This chapter focuses on a key occurrence leading up to the general uprising of Chuquisaca on May 25, 1809. In January 1809, the University of Charcas’s academic senate publicly and forcefully condemned Princess Carlota Joaquina’s claim to Spain’s regency during her brother Ferdinand VII’s captivity. This momentous political event, known as the “Acta de los Doctores,” has often been interpreted as a forthright expression of royalism and evidence that the movement was more anti-Portuguese than anti Spanish. A close reading of the text reveals that the faculty had a more cunning political aim in disparaging the Portuguese maneuvers: to vilify the Spanish magistrates who had allowed the Carlota papers to be disseminated. Often misinterpreted as a mere pro-Spanish manifesto, the “Acta de los Doctores” crowned and epitomized a by then ingrained culture of political dissension. The last section examines another clash between the university and the audiencia that served as a direct prelude to the May 25 uprising. In this case, it was a clash over the rector’s right to use a cushion during a mass attended by the ministers. At a time when all power hierarchies were being challenged, struggles over ceremonial prominence took on a highly consequential resonance.