Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/123

ARAGON. cv preme. The origin of this institution is affirmed section to have been coeval with that of the constitution or '■ — frame of government itself. ^^ If it were so, his authority may be said, in the language of Blancas, " to have slept in the scabbard " until the dissolu- tion of the Union ; when the control of a tumul- tuous aristocracy was exchanged for the mild and uniform operation of the law, administered by this, its supreme interpreter. His most important duties may be briefly enu- Hisgreatau- ^ , "^ "^ tliority. merated. He was authorized to pronounce on the validity of all royal letters and ordinances. He possessed, as has been said, concurrent jurisdiction with the cortes over all suits against the crown and its officers. Inferior judges were bound to consult him in all doubtful cases, and to abide by his opinion, as of " equal authority," in the words of an ancient jurist, " with the law itself." ^^ An appeal lay to his tribunal from those of the territo- rial and royal judges. ^^ He could even evoke a cause, while pending before them, into his own court, and secure the defendant from molestation on his giving surety for his appearance. By anoth- er process, he might remove a person under arrest from the place in which he had been confined by order of an inferior court, to the public prison ap- propriated to this purpose, there to abide his own examination of the legality of his detention. These 54 Blancas, Commentarii, p. 26. 56 Blancas, Commentarii, p. 536. — Zurita, Anales, torn. i. fol. 9. — The principal of these jurisdic- 55 Molinus, apud Blancas, Com- tions was the royal audience in mentarii, pp. 343, 344. — Fueros y which the king himself presided in Observancias, torn. i. fol. 21, 25. person. Ibid., p. 355. VOL. I. n