The president was to hold office for four years; and the first on whom the dignity was bestowed was General Francisco de Paula Santander.
The leading Peruvian authors on constitutional and legal subjects are Dr Jose Santistevan, who has published volumes on civil and criminal law; Luis Felipe Villaran (subsequently rector of the university at Lima), author of a work on constitutional right; Dr Francisco Garcia Calderon (once president of Peru), author of a dictionary of Peruvian legislation, in two volumes; Dr Francisco Xavier Mariategui, one of the fathers of Peruvian independence; and Dr Francisco de Paula Vigil (1792-1875), orator and statesman as well as author, whose work, Defensa de los gobiernos, is a noble and enlightened statement of the case for civil governments against the pretensions of the court of Rome.
There he was joined by two wealthy Roman ladies, Paula, a widow, and Eustochium, her daughter, one of Jerome's Hebrew students.
When they returned to Palestine they all settled at Bethlehem, where Paula built four monasteries, three for nuns and one for monks.
The foundations were once laid for a great cathedral on the Largo de Sao Francisco de Paula, but the building stone was taken for a neighbouring theatre, and the foundations were afterwards used for the Polytechnic School.
