Before me:

_Pedro Hurtado Desquibel_




_An act concerning the order which the alcaldes-in-ordinary and the
alguazil-mayor of this court must observe in their seats._

In the city of Manila, on the fifth of March, one thousand five hundred
and ninety-nine, the president and auditors of the royal Audiencia of
the Philipinas Islands declared that, whereas some dissensions and
difficulties have occurred between the alcaldes-in-ordinary of this
city and the alguazil-mayor of the court of this royal Audiencia, in
the churches and public places where they have met, in regard to the
seats and places which each shall occupy, and their precedence--so
that it has resulted in their coming to blows, to the great scandal
and indecorum of their offices, and particularly in contempt of this
said royal Audiencia: therefore it is necessary in this matter to
provide some regulation to be kept and observed in like cases by the
aforesaid officials, so that the said disturbances shall cease. In
order that the said alcaldes-in-ordinary of this city shall keep
their known seats and places, and that they may be separate from
the said alguazil-mayor and from the ministers of this said royal
Audiencia, they declared that they ought to order, and they did so
order, that, when the alguazil-mayor of this court shall be present
in any of the churches of this city, without the president, auditors,
and fiscal, or any others whom he might join, he shall not take any
seat or bench belonging to the alcaldes-in-ordinary or regidors (nor