Introduction 
25 
them. The principal duty of the corregidor was to judge criminal and 
civil questions arising among the natives of his district, or between Span¬ 
iards and natives. In case a corregidor was not a lawyer he did not try 
such cases but called in an asesor for this. Since they were designed to 
replace control by encomenderos, the corregidores were in much disfavor 
with the former. Instances of this unpopularity are given in Part I. of 
this volume. 86 The alcalde mayor was at the head of a smaller jurisdic¬ 
tion, called an alcaldía mayor. In some instances he was supposed to be 
a kind of lieutenant or subordinate of the corregidor, but often he was 
almost as important. The alcaldías mayores were in turn subdivided into 
alcaldías menores, which in turn were sub-divided into encomiendas 
prior to the abolishment of the latter. By 1650 there were over fifty 
corregimientos and alcaldías mayores in the audiencia district of Guada¬ 
lajara alone. 
The only political institution of self-government in Spanish North 
America was the town or city council; as established, it was one of the 
means of checking the arbitrary rule of high colonial officials. While 
there was no fixed rule, this board of city officials in the larger cities was 
generally called an ayuntamiento ; in the smaller cities it was known as a 
cabildo. It was composed of alcaldes ordinarios, or municipal judges in 
cases of first instance, and regidores, or ordinary councilmen without 
judicial authority. At first the members were elected by restricted suf¬ 
frage, but in time some of them came to be appointed; some inherited 
their offices; and others were elected or purchased their offices outright. 
When members held office by appointment or inheritance or purchase, 87 
they were supposed to secure confirmation from the Council of the Indies, 
although this was a slow process. As a result of the hereditary and sal¬ 
able features the efficiency of the ayuntamiento came to be greatly 
lessened. 88 
On the ecclesiastical side the crown, through the Council of the Indies, 
exercised jurisdiction over the Church and the ecclesiastical organization 
in the same way that it did over the civil administration. Various papal 
bulls, as the famous bull of demarcation of 1493 and the bull of Julius II. 
issued in 1508, amply conceded this right to the Catholic Kings. The 
result was that within two decades after the discovery of America the 
authority of the crown over the church organization was complete. Ac¬ 
cordingly the king had the right to appoint to church offices, to regulate 
the conduct of the clergy, and to dispose of ecclesiastical property and 
revenues as he pleased. This was known as real patronato (royal patron¬ 
age). A cédula of 1574 stated that “ the right of patronage of the Indies 
is alone and undivided forever reserved to us and our royal crown So 
complete was this control that the Council of the Indies had the right to 
36 See pp. 135-145. 
37 For examples of the sale of offices see letter of Diego de Ibarra to the Secretary, 
Juan de Ledesma, Mexico, Nov. 10, 1582, this volume, p. 117. 
38 For more detailed accounts concerning provincial administration see: Alamán, op. 
cit I. 37-40; Antequera, op. cit., 569-570; Desdevises du Desert, op. cit., pp. 156-163 and 
164-185; Wistano Luis Orozco, Legislación y Jurisprudencia sobre Terrenos Baldíos 
(Mexico, 1895), pp. 155-156; Shepherd, op. cit., pp. 26-27. 
