The old and the new Peru

by Marie Robinson Wright

UNIVERSITY OF SAN MARCOS, LIMA.

CHAPTER XV
THE OLDEST UNIVERSITY IN AMERICA—MODERN SCHOOLS OF PERU

DR. LUIS F. VILLARÁN, RECTOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF SAN MARCOS.

Founded in 1551, nearly a hundred years before Harvard received its charter, the University of San Marcos is the oldest educational institution of America. Under the royal seal of the Emperor Charles V. and Queen Joana, his mother, it was established in the City of the Kings soon after the inauguration of the viceroyalty, and was conceded all the honors and privileges enjoyed by the University of Salamanca, at that time the most celebrated seat of learning in Europe. The royal grant was issued to the priors of the Dominican order, and the original lecture halls were installed in the chief monastery of “Santo Domingo,” in Lima. Twenty years later, King Philip II. ordered the secularization of the university and its separation from the Dominican convent. The cathedral was then chosen as the hall for literary functions, and in one of its chapels, consecrated to the Virgin known as La Antigua, and especially venerated from that time by the university, the degrees of scholarship were conferred. This chapel is of especial interest because of its history, some of the most impressive ceremonies of the viceregal period having taken place here. The conferring of degrees in the early history of the university was attended with elaborate religious formalities, an important feature being the celebration of a mass of the Holy Ghost in preparation for the event. After this solemn sacrament, the candidate passed through two days’ examination, chiefly of a religious character. If successful, he was then led to the chapel of the Virgin, accompanied by his fellow-students and the doctors of the faculties, and was obliged to make the customary profession of faith, the same as that adopted by the University of Paris in the beginning of the sixteenth century, which required the candidate to pledge his loyalty to the mystery of the Immaculate Conception. The degree of doctor was then conferred by the dean, who represented both the royal and the pontifical authority; and as soon as this part of the ceremony was concluded the sponsor decorated the new doctor with the insignia of his class.

In 1572, Don Gaspar Meneses, a scholar of note, who held the degrees of Doctor of Medicine and Master of Arts, was appointed the first rector of the university. He was well fitted, by his piety and learning, to promote the education of the colony in accordance with the ideals that prevailed during that early period. The independent career of the University of San Marcos began in 1574, the name being chosen by lot from a list of saints’ appellatives; and on the 31st of December of that year the first reunion was celebrated in a building purchased by the faculty. Two years later, during the reign of the Viceroy Toledo, an edifice was constructed for the university, in the Plaza de la Constitucion, which was occupied by its classes until 1770, when, after the expulsion of the Jesuits, the committee charged with the final distribution of their schools made the college of San Carlos the university building, promoting the two flourishing Jesuit schools of San Carlos and, later, San Felipe, to equal dignity and privileges with the classes of San Marcos. The college of La Libertad was accorded the same advancement in 1826. La Libertad was a college for Indian princes, and had been called Del Principe during the viceroyalty. An interesting chronicler of those days gives a charming description of the collegians of San Carlos, Del Principe, Santo Toribio, and other schools. The students of San Carlos were distinguished by their black dress, cocked hats, and dress swords; the young caciques of Del Principe wore a full suit of green with a crimson shoulder ribbon and a cocked hat; and the Santo Toribio collegians adopted the almond-colored opa, a gown made like a poncho, wide at the bottom, with which a pale blue scarf was worn, and a square bonnet of black cloth.

CLOISTER OF THE NATIONAL COLLEGE OF GUADALUPE, LIMA.

The curriculum of a university in the sixteenth century was governed by the predominating influence in intellectual culture, as it is to-day. In Spain, even more than in other countries of Europe, this influence was essentially religious in character. Theology was the most important branch of study, and law and medicine were taught from textbooks which read more like religious treatises than scientific compendiums of knowledge. In the University of Lima, the plan of studies included three classes daily in theology, three in law, two in canonical law, two in medicine, two in grammar, and one in native languages, the last being considered necessary for the propagation of the faith among the Indians. During the viceroyalty, the University of San Marcos was an exclusively aristocratic institution, and its chief mission was to educate the nobility and the clergy, the latter ranking in the same class as the highest aristocracy. The candidate for a degree had to meet such enormous expenses that its advantages were within the reach of only a favored few. He was obliged to give a sum of money to each doctor of his faculty and to those of all the other faculties, a larger sum to the rector and further amounts to the dean of his faculty, the sponsors in the ceremony, and other ministering officials. If a layman, he was expected to present his fellow-graduates with a silk cap, the biretta taking its place in the case of a sacerdote. “Four pounds of food and six hens” are named as the gifts which each colleague must receive from the new doctor. These expenses amounted to large sums in the aggregate, and were greatly increased by the cost of the festivities with which such an event was celebrated. It was the custom for the graduate to give a bull fight in the plaza, always a costly entertainment; and he must have a sumptuous dinner, at which his friends would toast the successful scholar and felicitate him in poetical periods and oratorical flights. The most modest cost never went below ten thousand dollars in an epoch when that sum meant many times the wealth it does to-day; and stories are related of brilliant festivities in which the reckless scions of wealthy noble houses spent sums that call to mind the follies of millionaire spendthrifts of the present time. Toward the middle of the eighteenth century a resolution was passed by the directors, limiting the expense to a deposit of two thousand dollars in the treasury of the university, which freed the graduate from further responsibilities. This resolution continued in force until 1870, when the sum was reduced to eight hundred dollars; subsequent reductions have brought it down to the present cost, which is fifty soles for the bachelor’s degree and one hundred soles for that of doctor. Students who have excelled in their classes, and have taken the highest prizes, called contentas, are exempt from the payment of any dues. The purpose of the contenta is to enable young men of energy and ambition, but with small means, to profit by the advantages of a liberal education. The Faculty of Letters gives free scholarships to its most successful students and exempts from the payment of dues all who have obtained a prize in any course of study.