Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/325

ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. 1 8 1 vened for the regulation of affairs, and their in- chapter structions were transmitted to provincial juntas, who superintended the execution of them. The code of the ■■• Herniandad . laws, enacted at different times in these assem- blies, were compiled into a code under the sanction of the junta general atTordelaguna, in 1485.^ The penalties for theft, which are literally written in blood, are specified in this code with singular pre- cision. The most petty larceny was punished with stripes, the loss of a member, or of life itself; and the law was administered with an unsparing rigor, which nothing but the extreme necessity of the case could justify. Capital executions were con- ducted by shooting the criminal with arrows. The enactment, relating to this, provides, that " the convict shall receive the sacrament like a Catholic Christian, and after that be executed as speedily as possible, in order that his soul may pass the more securely."^ Notwithstanding the popular constitution of the ineffectual " ■'■■'■ opposition hermandad, and the obvious advantages attending "fuJ^^ ""- its introduction at this juncture, it experienced so decided an opposition from the nobility, who dis- 2 The Quaderno of the laws of ed. 1539. — Mem. de la Acad, de the Hermandad has now become Hist., torn, vi., Ilust. 4. — Car- very rare. That in my possession bajal, Anales, MS., aiio 76. — Le- was printed at Burgos, in 1527. brija, Rerum Gestarum Decades, It has since been incorporated with fol. 36. — By one of the laws, the considerable extension into the inhabitants of such seignorial Recopilacion of Phihp H. towns as refused to pay the contri- 3 Quaderno de las Leyes Nue- butions of the Hermandad were vas de la Hermandad, (Burgos, excluded from its benefits, as well 1527,) leyes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,8, 16, as from traffic with, and even the 20, 36, 37. — Pulgar, Reyes Ca- power of recovering their debts tolicos, part. 2, cap. 51. — L. Ma- from other natives of the kingdom, rineo, Cosas Meraorables, fol. 160, Ley 33.