[13] Zamora y Coronado, Biblioteca de legislación ultramarina, 1, 450–451; II, 374 et seq.; also Recopilación, 9–1–1, note 1; Vander Linden, op. cit., 344.
[14] Desdevises du Dezert, op. cit., 100.
[15] Escriche, Diccionario, I, 578; see Desdevises du Dezert, Les institutions, 95–102; Robertson, History of America, IV (Book VIII), 21.
[16] Recopilación, 2–2–2.
[17] By the royal decree of March 24, 1834, the Consejo de Castilla and the Consejo de Indias were amalgamated. In place of these was created the Tribunal Supremo de España é Indias, with judicial functions and a Consejo Real de España é Indias for governmental and administrative affairs. On September 28, 1836, the Consejo Real de España é Indias was suppressed. On July 6, 1845, the Consejo de Estado assumed charge of affairs pertaining to the Indies, with a separate Ministerio de Ultramar. This reform was re-enacted on September 24, 1853 (Martínez Alcubilla, Diccionario, III, 313–315; Escriche, Diccionario, I, 578–579).
[18] It became the practice in later years to reward successful colonial administrators, including viceroys, governors, and magistrates, with membership in this council. Among those so elevated were Juan Solórzano y Pereyra, magistrate of the Audiencia of Perú, José de Gálvez, visitor of New Spain, Governor Simón de Anda y Salazar, and the able fiscal, Francisco Leandro de Viana, of the Philippines. These men rendered very distinguished service in the colonies.
[19] Recopilación, 2–15–2 to 14; see Danvila y Collado, Reinado de Carlos III, III, 151–157. No attempt is made here to indicate all subsequent changes.
[20] Oidor, a ministro togado who heard and sentenced civil suits in an audiencia (Escriche, Diccionario, II, 661). In this treatise the Spanish term oidor will be retained throughout to designate a magistrate of that particular class. Oidor is sometimes incorrectly translated into “auditor”, which in English means a reviewer of accounts (Spanish, contador). The Spanish term auditor has a special meaning, referring to a particular kind of magistrate, as auditor de guerra, auditor de marina or auditor de rota (Escriche, Diccionario, I, 369–371). Blair and Robertson, in their Philippine Islands (Cleveland, 1908), have used the terms oidor and “auditor” interchangeably, or rather, in almost all cases they have translated oidor as “auditor”, but this usage will not be followed here for the reasons given.
The oidor is also to be distinguished from the alcalde del crimen. The latter existed only in the larger audiencias of Mexico and Perú, or in Manila, Havana or Puerto Rico in the later nineteenth century. Alcaldes del crimen in the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were subordinate in rank to oidores, but by virtue of the reforms of 1812, 1836 and 1837, the latter were required to be togados, and the ministers of all the audiencias were placed in the same class. (Escriche, Diccionario, I, 154; I, 363–369; II, 661; Bancroft, History of Central America, I, 297; see also Pérez y López, Teatro de la legislación, XXI, 351–369; IV, 525–528; Martínez Alcubilla, Diccionario, I, 525–526.)
[21] The original cédulas refer to this audiencia as La Audiencia Real de la Nueva España—see Puga, Provisiones, cédulas, f. 7.