appeal in the proper quarter from this
censure, but the archbishop refused to allow the said appeal; from
this arose the recourse to royal aid from the act of fuerza in having
denied to the father the said appeal and attempted to compel him
to what he had no right to do--the surrender of the said accounts,
which had already been presented in the said royal Audiencia. [75]
On that account, and because of the very nature of the case, it was
wholly within the cognizance of the royal Audiencia, and concerned
laymen. For this reason, the usual royal decree was issued, in order
that the notary should come to make report. This being made known
to the archbishop, he made a very prolix reply, taking the ground,
in very disrespectful language, that the appeal was not legitimate,
and that he was not obliged to send the documents; but saying that,
upon the necessary declarations, and with the stipulation that the acts
should not pass into the possession of any official of the Audiencia,
but must remain in the hands of his own notary, he would give orders
that the latter should go to make the report, whenever the Audiencia
should command it, but he must refuse to absolve the said father. The
Audiencia, in order to avoid new occasions for controversy with this
prelate, overlooked his imposing upon it a condition, and one which
was so unusual. Domingo Diaz [76] having made the report, and noted
in the course of it two false assertions--which he discovered while
inspecting the acts, having read them through--the said notary went
away, carrying them with him, without waiting for the opinion and
decision of the said royal Audiencia on them to be affirmed. That
tribunal declared the said suit, [77] and the cognizance of it, as it
concerned laymen, to be altogether secular--as were also questions
of guardianship, inheritance, the charge of property, dowries,
and other matters of that nature; and that, by virtue of this, all
[episcopal] acts regarding these questions be suspended in this royal
Audiencia. As for the pious legacies contained in the said testaments,
the archbishop was declared to have committed fuerza in not granting to
Father Ortega the appeal which he had interposed before the delegate
of his Holiness; and the Audiencia resolved that, in consequence of
all the above facts, the prelate should absolve the said father, and
immediately remove his name from the list of excommunicated persons,
and that a royal decree [to this effe