The memorial presented by Messa y Lugo was chiefly concerned with the story of his own arbitrary arrest and imprisonment at the instigation of Fajardo on trumped-up charges, as he alleged. The judicial inquiry lasted two months, and it furnishes an excellent example of the power of a governor over a weak audiencia. The occasion for the investigation had been a disagreement between the governor and the oidor over the latter's claim to act as administrator of the property of Oidor Alcaraz, who had died in office. The governor, by the appointment of a magistrate favorable to himself as juez de difuntos, had hoped to control the administration of the property, since Messa was under sentence of residencia, and the remaining magistrates of the audiencia were favorable to him. Moreover, Fajardo wished to forestall certain charges of misgovernment which he knew that Messa was prepared to make against him. Consequently the governor designated an alcalde of the city to conduct the residencia. Messa was given practically no opportunity to defend himself. His property was sequestrated, even to his wife's clothing. Seeing that he could not obtain justice, he escaped from prison and took refuge in a Dominican convent.
Messa, from the seclusion of the monastery, challenged the legality of the governor's procedure. According to his contention, the previous law authorizing the governor to name an alcalde ordinario to try an oidor, was now a dead-letter. Its chief defect had been that an alcalde, who was the creature of the governor, would always aim to render a decision pleasing to his master. He urged that the law then in force authorized the governor to proceed with the trial of an oidor, only upon consulting the audiencia, and moreover that resulting condemnations, if they were personal or corporal, should be confirmed by the Council of the Indies. [524] Messa therefore claimed that the governor had no authority to proceed with this case alone, since "those nearest (your Majesty), as are the auditors (oidores), cannot be imprisoned or proceeded against except by your Majesty or the royal Council, or by your order."
The oidor then proceeded to show the extent to which, in his opinion, the governor might intervene in the sessions and proceedings of the audiencia. He wrote: