IN intellectual expression, as well as in other phases of Spain’s national life, the eighteenth century was a period of recovery from the degradation which marked the close of the preceding era. Spain placed herself abreast of the times, but not as formerly in a leading position; among the many who distinguished themselves by their achievements there were few who attained to a European reputation, and perhaps only one, the painter Goya, may be reckoned with the immortals. On the other hand Spain entered more definitely into the general current of western European thought than at any previous time in her history; intellectual activities in France reacted almost at once in Spain, and the influences springing out of Italy and England were potent. The Americas began to take over the intellectual side of their Spanish heritage much more completely than before, and while not nearly approximating the mother country in the amount or excellence of their contributions furnished illustrious names in almost every branch worthy to stand beside those of their contemporaries in Spain. Education there became more general, more secular, and more highly regarded than ever before. Two obstacles, however, were a serious check upon the development of a broad culture in the colonies: the problems of race, reducing the number of those able to participate, and lessening the desirability of a propaganda for the ideal involved; and the suspicions of the Spanish-controlled government, lest ideas convert themselves into thoughts of revolution.
Progress in education.
Cultivated Spaniards of the eighteenth century had a clear understanding of the national problem of education, realizing (just as they did with regard to matters having an economic bearing) the profound ignorance of the masses and the decadent state of the institutions upon which they had to rely to combat it. The mass of the people were not only illiterate but also full of almost ineradicable superstitions and the conservatism of the undeveloped mind. In 1766 Queen Amalia, the wife of Charles III, wrote to Tanucci (one of Charles’ leading ministers while he was king of Naples), “In everything (in Spain) there is something of barbarism, together with great pride.” As for the women, she said, “One does not know what to talk about with them; their ignorance is beyond belief.” This pessimistic view finds ample corroboration in the writings of the Benedictine Feyjóo, or Feijóo (1676-1764), and Jovellanos, both of whom devoted themselves to the struggle against the defects in Spanish mentality and its expression, leaving published works which touched upon virtually every phase of the intellectual life, or its lack, in the Iberian Peninsula. The endeavors of these men and numerous others to regenerate the country were not wholly in obedience to the national necessity or to patriotism, but responded also to the general current of humanitarianism and philanthropy characteristic of the eighteenth century. The close relationship of Spain with France during most of the era and the conditions of peace imposed by Protestant countries as a result of their military successes had favored the penetration of these ideas into Spain, where they were taken up by the well-to-do elements of the nobility, the clergy, and the wealthy middle class. The great nobles furnished few of the illustrious names of the period, although there were some exceptions (for example, the Count of Fernán-Núñez and the Count of Aranda), but they gave both financial and moral support to the efforts for intellectual reform. Some of those who held high office, notably Godoy, aided authors in the publication of their works or the continuation of their studies, giving them official employment, or subsidies, or bringing out their volumes through the royal printing establishment. Despite the characterization of them by Queen Amalia, the women shared in the intellectual activities of the age. Thus there was a revival of interest in education, but with a difference from the spirit which had dominated the works of Vives and others of the Hapsburg era; now the ideal was that of secular education without the intervention of the clergy. Encyclopedism and monarchism worked together to this end, while the expulsion of the Jesuits helped greatly to make its attainment possible, although the new attitude did not go so far as to oppose religion; indeed, that remained the basis of primary education. All this manifested itself with especial force beginning with the reign of Charles III, but precedents were not lacking in earlier years. It made itself felt chiefly in the sphere of professional training, in instruction in the humanities, and in university education, but it did not fail to produce effects of undoubted value on the primary schools.
Efforts for the betterment of primary and secondary education.
Primary education, which had always received scant attention, was the subject of some legislation under Charles III, both to expand and to better it. To make certain of the capacity of the teachers examinations were required of them in reading, writing, and arithmetic. In 1768 orders were given for the establishment of primary schools for girls in the principal towns of Spain, and some of the confiscated Jesuit funds were applied to this object. An important law of 1780 went into the whole matter of primary education in the city of Madrid. In the early years of the reign of Charles IV the corregidores and alcaldes of all towns were ordered to inspect schools, and were requested to inquire what towns, including those of the lords, the church, and the military orders, lacked them or were failing to provide sufficiently for those which they had. In 1795 the Cortes of Navarre voted in favor of compulsory education. Furthermore, private individuals followed the example of the public authorities, and founded schools. Nevertheless, the census of 1787 showed only about a fourth of the children between the ages of seven and sixteen attending school. Conditions were still very bad for the teachers, whose salaries were so small that they could not live on them, while vexatious regulations were also a handicap to the free development of the schools. The teachers were imbued with the pedagogical ideas of Rousseau, while Godoy attempted to bring about the introduction of the methods of Pestalozzi. Both Godoy and Jovellanos had extensive plans for the spread of primary education, but political exigencies interrupted the projects of the former, while the latter’s brief period of rule gave hardly time enough for the execution of his ideas. The interest of the government, of individuals, and of the Amigos del País societies in popular technical education has already been discussed. The institutions for the study of the humanities, roughly corresponding with the modern secondary schools (at least in that they were a grade below the universities), were also reformed by the government, following the expulsion of the Jesuits. In the same year (1767) it was provided that the places of the former Jesuit teachers in the Jesuit-taught schools of nobles and in the nineteen Jesuit colleges should be filled by competitive examinations. In 1768 similar institutions were ordered to be founded in such villas and cities as had no university. Meanwhile, the municipal, conventual, and private schools continued to exist, as in earlier times; Ferdinand VI and Charles III enacted legislation with a view to limiting their numbers and alleviating the bad condition of some of them.
