For several years following these events, the question of prestige in the civil affairs of the colony was acrimoniously contested by the governor-general, the supreme court and the ecclesiastics. The governor was censured by his opponents for alleged undue exercise of arbitrary authority. The supreme court, established on the Mexican model, was reproached with seeking to overstep the limits of its functions. Every legal quibble was adjusted by a dilatory process, impracticable in a colony yet in its infancy, where summary justice was indispensable for the maintenance of order imperfectly understood by the masses. But the fault lay less with the justices than with the constitution of the court itself. Nor was this state of affairs improved by the growing discontent and immoderate ambition of the clergy, who unremittingly urged their pretensions to immunity from State control, affirming the supramundane condition of their office. An excellent code of laws, called the Leyes de Indias, in force in Mexico, was adopted here, but modifications in harmony with the special conditions of this colony were urgently necessary, while all the branches of government called for reorganization or reform. Under these circumstances, the bishop of Manila, Domingo Salazar, took the initiative in commissioning a priest, Fray Alonso Sanchez, to repair first to the viceroy of Mexico and afterward to the King of Spain, to expose the grievances of his party. Alonso Sanchez left the Philippines with his appointment as procurator-general for the Augustine order of monks. As the execution of the proposed reforms, which he was charged to lay before his majesty, would, if conceded, be intrusted to the government of Mexico, his first care was to seek the partisanship of the viceroy of that colony; and in this he succeeded. Thence he continued his journey to Seville, where the court happened to be, arriving there in September, 1587. He was at once granted an audience by the king, to present his credentials and memorials relative to Philippine affairs in general; and ecclesiastical judicial, military and native matters in particular. The king promised to peruse all the documents, but suffering from gout, and having so many and distinct State concerns to attend to, the negotiations were greatly delayed. Finally, Sanchez sought a minister who had easy access to the royal apartments, and this personage obtained from the king permission to examine the documents and hand to him a succinct resumé of the whole for his majesty’s consideration. A commission was then appointed, including Sanchez, and the deliberations lasted five months. At this period, public opinion in the Spanish universities was very divided with respect to Catholic missions in the Indies.