Universidad de Sancti Spiritus de Oñate (siglos XVI-XX)

Abstract

The College and University of Sancti Spiritus de Oñati, founded by the Bishop of Ávila Rodrigo Mercado de Zuázola
in his native town similarly and with the same attributes as the larger Universities of Salamanca, Paris, Bologna, Valladolid, and Alcalá, and the Kingdom’s other General Studies Universities and Colleges, opened in 1542 with the aim of educating young students from the three Basque Provinces, Navarre, and surrounding territories in Theology, Civil Law, and Canon Law. Organised around structures created following the model of those in place at the College in Salamanca and Santa Cruz de Valladolid, its regulations were completed with statutes granted by Royal Inspectors Doctor Hernán Suárez de Toledo in 1569 (who made the
University and College independent) and Graduate Diego de Arellano Zapata (who reformed the College and structured the existing regulations, prohibiting the creation of later contradicting provisions). Over the course of its more than 350 years, it endured the political and economic changes of its time, being able to retain economic support from the town of Oñati itself, and the three Basque Provincial Councils. It was eliminated in 1807 and re-stablished in 1814, and had to adapt to the changes that the 19th century brought to the Spanish University system until the institution ultimately closed its doors in 1901.