University of Salamanca

“ It is the city of Salamanca. It lies in treeless mountains. Northward Zamora bristles warlike, westward Portugal turns an unfriendly back: and all about, Castile. Sierra de Gata, Peña de Francia, Sierra de Béjar, Sierra de Gredos ... from such wild quarries has come the mellow stone to build a scholar city: the city of the Wisdom and the Love of God within the crude dichotomy of Spain.
Salamanca is its University. Here in the first splendor of the Reconquista, Christian kings foregathered wise men of Israel and Islam and joined to them the aspirant scholars in Christ. ”

“ JAMES ARTHUR,
Professor of divinity in the university of Salamanca, was a native of Limerick, and professed himself a Dominican friar in the abbey of St. Stephen's, at Salamanca. After teaching for some years with great applause in several convents of his order, in Spain, he received the degree of Doctor in the university of Salamanca, and was appointed professor of divinity. ”

“ The romance of Gil Blas depicts the young men of the University of Salamanca as valets and students. What existed in Spain in the eighteenth century was the condition of many students of the middle ages. Yes, they reduced themselves to servitude to obtain degrees, and made themselves valets to gain their daily bread—a noble servitude for which they did not blush, which put the body in subjection, and left the mind free, showing the superiority of mind over matter ”

“ The next day he was ordered to quit the kingdom; and Ximenes, supported by the royal power, pursued his system of reformation.
Isabella was a patron of literature. The first printing press 344 set up in Spain was established at Burgos under her auspices; and all printed books, and foreign and classical works, were imported free of duty. Through her zeal and patronage, the University of Salamanca rose to that eminence which it assumed among the learned institutions of that period, and rivalled those of Pisa and Padua. ”

“ After completing his studies at the university of Salamanca, he was desirous of being enrolled in the order of the jesuits; but his faculties were at that time either so obtuse, or his diligence had been so remiss, that it was with great difficulty he could obtain admission into their fraternity. ”

“ Salamanca is a sleepy old city which the world seems to have left behind. In the summer it is a veritable furnace, in the winter it is swept by icy blasts. Before the Christian era it was known as Salmantica. Hannibal came and captured it in B.C. 247 and under the Romans it was the ninth military station on the great road which they built connecting Cadiz and Merida with Astorga and Gijón. Alfonso IX. of Leon founded the university, which reached its zenith as a seat of learning during the sixteenth century. ”

“ In his fourteenth year he was sent to the University of Salamanca, his father, who built great hopes upon his brilliant talents, having destined him for the law. He chose a calling for him which opened up better prospects for an industrious young man than any other, but the son had no sympathy with his father’s purpose. ”

“ I have visited Salamanca after the great defeat of the philosophical party, the strongest that ever was formed in Spain. A man of first-rate literary character among us, [19] whom merit and court favour had raised to one of the chief seats in the judicature of the country, but whom court caprice had, about this time, sent to rusticate at Salamanca, was doing me the honours of the place, when, approaching the convocation-hall of the university, we perceived the members of the faculty of divinity strolling about, while waiting for a meeting of their body. ”

“ My dear boy, I am in love with somebody else. Knowing how clever and ingenious you are, I want you to come at once with me to Salamanca and help me to win my love."
Naturally, I was much disconcerted by this strange turn of affairs. However, I managed to recover myself and listen to my mistress. She had fallen in love with a gallant young nobleman, Don Luis Pacheco, who was unaware of the passion he inspired. He was going the next day to Salamanca to study at the university, and Aurora had resolved to go there also, dressed as a young nobleman, and make his acquaintance. ”

“ The city is still much the same in outward appearance as when its tortuous streets were thronged with students. The university was naturally the chief source of wealth to the town, the population of which in the 16th century numbered 50,000, 10,000 of whom were students. Its decay of course reacted on the townsfolk, but it fortunately also arrested the process of modernization. The ravages of war alone have wrought serious damage, for the French in their defensive operations in 1811–1812 almost destroyed the western quarter. ”

“ The Spanish universities, in fact, still taught from the same books they had used in the time of Cardinal Ximenes, and by the same methods. The scholastic philosophy was still regarded as the highest form of merely intellectual culture. Diego de Torres, afterwards distinguished for his knowledge in the physical sciences,—a man born and educated at Salamanca in the first half of the century,—says, that, after he had been five years in one of the schools of the University there, it was by accident he learned the existence of the mathematical sciences. ”

“ Not until the latter half of the eleventh century, in the days of King Alfonso VI, were the Moors driven south of Leon, and Salamanca could at last claim to be body and soul Christian. The safety of the city was finally assured by Alfonso's conquest of Toledo.
The university, destined to become so famous, was founded by Alfonso IX about 1230. Among the Arab rulers in Spain, there were not a few as eager as their co-believers in eastern Islam to learn all that the civilized world could teach in art and science. ”

“ As one of the professors was promoted to the royal Audiencia of México, the chair of the morning classes in canonical law was given to the very reverend father Pedro Murillo Velarde, of the same Society, who had been professor of these branches in the universities of Granada and Salamanca, as a collegiate in the imperial university of San Miguel of Granada, and of the chief [college] of Cuenca at Salamanca. ”

“ The university statutes were remodelled in 1757, but financial troubles and the incessant wars which checked almost every reform in Spain prevented any recovery up to 1857, when a fresh reorganization was effected. At the beginning of the 20th century the number of students was about 1200, and the number of professors 19—fewer than in any other Spanish university. ”

