Chairs of indigenous languages in the universities of the Indies (from 1580)

From 1580 the crown ordered salaried, competitively filled chairs of the lengua general at the universities of Lima and Mexico and in every city with an audiencia, and forbade bishops in the Indies to ordain any priest who did not hold a certificate from the professor of that language. The motive stated in the law is the teaching of Christian doctrine. The same code records the arrangement failing at Quito.