Note 23 — Chapter I · THE AUDIENCIAS OF THE SPANISH COLONIES
Reading edition
It will be noted that the audiencias of Mexico and Lima contained the greatest number of magistrates. They were divided into two salas, a civil and a criminal, with appropriate judges and fiscales for each.23 The judges of the criminal branch were designated as alcaldes and not as oidores. These audiencias were at first conterminous in territorial jurisdiction with the respective captaincies-general of those names, but they enjoyed no greater power or pre-eminence before the Council of the Indies than the audiencias of the lesser captaincies-general. In the words of the royal decree of establishment,