WORKINGS OF THE TRIBUNAL. 273 seventeenth century; but to judge from the continually increasing numbers and depredations of robbers, it could not have been an efficient force." In 1710, at the urgent request of the inhabitants of Querétaro, Miguel Velazquez de Lorea, a native of that city, was appointed as provincial alcalde of the santa hermandad in that district. The energy of this officer and his success in the suppression of brigandage were so great that later his powers were greatly increased. Hitherto the tribunal of the santa hermandad had been subordinate and responsible to the criminal court at Mexico; in 1719 it was ordered that the sentences pronounced by Velazquez should be final, and he was exempted from the obligation of reporting his decisions to that tribunal. By royal cédula dated May 22, 1722, his conduct was approved and he was confirmed in office. From this time the acordada may be considered as established as an independent tribunal. Velazquez, retaining his position of provincial alcalde, was appointed judge of the new court, and rigorously did he perform the judicial duties of his calling. Scouring the country with his men, he assailed the brigands wherever he could find them, and none escaped who fell into his hands. A hurried trial over, the inexorable judgment was passed, and in a few minutes the culprit, having been shrived by the court chaplain, was dangling from the nearest tree, or was shot through with arrows.10 Viceroy Alburquerque, whose rule will be mentioned later, exerted himself with great energy to suppress brigandage. A number of highwaymen were captured and several executed on a single day. Vetancvrt, Trat. Mex., 15. In May 1655 a highwayman was taken from a church, whither he had fled, and notwithstanding his claim of privilege of sanctuary, and despite the excommunication fulminated by the bishop, he was tried and put to death. Guijo, Diario, 307-8. Cedulario, MS., iii. 115-16. The proclamation was published 'con acuerdo de la audiencia,' from which act the future tribunal received its name of acordada. See Cavo, Tres Siglos, ii. 107. 10 Sigüenza y Góngora supplies us with the number of criminals whom he punished during the period from 1719 to 1732: Hizo justicia en quarenta y tres reos que ahorcó, en ciento y cincuenta y uno que asaeteó, y en setecientos treinta y tres que mandó desterrados à varios Presidios de este Reyno.' Glorias de Querétaro, 30. HIST. MEX., VOL. III. 18 This severity was commended, and Velazquez was enjoined to exterminate the banditti whose augmenting numbers had placed the safety of the kingdom in jeopardy. His energy and his integrity, which placed him above purchase by bribery, won for him alike the thanks of the king," viceroys, and people. He died at Mexico on the 7th of September 1732, at the age of sixty-two, and was buried in the Jesuit church de la Profesa.12 14 13 José Velazquez succeeded to his father's position, and made himself equally conspicuous as a suppressor of brigandage. On his death, which occurred in 1756, the former implored his son not to accept the succession to the office which had been conferred in perpetuity, and it was therefore bestowed on Jacinto Martinez de la Concha, who proved a no less formidable foe to highway robbers than were his predecessors. To the end of the century competent chiefs in turn presided over the tribunal, among whom may be mentioned Manuel Antonio de Santa María, who held the office from 1782 to 1808, and made himself celebrated by the capture and capital punishment of two notorious robbers named Piedra y Paredes and Pillo Madera.15 However beneficial such a tribunal was by the pro "Felipe V. in the cédula of May 22, 1722, conveyed his especial thanks to Velazquez for the zeal he had displayed. 12 Velazquez was deeply lamented; obsequies were paid him, and the 'Gazeta de Merico hizo su digno elogio.' Id., 30-1. 13 For particulars of the numerous bands of robbers which he destroyed consult Panes, Vireyes, in Mon. Dom. Esp., MS. 118. From an official report dated 1811 giving the number of evil-doers captured and punished by the acor dada down to 1809, it appears that during José Velazquez' term of office, from 1732 to 1736, 3,384 malefactors were made prisonors. Of these 320 suffered capital punishment; 1955 were distributed among the presidios; 79 were flogged, and 432 discharged after punishment or proof of innocence. Columna's Report in Alaman, Hist. Mej., i. app. 3. 14 Galvez, Instruc., in Museo Mex., i. 306. 15 Santa María captured Piedra y Paredes sometime previous to his seizure of Madera. This gave rise to the following popular quartette which was sung at that period: 'El Señor Santa María Tiene que hacer una casa, Alaman, Hist. Méj., iii. app. 73-4. tection which it afforded to the royal treasures during transportation, and to the community at large, it did not give unqualified satisfaction. Its absolute power, and the precipitancy with which it hurried through the trials of captives, led to the commission of abuses and injustice. Though collisions with other judicial authorities occurred, and complaints from private individuals were frequently preferred against the action of lieutenants and comisarios of the acordada, it was firmly supported by viceroys and kings during a long period.16 Both the civil and territorial jurisdiction of the tribunal was greatly extended, and robbers in the distant provinces of Nueva Galicia and Nueva Vizcaya learned to dread the name of the acordada, which employed nearly two thousand five hundred men in its services, while smugglers, vagabonds, and petty thieves avoided its servants as they would the revenue guards or the city police."7 Finally, such representations were made to his Majesty with regard to the easy indifference with which the lives of his vassals were disposed of, that a royal cédula was issued ordering the sentences of the acordada not to be carried out without the approval of the viceroy, who was invested with the power to revoke or modify every form of punishment. The result was that within a few years the list of cases tried by this tribunal was reduced to one eighth of its former number, and the viceroy was of opinion that if the ordinary courts of justice were properly administered there would be no further need for the former. 