To swell the fund of the montepío militar the following deductions were made from each officer's pay from the time when he first entered the service: half a month's pay retained once; eight maravedís de plata fuerte out of every peso fuerte; the increase of pay for the first month in the case of officers promoted to higher rank and the amount of the whole month's salary in the case of officers and officials newly employed.[1] With the view of creating a fondo de inválidos, from which invalided officers and soldiers were to draw pensions, it was ordered by the crown January 14, 1775,[2] that a deduction of eight maravedís de plata should be made from the pay and extra allowances of officers and men in actual service.
The jurisdiccion eclesiástica castrense, or the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the army and navy of Spain and her Indies, was under the vicario general de los reales ejércitos y armadas, an office annexed to that of the patriarca de las Indias y capellan mayor of the
- ↑ Agreeably to the royal order of April 20, 1761, establishing the montepío militar. Real Declaracion, in Reales Ordenes, ii. 305-31. The montepío was not founded in New Spain till February, 1765. It was done with the fund accumulated by taking from each officer one whole month's pay, and 2½ per cent from his running pay; to that were added $2,000 annually, taken from the fondo de vacantes mayores y menores; widows and orphans received one fourth of the pay their husbands or fathers obtained at the time of their death. Later all excesses collected under the 2½ per cent were reimbursed. The income of the fund till 1792 was $362,381; the out-go $119,692. Revilla Gigedo, Instruc., MS., 5-8. The eight maravedís taken from every dollar of an officer or official's pay were to be also deducted from all other allowances he might have from the treasury, under royal orders of 1779, 1788, and 1791. No such discount could be made from persons enjoying pensions from the montepío fund. Órdenes de la Corona, MS., vi. 68-72.
- ↑ Further explanations were issued in October, 1791. Ordenes de la Corona, MS., 67-68, 72.
$1,125; lieutenant-general, $750; mariscal de campo or rear admiral, $625; brigadier and colonel, $500; lieutenant-colonel, $375; sargento mayor, or major, $319; captain, $188; adjutant, $169; lieutenant, $120; sub-lieutenant or alférez, $94. The same privilege was awarded to the widows and orphans, or mothers of civil officials belonging to the pay department of the army or navy. The following exceptions were established. Widows, orphans, or mothers of officers who, after the foundation of the montepío, married with a rank below that of a full captain in the army, or a teniente de fragata in the navy, had no claim to the allowance, unless their husbands, fathers, or sons had died in battle; in this event those heirs were entitled to the pay. The same rule applied to officials connected with the pay department of the navy who had not attained the grade of a purser of a ship of the line. Revilla Gigedo, Bandos, no. 27. An order of February 21, 1789, the widows, etc., of officers who married after being sixty years old. Gaz. Méx. (1788-9), iii. 363.
