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