ion
and determination of matters pertaining to the commerce and trade
of the Indies. It consisted of a president and several executive
officials,--both professional and unprofessional men--and a togated
fiscal agent. It was formerly in Seville, but removed later to
Cadiz.--_Dic. encic. hisp.-amer.,_ iv, p. 844. The documents relating
to the affairs of this house were kept formerly in a special archives,
but are housed at present in the Archivo general de Indias in Seville.

[195] The _corregidor_ was the representative of the royal person,
and combined both judicial and executive functions; in some large
cities he was made president of the city council, with administrative
functions--an office nearly equivalent to that of mayor in American
cities.

[196] See this document at p. 139, _ante_.

[197] Garcia de Loaisa, a noted Spanish prelate, was born at Talavera
(Toledo) in 1479; at the age of sixteen, he entered the Dominican
order, of which he became provincial for Spain (1518), and finally
general of the order. He was greatly esteemed by the emperor Charles
V, who chose Loasia as his confessor; and he soon afterward became
bishop of Osma, and president of the Council of the Indies. Later, he
was made a cardinal, and elevated to the archbishopric of Seville. He
acted as Charles's representative at the court of Rome, and was, less
than a year before his death, appointed general of the Inquisition;
even in that short time one hundred and twenty persons were burned
at the stake, and six hundred more punished in various ways. Loaisa
died April 21, 1546.

[198] The military order of Calatrava was formed to hold the town
of that name against the Moors, and was organized in 1164; it was
annexed to the Castilian crown during the reign of Carlos I.

[199] It is said that this fair at Medina del Campo is still held
(in May and October of each year); and that money was lent by the
crown to persons who desired loans--hence the allusion in the text.

[200] Ordinarily the tithes in each diocese were divided into
four equal parts--of which one was set aside for the bishop,
and one for the chapter. Then the other two were divided into
nine portions (_novenii_), whereof one and one-half were for the
_fabrica_ of the church (the corporate body who administered its
temporalities, consisting of the _cura_ and churchwardens), four for
the _parrocos_ (parish priests) and lower clergy, one and one-half
for the hospitals, and two for