sovereign by the brief of Pope Clement XIII. issued in 1762, with special powers and privileges renewable every seven years. It was exercised in the Indies by tenientes vicarios generales, which title was usually, though not necessarily, conferred on the diocesan bishops by the vicario general. To do away with all doubts and disputes on the subject of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, the pope on June 12, 1807, referring to and confirming all previous briefs pertinent to the subject, placed, at the king's request, under the exclusive control of the vicario general, and detached from that of the ordinaries, all persons, clergymen included, belonging to the military service in any of its branches, and all who held the fuero militar, with their families, employés, or servants. The followers of the army, and all individuals subject to military rule, forts, fortresses, castles, schools and colleges, hospitals, factories, arsenals, navy-yards, war-ships, and transports were placed under the same jurisdiction.[1]
The judiciary system in its connection with the service also deserves attention. By royal orders of 1606, 1616, 1617, 1633, and 1634, the commandants of castles and forts were clothed with judicial powers over all causes, civil or criminal, of the troops and people within their respective commands. Appeals were allowed to the governing captain-generals.
Militia officers and men, while in active service, had the privilege of fuero militar. Neither the audiencias nor the alcaldes del crimen could intervene in their civil or criminal trials, which had to be adjudicated upon, in the first and second instances, by the captain-generals, or comandantes generales; and appeals from their decisions went to the junta de guerra de Indias in Spain.74[2] Still, any person, possessed of that privilege, if found committing an oftence against the general laws, or soon after, might be arrested by
- ↑ And every place or building permanently applied to the uses of the army and navy. Zamora, Bib. Leg. Ult., vi. 190-205; Méx., Providencias Diocesanas, MS., 20, 21, 33-35, 68, 69, 106; Real Órd., Eno. 21, 1791 (with autog. sign of King Cárlos IV. and sec.), in Revilla Gigedo, Bandos, no. 34.
- ↑ The fuero militar could be waived, however, under a law of December 31, 1642, by officers and men, in contracts or deeds of conveyance. Recop. Ind., 605-11.
