[56] Riol, Informe, apud Seminario Erudito, tom. iii. p. 149.--It consisted of a vice chancellor, as president, and six ministers, two from each of the three provinces of the crown. It was consulted by the king on all appointments and matters of government. The Italian department was committed to a separate tribunal, called the council of Italy, in 1556. Capmany (Mem. de Barcelona, tom. iv. Apend. 17) has explained at length the functions and authority of this institution.
[57] See the nature and broad extent of these powers, in Recop. de Leyes de las Indias, tom. i. lib. 2, tit. 2, leyes 1, 2.--Also Solorzano, Politica Indiana, tom. ii. lib. 5, cap. 15; who goes no further back than the remodelling of this tribunal under Charles V.--Riol, Informe, apud Semanario Erudito, tom. iii. pp. 159, 160.
The third volume of the Semanario Erudito, pp. 73-233, contains a report, drawn up, by command of Philip V., in 1726, by Don Santiago Augustin Riol, on the organization and state of the various tribunals, civil and ecclesiastical, under Ferdinand and Isabella; together with an account of the papers contained in their archives. It is an able memorial, replete with curious information. It is singular that this interesting and authentic document should have been so little consulted, considering the popular character of the collection in which it is preserved. I do not recollect ever to have met with a reference to it in any author. It was by mere accident, in the absence of a general index, that I stumbled on it in the mare magnum in which it is engulfed.
[58] "Pusieron los Reyes Católicos," says the penetrating Mendoza, "el govierno de la justicia, i cosas públicas en manos de Letrados, gente media entre los grandes i pequeños, sin ofensa de los linos ni de los otros. Cuya profesion eran letras legales, comedimiento, secreto, verdad, vida liana, i sin corrupcion de costumbres." Guerre de Granada, p. 15.
[59] Granada, September 3d, Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 135.--A pragmatic of similar import was issued by Henry III. Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, tom, i., Introd. p. 46.
[60] Granada, August 11th, 1501. Pragmáticas del Reyno, fol. 137.
[61] Alfaro, November 10th, 1495. Ibid., fol. 136.
[62] See a number of these, collected by Navarrete, Coleccion de Viages, Introd. pp. 43, 44.
[63] Cited by Robertson, History of America, vol. iii. p. 305.
[64] The fleet fitted out against the Turks, in 1482, consisted of seventy sail, and that under Gonsalvo, in 1500, of sixty, large and small. (Ante,