Note 112 — Chapter X · THE AUDIENCIA AND THE CHURCH: THE ROYAL PATRONAGE

It will be noted in another connection that the audiencia was called upon, from 1680 to 1720, partly as a tribunal of justice and partly as an agent of the royal patron, to investigate the titles of the lands of the friars, and, by this proceeding, the tribunal deprived the orders of much of the property which they had usurped.112 It may also be noted that an oidor regularly inspected the royal hospital at Manila,113 and when prelates and curates were transferred from one district or parish to another, property left by them was inventoried and taken under the direction of the audiencia.114 These measures were designed to insure the security and conservation of royal property.