[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 the King—­all but this last being variable.  See Baluffi’s America en tempo Spagnuola (Ancona, 1844) ii, p. 41.—­Rev.  T. C. Middleton, O. S. A.

[201] The documents published by Navarrete in full, or in copious extracts, are the most valuable; and they are usually such as are otherwise comparatively or wholly unknown.  It is to be regretted that Navarrete has modernized the spelling, and otherwise “improved” the text; but the originals are presented in all essential features, and form a valuable collection of early documentary material.

[202] An extract from Magalhaes’s first will (December 17, 1504) and the whole of his second (August 24, 1519) are given in English translation in Guillemard’s Life of Magellan, London, 1890, appendix ii, pp. 316-326.

[203] He therein petitions that the sum of twelve thousand five hundred maravedis, allowed him for his services, be paid to the convent of Vitoria at Triana.