Armed with these extraordinary powers, the oidores arrived at Vera Cruz the 6th of December, 1528. It would seem that from the beginning they resolved to stretch to its utmost limit the authority given them. Determining not to await the arrival of their president they sent him word of their intention,[1] and went on at once to the capital, accompanied by the three regidores of that city sent by the ayuntamiento to do them honor. At Mexico that body had been busied for several days preparing for their reception, and they made their entry with great pomp, under triumphal arches bearing inscriptions hailing their coming as blessed since it was in God's service that they came.[2] Although Matienzo was the oldest and most infirm of the four, Maldonado and Parada had fallen victims to the hardships of the voyage and the treachery of the climate shortly after their arrival in the country,[3] leaving their two associates in undisputed possession of power. The president did not arrive until the end of the month, entering upon his duties for the first time on the 1st of January, 1529, at a joint meeting
- ↑ Vetancurt, Tratado de Mex., 6, says that they did not advise the president of their coming until after their arrival at the capital.
- ↑ At a meeting of the cabildo, held on the 4th of December, the majordomo of the city was authorized to pay all expenses incurred in the public reception of the oidores. Libro de Cabildo, MS.
- ↑ 'Antes que viniese á esta ciudad,' Zumárraga, Carta, in Pacheco and Cárdenas, Col. Doc., xiii. 119.
be couched in Latin; and some of his poems are still preserved in the Escurial. His enduring monument, however, is the great national code; and his name has come down to us for transmission to future generations as the peer of Theodosius and Justinian. This work was begun four years after he came to the throne and finished seven years later, was the result of a dual inspiration drawn from the canon and the Roman laws, and was the most complete system of laws yet given to western Europe. Nevertheless it was not adopted even by Castile until the reign of Alfonso XI., who, at the celebrated córtes of Alcalá, held in 1348, recognized the Siete Partidas as the complementary code of the kingdom, and ordered that they should supply what was lacking in the Gothic fueros and the ordenamiento of the córtes referred to. The code takes its name from its division into seven parts, which treat, respectively, of the Catholic faith; the rights and duties of earthly sovereigns; justice and judges; matrimony; contracts; wills and inheritances; and crimes. 'The earliest edition is that of Venice, printed in 1483, and very rare; the best and latest, that of 1847, published at Paris, which follows the correct text of a former edition issued under the auspices of the Spanish academy, in which the forcible diction of the royal author is preserved verbatim, and adds thereto the Latin foot-notes of the learned Gregoria Lopez.