18 16 The arbitrary form of trial was, however, somewhat modified by royal cédula of 21st December 1765, by which it was ordered that the judge should be assisted by two asesores, or legal advisers, and that the sentences passed after hearing the defender of the accused should be signed by all three. But there was no appeal. The jurisdiction in matters connected with prohibited liquors was also conferred upon the acordada. The titles of the chief were also multiplied. They were alcalde provincial de la hermandad, juez de la acordada, guarda mayor de los caminos, and juez de bebidos prohibidos. Cedulario, MS., iii. 113-29; Revilla Gigedo, Instruc., 24. 156 Con el dictámen de una junta, compuesta de un alcalde de corte, el asesor del virreynato, y un abogado de toda su confianza.' Id., 25. Azanza, Ynstruc., MS., 25. This change of system did not fail to meet with opposition, and occasional disagreements arose between the acordada and the superior junta;19 but these were overcome by the persistence of the viceroys. The junta could not at first keep pace with the number of cases which required its cognizance. When Azanza commenced his administration in 1798, there were fifteen hundred prisoners awaiting trial, and his compassion induced him to add temporarily two additional counsellors to the junta in order that the decisions might be rendered with more despatch.20 The measures which were successively adopted from this time reduced the terror-inspiring acordada to a mere shadow of its former power. The prison in which offenders were confined by this tribunal was built close to the court-room of the acordada. In 1776 it was destroyed by an earthquake, but was rebuilt on an enlarged scale. By order of the cortes of Cádiz this building was demolished in 1812, and the frowning walls and loathsome dungeons of the acordada passed from the sight though not from the memory of the people of Mexico.21 On the conclusion of Montañez' first term as viceroy he had returned to his diocese of Michoacan, where for two years and a half he remained in the active discharge of his duties. In 1698 the archbishopric of Mexico became vacant by the death of Francisco de Aguiar y Seixas22 on the 14th of August, 19 During Azanza's administration from 1798 to 1800 the juez de la acordada claimed that he could try cases with only one asesor present. The viceroy compelled the judge to conform strictly to the terms of the royal cdula, pronunciando siempre sus sentencias despues de haber oido la relacion del proceso que debia hacer el Escribano y el dictamen de los dos Asesores y Defensor de la Casa.' Id., 30-31. 20 Id., 23-32. 21 According to the official report of Columna, in Alaman, Hist. Méj., i. app. 3, during the period from 1703 to 1809, 62,900 persons were imprisoned by the tribunal. 22 Francisco de Aguiar was born in Betanzos, Galicia. He successively occupied the episcopal chairs of Guadalajara and Michoacan; he was appointed archbishop of Mexico in 1681, Rivera having declined to accept the honor. Aguiar was the principal founder of the college at Niñas de Belen; built the DEATH OF MONTAÑEZ. 277 and in October 1699 the appointment of Montañcz as his successor arrived in Mexico. In March 1700 he took formal possession of his sce, and on the 2d of January 1702 was invested with the pallium which had been received with the pope's bull confirming his appointment in the previous November. On the 15th of January the new archbishop gave the customary banquet in celebration of the ceremony. The guests, who were members of the chapter and the audiencia, were regaled with every luxury that the country could produce, no less than thirty dishes of different kinds of fish, meats, game, poultry, and confectionery being placed in succession upon the table.23 Public pageantry succeeded religious ceremonies and private feasting. On the 29th of the same month the archbishop made his public entry into the capital with a solemnity and splendor rarely witnessed.24 The ecclesiastical administration of Montañez was marked by severity; and his measures of reform were carried out. His integrity was unimpeachable, and it was on this account that the king appointed him a second time viceroy. The zeal which he displayed in furthering the completion of the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe prompted him personally to solicit almis in the streets of Mexico for that purpose. His advanced age-for he was seventy years old when he assumed the archbishopric-prevented him from visiting his diocese, but his duties were faithfully performed to the last. The date of his decease is uncertain,25 but asylum for insane females, and laid the first stone of the church of Our Lady of Guadalupe on March 26, 1695. Concil. Prov., 1, 2, 222–3, 329–30; Rivera, Diario, 19; Dávila, Mem. Hist., pt. i. 28. In 1721 his remains were removed from the place where they had been interred and deposited in a sepulchre on the right side of the chapel of San Felipe de Jesus. Doc. Hist. Mex., 2a, scrie iv. 268. 23Otros dicen que hubo cincuenta de diversas viandas, así de pezcados esquisitos, como de carnes y aves diferentes.' Robles, Diario, ii. 361-2. The banquet lasted from 12 M. till 2:30 P. M. 24 A full account of the ceremonial will be found in Id., 365–72. In Concil. Prov., 1, 2, 292, it is stated that he died in 1704; Juarres says in 1710. Sosa, Episcop. Mex., 168, makes this remark: 'no hay la menor contradiccion en los autores que señalan el año de 1708 como el de la muerte del Sr Ortega y Montañés.' Cabrera, Escudo de Armas, 367 et seq. |