for the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature — and Alberto Hidalgo —candidate for the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature—; social researchers such as Julio César Tello, María Rostworowski, Ruth Shady, José de la Riva Agüero y Osma, Javier Prado y Ugarteche, Raúl Porras Barrenechea and Jorge Basadre; lawyers and politicians such as Francisco García-Calderón Landa —candidate for the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature—, Mariano H. Cornejo Zenteno —candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize from 1931 to 1939—, José Bernardo de Tagle, Bernardo O'Higgins, Víctor Raúl Haya de la Torre, Víctor Andrés Belaúnde and Beatriz Merino; economists like Javier Silva Ruete and Daniel Schydlowsky Rosenberg; twenty-one Presidents of the Republic of Peru; among many others. Honoris causa doctorates The Honoris causa doctorate is the highest academic distinction conferred by this higher house of studies. The University of San Marcos began to award this recognition in the 19th century to the two greatest liberators of South America: José de San Martín and Simón Bolívar. In addition to these, among the main figures who have received this recognition from the university during the 20th and 21st centuries are Pope John Paul II, French President Charles de Gaulle, Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borges, researchers Alberto Barton and Maria Reiche, the Secretary-generals of the United Nations Javier Pérez de Cuéllar and Ban Ki-moon, and the Nobel Prize laureates: Albert Einstein, Peter Agre, Peter C. Doherty, Pablo Neruda, Camilo José Cela, Mario Vargas Llosa, Muhammad Yunus, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Peter Diamond, Robert C. Merton, Eric Maskin, Cristóbal Pissarides, among others Popular culture Ricardo Palma recounts in one of the stories of his Peruvian Traditions, entitled El Patronato de San Marcos, how the institution acquired its current name in the 16th century and Mark the Evangelist as its patron —as well as, by extension, the Lion of Saint Mark as his pet. In 1572, Francisco de la Cruz, sixth rector of the University of San Marcos, was accused of being alumbrado and was therefore imprisoned by the Inquisition. A case was opened accusing him of being a false prophet, aberrational conduct in an exorcism, aberrational ideas such as the restitution of land to indigenous peoples, and heresy. The process came to an end in 1576, and although torture was applied to force him to retract, he was finally found guilty for having been and is a pertinacious heretic, heresiarch, dogmatizer, and teacher of new sects and errors.