“ But the Jesuit is more than an architect: he is a soldier. When he sets aside the sword for the word, the cause is strategy. His tactics remain warlike. War{172} is pragmatic. Subtlety, surprise, mobility, deceit are warlike arms.
The world stands at a crisis. The grandiose structure of medieval Rome—the highest spiritual Form ever achieved by Europe—crumbles and sags. Spain strips to save it.{173}
d. The Jurist
At Salamanca a Dominican monk teaches theology. His name is Fray Francisco de Vitoria. Salamanca, fostered by the Catholic King, becomes the leading university of Spain. ”

“ Learning was still further encouraged by the founding of a new University at Alcalá de Henares to supplement the famous foundation of Salamanca, and men of letters and artists were welcomed and honored at Court. Among them stand out the names of Pulgar, the first historian of Castile; Cota, the first Spanish dramatist and Rincon, the earliest of the native painters. The sixteenth century, in fact, opened with a brilliant dawn, full of promise for the new nation, if only it might have had leisure to consolidate and develop naturally its resources. ”

“ The university was transferred from Palencia to Salamanca, early in the thirteenth century. Forner, Oracion Apologética por la España, Madrid, 1786, p. 170. By the beginning of the fifteenth century, it had become very prosperous (Sempere, De la Monarchie Espagnole, vol. i. p. 65) ; and in 1535, it is described as ‘a great Universitie, conteyning seven or eight thowsand students.’ See a letter from John Mason, dated Valladolid, 3rd July, 1635, in Ellis's Original Letters, second series, vol. ii. p. 56, London, 1827. ”

“ In later times it was renowned for its richly endowed university, founded by Cardinal Jimenes de Cisneros in 1510, which at the height of its prosperity numbered 12,000 students, and was second only to that of Salamanca. Here the famous edition of the Bible known as the Complutensian Polyglot was prepared from 1514 to 1517. The college of San Ildefonso, completed in 1583, was the chief university building. ”

“ The universities of Spain are now ten: Madrid, with 6672 students; Barcelona with 2459; Valencia, 2118; Seville, 1382; Granada, 1225; Valladolid, 880; Santiago de Compostella, 779; Saragossa, 771; Salamanca, 372; and Oviedo with 216: making a total of 16,874 university students. The number of regular professors is 415, with 240 supernumeraries and assistants, making a total of 655; that is, one professor to every 26 students. The salary of the professors varies from 120l. to 260l. per annum, except in Madrid, where it is from 160l. to 300l. ”

“ Cisneros enforced very rigid examinations. In the theological course which was divided into ten terms, there were five tests. The first and most dreaded was the Alfonsina, which corresponded to that of the Sorbonne of Paris. Those who failed usually went to other universities. To the successful licentiates, letras de orden were given, the first being designated by an L, and the others by superior or inferior letters, according to their merit. The number of students never exceeded 2,000, one-third of the attendance at Salamanca. ”

“ After this stage, he may, under certain conditions, break up all his college connections, and yet remain in the University." W. Everett, On the Cam., lecture 1. {702} EDUCATION: Spain and Portugal. "Salamanca was founded in the 13th-century, and received its statutes in the year 1422, out of which was developed the following constitution. The rector, with eight 'consiliarii,' all students, who could appoint their successors, administered the university. The doctors render the oath of obedience to the rector. The 'domscholaster' is the proper judge of the school ”

“ What natural and economic forces made this particular spot, where the barren, treeless plain slopes down to the bed of the Tormes, the centre of learning for Spain, the intermediary for all Europe of Arabic science and Western thought and a great, and in some ways sumptuous city? What products of the earth, got by what toil of man, where the earth seems completely barren and man completely idle, provided the money to build so extensively and so elaborately? For Salamanca is a city where Plateresque and Baroque fancy have impressed their wildest dreams on the rich surface of the stone. ”

“ The great gate of the Library is now the chief relic of these bygone glories: and that gem of the early Renaissance is worthily supported by the arcaded quadrangles of some of the colleges and schools. They are built of the warm golden-brown stone which is common to most Salamancan monuments, and their richly-carved parapets and fantastically-shaped arches have an air of oriental opulence which is very taking to the eye.
But even apart from its churches, convents, and colleges, Salamanca would still remain notable by reason of its palaces alone. ”

“ It was natural, therefore, that another party, or school, should be formed, which should endeavour to avoid the excesses of both its predecessors, and unite their merits; one that should not be insensible to the power and richness of the old writers of the time of the Philips, and yet, escaping from their extravagances and bad taste, should mould itself in some degree according to the severe state of literary opinion then prevailing on the Continent. Such a school in fact appeared at Salamanca in the latter part of the reign of Charles the Third and the beginning of that of Charles the Fourth. ”

“ The Puerta del Rio, with the Cathedral Tower.
It is one of the penalties of sketching in a crowded city that everybody who has no immediate occupation of his own becomes consumingly interested in yours. There is but one spot in Salamanca where one is quite secure from surveillance, and that is opposite the porch of San Martin, perhaps the most frequented corner in the town. Here, balanced gingerly upon a narrow ledge, you overlook the heads of the bystanders, and even the most agile urchin can find no foothold in your rear. ”

“ Having the whole patronage of the Crown in his hands, he placed, within a short time, all the existing members of the Salamanca colleges, in the most desirable situations both of the church and law, filling their vacancies with young men of no family. Thus the bond of collegiate influence was suddenly snapped asunder: the old members [Pg 95] disowned their successors; and such as a few days before looked upon a fellowship as an object of ambition, would have felt mortified at the sight of a relative wearing the gown of a reformed college. ”

“ We the King and the Queen of Castile, of Leon, and of Aragon, Sicily, etc., send this to salute you, as one whom we love and esteem highly, and to show we desire God may give life, health, and honor, even to the extent of your own desire. We inform you that the City of Salamanca is one of the most notable, populous, and principal cities of our kingdoms, in which there is a society of scholars, and where all sciences may be studied, and to which people from all states continually come. ”