_Azara_ (Don Joseph Nicolas d'), born in Aragon, was successively director of the office of the minister for foreign affairs, minister plenipotentiary at Rome, and ambassador extraordinary to Paris. He published a translation of the _Life of Cicero_, with notes, illustrations, and plates. He was considered one of the most learned men in Spain during the reigns of Charles III. and his successor. Although he almost always resided in Italy or France, his name was in the registers of the holy office. He was denounced at Saragossa and Madrid as an incredulous philosopher; but there were no proofs, and the trial was suspended until fresh charges should be brought against him. _Aragon_ (the deputation of). See the preceding Article. _Aragon._ The Chief Justice of Aragon was invested with supreme power, and placed between the king and the nation, to decide without appeal, if the king's ministers infringed the laws established at the beginning of the monarchy. Even the king was obliged to submit to the decisions of this magistrate in all constitutional affairs. In order to prevent disputes between the two powers, the chief justice and his tribunal were independent of the king in the criminal proceedings. The inquisitors of Saragossa, regardless of these regulations, commenced proceedings against the chief justice, and in 1591 threatened to excommunicate him. Some account of this affair will be given in the trial of Antonio Perez. _Bañüelos_ (Don Vincent) was excommunicated by the Inquisition of Toledo, for endeavouring to defend the jurisdiction of the civil tribunal in a trial for homicide. _Barcelona._ See the preceding Article. _Barrientos_ (the commandant), knight of the military order of St. Jago, and Corregidor and Sub-prefect of Logroño, was obliged, in 1516, to go to Madrid, and appear before the inquisitor-general of the Supreme Council, to ask pardon for having refused to lend assistance to the archers of the holy office in arresting some monks. He was subjected to the lesser _auto-da-fé_, attended mass, standing with a torch in his hand, and received some slight strokes of a whip from the inquisitor; this ceremony was concluded by a solemn absolution from all censures. _Benalcazar_ (the Count de) was excommunicated and menaced with an arrest by the inquisitors of Estremadura in 1500. The same threat was made to the governor of the fortress of Benalcazar; their offence was having defended their temporal power against the pretensions of the holy office, in the case of a woman who was arrested for having uttered some words against the faith.