Note 49 — Chapter X · THE AUDIENCIA AND THE CHURCH: THE ROYAL PATRONAGE

Not only were the oidores required to inspect the work of the parish priests, but the audiencia, in the exercise of the royal patronage, was authorized to receive, assist, and supervise the ecclesiastical visitors who came from Spain or Mexico, or were designated from the ranks of the local clergy to inspect the orders.49 These visitors were also authorized to inspect friars who were in charge of parishes,50 and when on these tours of inspection they might be accompanied by the prelate in charge of the curacies retained by the friars under inspection. The audiencia was to co-operate in all possible ways with these visitors, and should any question arise between them and a prelate over jurisdiction, the tribunal was to do everything possible to bring about a harmonious adjustment of the points of difference. This is illustrated by a case which arose in 1776, when Fray Joseph Pereyra was given a royal commission to make a general investigation of the Augustinian order in the Philippines. Fiscal Andrade of the audiencia demanded that Pereyra should submit all his documents for inspection on the basis of the royal patronage and other laws,51 but the audiencia, under the presidency of Governor Anda, refused to support the fiscal. The king, on April 6, 1778, rebuked the audiencia for its failure to support the royal patronage, citing two cédulas, those of July 2 and of October 14, 1773, respectively, in which he had already admonished the vicepatron in that particular.52 The failure of the audiencia and governor to exercise all their prerogatives in support of the royal patronage on these various occasions can probably be attributed to dissensions within the tribunal and to the corrupting influence of the church.