SALAMANCA, UNIVERSITY OF

A state institution of higher learning that originated in a 13th-century center of Spanish culture.

Early History Like all Spanish universities founded before the 14th century, Salamanca was created by royal decree and not by papal bull, although academic degrees were conferred in the name of both pope and king in a ceremony held in the cathedral. Like many early European universities, however, it had its origin in a cathedral school (see cathedral and episcopal schools) directed by a magister scholarum, although, unlike its French counterpart, the University of paris, its emphasis was not so much on theology as on law.

Founded by Alfonso IX of Leon (c. 1227) shortly before his death (1230), Salamanca had no foundation charter and did not take root as an institution of higher learning until ferdinand iii, King of Castille, issued a charter on April 6, 1243, confirming the privileges that his father had granted the students when he established higher schools or universities properly so-called (studia generalia ) and lower schools or colleges (studia ). The university's academic equilibrium, however, continued unsettled until 1254 when Ferdinand's scholarly son, Alfonso X, the Wise (1221–84), issued his "magna charta" that launched the institution on a long period of prosperity and intellectual progress with the establishment of three chairs in Canon and civil law, and one each in grammar, arts (including the organon and logic), and physics.

Despite the university's organization by royal decree as a studium generale, its schools retained the constitutional features of cathedral schools, which were sponsored by the bishop, and directed by a magister scholarum or scholasticus who, as Rashdall points out, played a more important role in Spanish universities than the grand chancellor at the University of Paris or bologna. Even the term claustro (cloister), commonly used throughout Spain to indicate the university building or academic staff, emphasizes the close affiliation that existed between universities and cathedrals.

At Alfonso's request, in April 1255 Pope Alexander IV issued a bull recognizing the existing studium generale at Salamanca and conferring on it extensive privileges of ecclesiastical exemption applicable to the university as a corporate body, to administrative officers, and to students. To graduates he granted the licentia docendi at all studia generalia except Paris and Bologna. Pope John XX in 1333 lifted this restriction on the jus ubique docendi.

In 1263, Alfonso the Wise issued the Siete Partidas, containing the first educational code of its kind in Europe, and in which, according to D'Irsay, Title II deals extensively with universities. In this code, Alfonso (1) clarified the meaning of studium (school) and studium generale (university); (2) recognized the union of masters and students as a universitas, and the university as an autonomous organization empowered to elect its own rector; (3) provided a modest endowment to pay professors' salaries and other expenses; (4) gave particular emphasis to the study of law; and (5) introduced music into the curriculum, making Salamanca apparently the first European university to offer music degrees.

Decline and Revival. Toward the end of the century, however, when Alfonso's son Sancho IV (1257–95) neglected to pay the meager endowment stipulated by his father, the unpaid professors went on strike and the studium was suspended. In 1300, Ferdinand IV (1285–1312), Sancho's son and successor, in an endeavor to restore the university to its earlier vigor, decided to transfer the ecclesiastical tithes from the churches to the university and in 1301 Pope Boniface VII approved the plan. In 1306, however, Pope Clement V ordered the tithes restored to the churches, which, deprived of financial support, had fallen into disrepair. The university was then again suspended until 1313 when Clement, in an attempt to solve the complex problem, allotted a third of the tithes to remunerate the professors of civil and Canon law, logic, grammar, music, and medicine. In fact, medicine, which had flourished in the 13th century in the universities of Salerno and Montpellier and then declined, was revived at Salamanca by professors who had translated the works of Avicenna and Averroës from the Arabic. Also during this period, notably sterile in literary pursuits, Salamanca together with Paris, Bologna, and oxford was ordered by the council of Vienne (1311–12) to introduce the study of Arabic and other Eastern languages. Theology was introduced into the studium in 1355 but did not gain prominence until 1416 when the antipope benedict xiii (Pedro de Luna) gave the university a constitution similar to that of Bologna and established chairs in theology. In 1422 Pope Martin V drew up definitive constitutions, reestablished the chairs of theology, and numbered Salamanca among the four greatest universities of the world (Paris, Bologna, Oxford, Salamanca). By the 16th century Salamanca had become a theological center to which the popes could turn for champions of the faith, a position that it held throughout the 17th century.

During the reign of Charles V (1500–58) and Philip II (1527–98) new statutes were added to Martin V's constitutions, the curriculum was reorganized, and Salamanca reached the highest peak of its development. By the 1560s the university had 11 chairs in philosophy and logic; ten in Canon Law; seven each in medicine and in theology; four in Greek; two in Hebrew and Chaldaean; one each in music and in astronomy; and 17 in grammar and rhetoric. The Faculty of Theology was divided into Prime and Vespers (according to the canonical hours), with chairs in the Bible, St. Thomas Aquinas, Duns Scotus, and the nominalists. The Bible included both the Old and the New Testament offered in alternate years. Peter Lombard's Sententiae were studied in both Prime and Vespers. In 1526 F. de vitoria introduced Thomas Aquinas's Summa theologiae as a textbook into Prime, and in the 1530s D. de Soto used it as a text in Vespers.

