The Colegio de San Nicolás Obispo of Michoacán (Pátzcuaro, 1540)

A college founded by Vasco de Quiroga at Pátzcuaro about 1540 and taken under royal patronage in 1543, whose charter describes Spaniards, mestizos and some Indians studying grammar together — the last admitted, in the Crown's own words, "por ser Lenguas" and so that they should learn Castilian. Its collegians elected their rector. Its celebrated priority over Trent is its own claim, and its continuity was broken for a generation after 1810.