Note 15 — The Pardo Controversy

The same resistance was encountered by four other royal decrees issued against the said archbishop, at the demand, and appeal from fuerza, interposed by Master Don Geronimo de Herrera y Figueroa, cantor of this holy cathedral church. He was a prisoner of the said archbishop in the college of Santo Tomás of this city, an indictment having been brought against him, charging him with being guilty of disrespect for the archiepiscopal dignity, and having at the session of the cabildo concurred in their demand for relief,15 of which mention has been made—that the said archbishop should remove from his side Fray Raymundo Verart, and the rest that is stated above. The said Master Don Geronimo had alleged that the said archbishop was not competent to act as judge, of which exception he had notified the prelate; but the latter without settling this question—which, as pre-judicial,16 ought to have been summarily decided—proceeded in the case. Even if he were a competent judge, he ought to proceed with the adjunct judges,17 as ordained by the holy Council of Trent; but, [not] heeding these considerations, the said archbishop proceeded with fuerza and violence, which he wreaked on Don Geronimo’s person. This case was decidedly within the cognizance of this royal Audiencia, and to its organization and civil jurisdiction belongs the removal of the fuerza with which the prelate had oppressed Don Geronimo. Upon this ground they issued the said four decrees, to attain their object, in order that the said archbishop should send them the acts, so that it might be ascertained whether or not he had committed fuerza, or else should send these with his notary; but he refused to obey the decrees.