Although in the 16th century the university was one of the largest in Europe, ranking with Oxford and Paris as a center of learning, in the early years enrollment at Salamanca was small. In fact, in 1335 the century-old university had only 439 students, including masters, licentiates, bachelors, and scholars in the various faculties. The numbers gradually increased, however, in the 15th and through the 16th centuries until in 1552 they totaled 6,328; and in 1584, 6,778, the highest in its history. In the 17th century numbers began a steady decrease with 4,000 in 1601; 3,908 in 1641; 2,000 in 1701; 1,500 in 1750; 1,000 in the early 19th century; 412 in 1822; and 391 in 1875, its nadir.

Colleges and Schools. For almost 175 years, however, Salamanca had no colleges or schools. The first of the four famous major colleges, the College of St. Bartholomé, later the Old College, was founded in 1401 by Diego de Anaya Maldonado, Archbishop of Seville, for poor students, to include ten canonists and five theologians. Other major colleges were Cuenca, founded in 1500; Monte Olivete, in 1517; and Fonseca, also known as the Archbishop's College, in 1521. A number of minor colleges also developed in rapid succession in the 16th century: St. Thomas of Canterbury (1510), sponsored by the English hierarchy for the training of priests; St. Millan (1517); Santa Maria (in 1528 renamed Juan de Burgos); Santa Cruz of Canizares (c. 1534); Santa Magdalena, sponsored by the Order of Knights; Santa Susanna (Norbertines, 1570); Guadalupe (Brethren of the Common Life, 1572); St. Pelayo (1546), St. Elias (Discalced Carmelites, 1581); and four military colleges.

In 1592 under the sponsorship of Philip III and at the request of Thomas White, SJ, an Irish College, El Real Colegio de Nobles Irlandeses, was founded at Salamanca. It was open to students from all Irish provinces, although it was contended at the time that White had refused to receive students from Ulster and Connaught or the exiled chiefs, O'Neil and O'Donnell. The college was the training ground for many eminent Irish clergymen and members of the hierarchy. It was administered by Spanish Jesuits with an Irish Jesuit as vice rector, until 1767 when the Jesuits were expelled from Spain and the college, later known as St. Patrick's, was entrusted to the secular clergy. The college was closed after World War II and the library holdings were transferred to St. Patrick's College (Maynooth).

In 1600 the Discalced Carmelites at the university founded a school of philosophy called Salamina. A group of its teachers, the Salmanticenses, were the authors of the Cursus Theologicus Summam d. Thomae Complectens, an encyclopedic commentary on the Summa of St. Thomas Aquinas, designed to provide a solid theological basis for the friars of the Teresian reform which took 70 years to complete.

Pontifical University of Salamanca. In the late 18th century the liberals suppressed the major colleges under the pretext of decadence, without, however, replacing them; and in the early 19th century they closed the minor colleges. The laws of 1845 finally dissolved the last remnant of the medieval university, replacing it with a secular institution under government control. The Faculty of Theology was discontinued in 1868.

To replace the ecclesiastical faculties, the Spanish episcopate founded the Pontifical University of Salamanca in September 1940. The university is under the jurisdiction of an episcopal commission, the president of which is the cardinal archbishop of Toledo, primate of Spain. The bishop of Salamanca is the secretary general of the commission and grand chancellor of the university. The university opened with the faculties of theology, Canon Law, and philosophy, and expanded into the other humanities and sciences, offering bachelor, licentiate, and doctoral degrees.

Bibliography: h. rashdall, The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages, ed. f. m. powicke and a. b. emden, 3 v. (new ed. Oxford 1936). s. d'irsay, Histoire des universités françaises et étrangères des origines à nos jours, 2 v. (Paris 1933–35). c. pozo, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 9:256–258; Fuentes para la historia del metodo teológico en la Escuela de Salamanca (Granada 1962) v.1. f. martÍn hernandez, La Formación clerical en los colegios universitarios españoles (Vitoria 1961). p. urbano gonzÁlez de la calle and a. huarte y echenique, Constituciones de la Universidad de Salamanca, 1422 (Madrid 1927). l. sala balust, ed., Constituciones, estatutosy ceremonias de los antiquos colegios seculares de la Universidad de Salamanca (Madrid 1962–63) v.1–2.

[m. b. murphy/eds.]