a satisfactory account ought to
be given to the said archbishop of the reasons which had influenced
this royal Audiencia to issue the decrees. After [the publication of]
the royal and canonical decrees, the archbishop had a right to command
the clerk of the court to give him the said copy; but for the sake of
the quiet and comfort of this community, he had commanded him first
to request the acts from this royal Audiencia, making the proper and
necessary requisitions therefor, and asking that the said secretary
of the Audiencia be ordered and commanded to give him the said copy."

As it was evident that the motives which existed for the despatch of
the first royal decree were still further justified by such writings,
the second was issued, which the said archbishop obeyed no better;
on the contrary he said, in the reply that he made to this second
royal decree, that he entreated the royal Audiencia to give little
hope for aid to the ecclesiastics. [53]

The royal Audiencia, influenced by the report made to it by the
fiscal, and considering the disrespectful and indecorous cha