ALCALÁ DE HENARES. - City of central Spain (the Complutum of the Romans) in the province of Madrid, formerly the seat of a diocese (v. MADRID).
1. THE UNIVERSITY
The first idea of a Studium generale in A. is owed to Archbishop Gonzalo, who on 20 May 1293 obtained the privilege of its erection from the King of Castile Sancho IV "el Bravo." Archbishop Don Alfonso Carrillo, having received its confirmation from Pius II (16 June 1459), entrusted the studium to the guardian of the Franciscan convent of St. Didacus.
But the true University of Complutum, rival of Salamanca and called by the Spaniards "the eighth wonder of the world," was the work of the Franciscan Francisco Ximenes (Jiménez de Cisneros), elected Archbishop of Toledo in 1495 and created cardinal in 1507. The latter, with the aim of endowing the diocese with a learned and numerous clergy, and of facilitating the formation of poor students, who were unable to go far away, thought of erecting a great university, for which he obtained from Alexander
VI, on 13 Apr. 1499, the bull of foundation Inter cetera, which granted it the same privileges as the Universities of Salamanca, Valladolid, Bologna and others. With breadth of vision and of means, Ximenes began the works in 1498, prolonging them for a decade. 25 July 1508, the date of the inauguration of the major college of St. Ildephonsus, the center of the university, is historically considered as the beginning of its academic courses.
Through the variety of its institutions and colleges (Cisneros had conceived 18 of them), A. became a true city of studies. The college of St. Ildephonsus was reserved for theologians, and its superior was by right rector of the university; the college of St. Isidore was destined for students of rhetoric; that of St. Balbina and of St. Catherine, for philosophers; that of St. Jerome, also called the Trilingual, for the study of the biblical languages (Hebrew, Greek, Latin). Perhaps A. was the first university city to possess a women's college, that of St. John of Penitence, directed by Franciscan nuns. It also had, like Salamanca, a university hospital. In 1508-1509 the faculties of philosophy and theology began to function; the following year those of arts and canon law. The faculty of medicine was instituted by Leo X on 3 Nov. 1514. The chairs, which at first were 33, soon rose to 46, thus distributed, with the preponderant importance of the theological ones: 8 of theology, 2 of Sacred Scripture, 6 of canon law, 4 of medicine, 2 of anatomy and surgery, 8 of arts and philosophy, 1 of moral theology, 1 of mathematics, 14 of languages and rhetoric. The faculty of civil law, excluded by the founder, was erected later by Alexander VII, on 7 June 1656. The statutes, drafted by the cardinal himself, were published on 22 Jan. 1510, and reformed in 1517. The abbot of St. Justus performed the functions of chancellor. The newly graduated had to commit themselves to defend, in public and in private, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin.
Anticipating the work of the Counter-Reformation, Cisneros sought to make his university an active Catholic humanistic center. He called there, especially from Salamanca and from Paris, the greatest luminaries of the time, and through them gave rise to first-rate publications, such as the edition of the most ancient liturgical books of the Spanish Church (Mozarabic Liturgy) and the celebrated polyglot Bible, called Complutensian, the first of its kind (6 folio vols., 1514-17).
Arising in the period of the greatest university splendor, the University of A., through the perfection of its organization, the number of its students and the fame of its masters, gave great impetus to that Spanish Renaissance of the 16th century, which marks one of the most flourishing periods of Catholic science. Among its most renowned teachers are to be remembered Melchior Cano (1543-46), Báñez (1567-69) and Suárez (1585-93). There were students and then professors there St. Thomas of Villanova and his illustrious pupil Francisco or Domingo de Soto (1520-24). The University of Complutum favored the Carmelite reform (cf. St. Teresa, Foundations, XXIX, 30). For the so-called Theses of A. at the time of the Thomist-Molinist struggles over the efficacy of grace under Clement VIII (1602), cf. Pastor, XI, pp. 567-71.
After various vicissitudes, in 1836, the University, with its magnificent library, was transferred to the nearby capital Madrid, to form the Central University of Spain, the only one that had, until recent times, all the faculties and could confer the title of doctor. Housed at first in the seminary of the Nobles, then in the "Salesas Nuevas," in 1842 it settled in the building that it occupied until the erection of the grandiose University City, decreed by King Alfonso XIII (17 May 1927) and inaugurated by Gen. F. Franco on 12 Oct. 1943. It preserves the ancient coat of arms with the inscription "Universitas Complutensis. Ciudad Universitaria de Madrid." Among its buildings, the Colegio Mayor Ximénez de Cisneros should be noted. Today, with its various Colegios, which ensure the spiritual and social formation of the students, it is a model university center.
2. THE COLLEGE OF THE CARMELITES
In A., besides the university, mention should be made of the College of the Discalced Carmelites, dedicated to the patriarch St. Cyril (Complutense Collegium Carmelitarum Discalceatorum divo Cyrillo sacrum), which remained famous in Carmelite history for the so-called "chapter of the separation," held there on 3 March 1581 (cf. St. Teresa, Foundations, XXIX, 30). As a consequence of the Teresian reform - which, because of the dangers of university environments, forbade the new religious to follow its courses - a Studium of philosophy was erected there for the students of the Order. In 1624 the college began the anonymous publication of the famous Complutensis Artium cursus, whose exact title, indicating the method and doctrinal orientation, was: Collegium Complutense Philosophicum hoc et Artium Cursus sive disputationes in Aristotelis Dialecticam et Philosophiam Naturalem iuxta miram Angelici Doctoris divi Thomae et Scholae eius doctrinam.
The author of the first volume (Logica) is Fr. Michele della S.ma Trinità; the other three (Comm. in VIII libros Phys. and in libros de Anima) are the work of Fr. Antonio della Madre di Dio (d. 1641), also the editor of the first volumes of the subsequent Cursus Theologicus Salmanticensis (v. SALAMANCA). These learned Carmelites, in order to guarantee the unity of the work and the fidelity of their teaching, even in the smallest details, to the doctrine of St. Thomas, consulted collegially, deciding by vote, when agreement was not reached, the controverted questions. So that the Complutenses, like the Salmanticenses, rather than expressing the personal thought of the various authors, set forth the official doctrine of the Order.
Fr. Biagio della Concezione, a French Discalced Carmelite (d. 1694), completed the Cursus with two other volumes: one of metaphysics (Paris 1640) and the other of moral philosophy (ibid. 1647). Finally Fr. Giovanni dell'Annunziata (d. 1701), general of the Order and the most illustrious editor of the Cursus Salmanticensis, recast, for scholastic use, the work of the professors of A. under the title: Cursus Philosophicus Collegii nostri Complutensis ad clariorem formam redactus, 5 vols., Lyon 1669-71. These 5 volumes, together with the 2 of Fr. Biagio della Concezione, formed the complete Cursus Complutensis, in 7 volumes. Which, especially in its primitive form, was received with praise by the learned, above all the Thomists, and had many reprints.
Bibliography31 works
Igino Cecchetti