Royal attempts at reform in university education.
The twenty-four Spanish universities of this period were leading a life of languor and scant utility down to the reign of Charles III, struggling against the handicaps of a diminution in rents and students and the competition of the Jesuits, More serious still was the decline of university instruction. Studies were reduced to little more than the memorizing of books, without any attempt at scientific investigation; such little effort was made to keep abreast of the times that the great University of Alcalá had in a library of seventeen thousand volumes only some five hundred setting forth the current doctrines of other countries; and many professorships had become sinecures for indigent nobles. The reformers were eager to overcome these evils, and took the course which seemed most natural in their day, that of bringing the universities under royal control so that the benevolent state might introduce the desired changes. In 1769 Charles III appointed a director for each university, to whom the life of the particular institution was to be subject; later in the same year he gave orders for a new and better plan of studies; in 1770 a censor was added to each university by royal appointment, with the duty of watching over the program of studies and assuring himself of the correctness of the religious and political views (favoring absolutism) of prospective graduates, and at the same time the universities were asked to suggest further reforms. Most of them delayed their replies as long as possible, for the greater number of the university officers were opposed to change, but the king proceeded to make reforms, nevertheless. Between 1771 and 1787 the greater universities were subjected to such revisions of their former methods as the following: the presentation of new courses and the amplification of old ones; the provision of a better opportunity to win professorships by merit; the introduction of new texts; changes in the methods of obtaining degrees; and the virtual appointment of the rector, or president, by the Consejo. Godoy and Jovellanos in the next reign carried on the reforming spirit of the ministers of Charles III. In all of these reforms attempts were made to better the methods of teaching as well as the programs of study. Thus, in 1774 professors were invited to reduce their lectures to writing and make a gift of them to their university, and prizes were offered for the publication of new texts or the translation of foreign volumes. Nevertheless, the majority of the reforms produced but a slender result, for the men charged with putting them into effect were already trained in the old ideas, finding it impossible to enter into the spirit of the new.
Special institutions of learning and scientific production.
Possibly because they realized that the universities could not be depended upon to solve the problem of higher education and scientific output, the reformers created a long series of institutions of a special character to attain these ends. Thus, schools of medicine, surgery, the physical sciences, mathematics, jurisprudence, military art, astronomy, engineering of various types, botany, mineralogy, natural history, machinery, and others were founded, while a number of royal academies, or learned societies, were established, among which may be mentioned those of the Spanish tongue (1713), history (1738), and the fine arts (1752). Many foreign teachers and scientists were brought to Spain, but since any permanent advantage had to come from the efforts of Spaniards a number of students from the peninsula were sent abroad. Similarly, the government paid the expenses of numerous expeditions, which were largely or often wholly for objects of a scientific character. As examples of this phase of the state’s activity may be mentioned the visit of Juan and Ulloa to South America in 1735 with several French academicians, to measure various degrees of the meridian at the equator in order to determine the shape of the earth; that of the astronomers Doz and Medina to Baja California in 1769 in company with the Frenchman Chappe d’Autereche, to observe the transit of Venus; and the numerous Spanish voyages to the northwest coast of North America in the last quarter of the eighteenth century, of which the best known, perhaps, is that of Malaspina, who set out in 1791 to prove the existence or non-existence of the alleged Strait of Anian through the continent of North America. This was an age, too, of official accumulation of libraries; the royal library, forerunner of the present-day Biblioteca Nacional, was thrown open to the public in 1714. Archives, also, were reorganized and their contents put in order. Such was the case with those of Simancas and the crown of Aragon, while many documents relating to the Americas were taken from the former in 1785 to make a beginning of the great Archivo General de Indias at Seville. Manuscripts were utilized, as well as merely arranged, resulting both in documented volumes and in printed collections of papers,—such, for example, as the España sagrada, or Sacred Spain (1747-1773), a collection of diplomas, chronicles, charters, and other old manuscripts in ecclesiastical archives, with a view to making accessible the more important materials for the history of the church; this great work, begun by Father Flórez, eventually reached fifty-one volumes. This period also marked the beginning of scientific periodical literature in Spain, occasionally as the result of private initiative, but often as a government enterprise, or at least at state expense wholly or in part. The outbreak of the French Revolution caused the royal authorities to suspend most of these periodicals, but there was a return to a more liberal policy under Godoy.
Slight effect of educational reforms.