The Reforms of 1771

THE REFORM of the University of Salamanca in 1771 is a problem of central importance to the intellectual history of eighteenth-century Spain, for Salamanca was the premier university of the Spanish world. Therefore, the strength of the Enlightenment within her cloisters is a question of importance to the larger problem of the impact of the new learning in Spain as a whole. Generally speaking, the University has been characterized as a stronghold of musty Catholic conservatism which had to be pried open by main force by the enlightened ministers of Charles III. But close inspection shows Salamanca playing a part in its own reform and gives a much different picture of the currents of intellectual change in the University. On the other hand, it is quite clear that by the middle of the eighteenth century Salamanca badly needed reform. The school could be aptly described as lethargic, routinarian, tolerant of serious abuses, and stale in curriculum. Perhaps the most striking thing about the University on the eve of reform was the rigidity and the partiality of academic selection and promotion. In medieval times, Salamancan chairs were won by opposition [oposicion], a process involving open contests between aspirants who gave trial lectures before the students sitting as judges. In practice over several centuries, this method of selection proved too idealistic, and the problems of bribery, block voting by convents and colleges, barefaced campaigning for jobs, and outright riot and civil disorder reached alarming proportions. In the sets of statutes enacted in 1538, 1561, 1595, and 1625, the Spanish king, by then in virtual command of the University, attempted to control the situation, but severe regulations begot nothing more than progressively more ingenious evasions.' Finally, in 1641 the king moved

Enlightenment · Epistemology · Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Historical Economic and Legal Thought · Historical Studies in Latin America · Philosophy

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