[68] The chief justice of Aragon was an intermediate judge between the king and his subjects, and independent of him as an officer of justice, before whom the king only was the pleading party. This magistracy had been established by the constitution of the kingdom; the person invested with it was authorized to declare, at the demand of any inhabitant, that the king, his judges, or his magistrates, abused their power, and acted against the law in violating the constitution and privileges of the kingdom; in this case, the chief justice could defend the oppressed by force of arms against the king, and of course against his agents or lieutenants.
[69] This expression is ancient in the Aragonese dialect, and taken from the French, which derived it from the Latin inquisitio. It is the title given in the code of Fueros to the sentence pronounced against magistrates or other public officers guilty of infidelity, abuse of power, or other crimes.
[70] Henry IV. of France, then called the Duke of Vendome, and Catherine de Bourbon, afterwards Sovereign Duchess of Bar.
[71] Molina was then at Madrid, where he had been rewarded by a place in the council of military orders. He was succeeded at Saragossa by Don Pedro de Zamora.
[72] See Relations of Perez.
[73] See Chapter XV.
[74] See Chapter 15.
[75] See Chapter 26.
[76] See Chapter 25.
[77] A work, by M. Clement, was printed at Paris, in 1802, called A Journal of Correspondences and Journeys for the Peace of the Church.