Page:The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803 (Volume 05).djvu/309

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1582–1583]
FOUNDATION OF AUDIENCIA
307

113. The said clerks shall enter in one order of court all the official positions which are provided for a village [i. e., of Indians], and on account thereof they shall receive no excessive fees. Their fees shall be paid by the superintendents [calpiscas] of the villages.

114. Item: No Indians shall be granted in encomiendas by repartimiento to the clerks of our said Audiencia. If they are so granted, the said clerks shall have no authority to keep them.

115-120. [Section 115 provides that appeals from the decision of the inspector of weights and measures of the city where the Audiencia sits are to be given preference. Sections 116-120 contain provisions for promptitude and accuracy in the business of recording—among others, that the pages of the record of a case shall run with serial numbers, and that notice of the number of pages and parts of pages be given to the parties. The penalty for violation of each of these sections is two pesos for the court-room of the Audiencia.]

121. [The registers must be marked with a cross at the end of each year, under a penalty of thirty pesos to the exchequer.]

122. [If there is a supply of clerks, complaints must not be made before a clerk who is brother or cousin to the plaintiff.]

123. The said clerks shall not ask or accept fees for the ecclesiastical cases conducted before the said Audiencia at the suit of the corregidors or judges of residencia, with regard to matters relating to the defense of the royal authority; or for the proceedings transacted before the said officers and the decisions rendered with regard thereto—under penalty of a