Page:History of the Reign of Ferdinand and Isabella the Catholic Vol. I.djvu/339

queen pre- side in courts of justice. ADMINISTRATION OF CASTILE. 195 cost. Severe penalties wore enacted against venal- chapter it J in the judges, a gross evil under the preceding '- — reigns, as vt^ell as against such counsel as took exorbitant fees, or even maintained actions that were manifestly unjust. Finally, commissioners were appointed to inspect and make report of the proceedings of municipal and other inferior courts throughout the kingdom. ^^ The sovereigns testified their respect for the law King and , , , queen p'- by reviving the ancient, but obsolete practice of ^^^^^'^^, presiding personally in the tribunals, at least once a week. " I well remember," says one of their court, " to have seen the queen, together with the Catholic king, her husband, sitting in judgment in the alcazar of Madrid, every Friday, dispensing justice to all such, great and small, as came to de- mand it. This was indeed the golden age of jus- tice," continues the enthusiastic writer, " and since our sainted mistress has been taken from us, it has been more difficult, and far more costly, to transact business with a stripling of a secretary, than it was with the queen and all her ministers." ^^ By the modifications then introduced, the basis Resstabiish- ... . ment of or- was laid of the judiciary system, such as it has <^^'"- been perpetuated to the present age. The law ac- quired an authority, which, in the language of a 14 Ordenangas Reales, lib. 2, tit. cortesof Toledo, in 1480, the king 1, 3,4, 15, 16, 17, 19 ; lib. 3, tit. 2. was required to take his seat in the Recop. de las Ley es, lib. 2, tit. council every Friday. (Ordenan- 5, 16. — Pulgar, Reyes Catoli- cas Reales, lib. 2, tit. 3, L i, part. 2, cap. 94. It was not so new for the ^5 Oviedo, Quincuagenas, MS. ians to have good laws, as f By one of the statutes of the monarchs to observe them.