Royal University of San Felipe

The Royal University of San Felipe was a university founded in 1747 in the then Kingdom of Chile. Created by His Majesty Felipe V in 1738 and built on Santiago on the land currently occupied by the Municipal Theater, its teaching activities began in 1758.

It was founded with eleven chairs: Law, Medicine, Philosophy, Mathematics, Theology, Canons and Laws, Institute, Decree and Master of Sentences, plus two of Arts and one of Language, specifically, of the Mapuche language.

Despite popular belief, the Royal University of San Felipe is not the first in Chile, this being the Pontifical University of Santo Tomás de Aquino. This error may be due to the fact that it is also the immediate predecessor of the University of Chile (1843).

Training

The idea of a Royal University in Chile had been proposed since well into the 17th century, the Bishop of La Imperial and Santiago had pressured the various authorities for such a creation. Historian José Toribio Medina explains the reasons why it was not carried out until the 18th century:

"It is easy to understand, given the state of the country at the time, its poverty, the constant concern of the Araucanian war and the very small population it had. That those projects, very honourable to their authors and unduly useful, were premature to the time when they were proposed to the King. It does not therefore have any strange, and, on the contrary, it is the most logical and natural thing, that the foundation projected by the Bishop of the Imperial and Santiago did not find refuge in the Council of Indias. In reality a University of these characteristics in a Chile of so few inhabitants would have imported a true anachronism."

At the beginning of the 18th century the new bishop of Santiago Fray Juan Pérez de Espinosa wrote to the King of Spain requesting a university for Santiago de Chile, considering the benefit that the then provinces of Buenos Aires had, Tucumán and Paraguay.

The Dominicans and the Jesuits had various permits from the Hispanic Crown to establish courses and careers with university degrees in the convents of Chile. Although these orders came to serve the educational demand of Chileans, once the 18th century was established, important careers began to be lacking. This left the Chileans at a disadvantage compared to the professionals of the Viceroyalty of Peru. A Chilean could be a teacher in philosophy and a doctor in mathematics, but since he did not also have a degree in medicine or a doctor in law, no matter how talented he was, he would be in a situation of inferiority if he did not want to leave his family and migrate to Lima. Furthermore, the problems of the XVII century had disappeared: in the Kingdom there was no longer concern about war, the population had grown and trade had expanded.

Given this, the mayor of Santiago, Francisco Ruiz de Berecedo, spoke before the Cabildo of Santiago on December 2, 1713 about the need for Chileans to have a real university. Raising the request to the king to authorize the creation of such.

The Royal University took the name of the apostle Saint Philip when it was proposed by the mayor, in "eternal memory of our king and lord Philip V, whose Divine Majesty prospers in repeated promotions of the monarchy."

The Cabildo accepted the request, and in order to obtain the founding of the university, it was not content to request it from the King, to interpose the influence of the bishops, the Royal Court and the President of the King, but they hired to a court lawyer, named Manuel Antonio Balcerse Velasco, so that he could reinforce the arguments and "incline the monarch's spirit in the desired direction."

The lawyer in fact presented before the King a series of Latin quotes, arguments and considerations about the historical and social importance of studies, in addition to the right of the inhabitants of the Empire to receive education and training.

Although both the King, the council and the royal treasury agreed with Balcerse's arguments, it was concluded that the funds necessary to create a study house of such dimensions were disproportionate in relation to the demand for public works. that Chile demanded. Therefore, the process was postponed for a few years while other institutions and infrastructures in the territory of the Reyno were strengthened.

During the following years, the bishops and the council processed and exerted pressure to obtain the founding of the university, looking for forms of financing without neglecting Chilean public works.

In 1727 the Cabildo appointed Tomás de Azúa e Iturgoyen as deputy city attorney before the Court, to obtain the title of cities, the creation of a Mint, and the creation of the Royal University. There was a huge debate about everything related to the university, about the "excessive number of chairs for the number of people in the country" and the amount of money that was required for the foundation.

On June 15, 1735, Tomás de Azúa achieved a successful management by proposing to the King that the institution be financed with voluntary expenditures from the residents of Santiago de Chile. The council approved the measure, however as a precautionary measure it was agreed that the signing of the decree would be the year 1738.

On July 28, 1738, at the Royal Site of San Ildefonso, Spain, His Majesty Felipe V signed the Royal Decree of "foundation, erection and establishment" of the Royal University of San Felipe of Santiago de Chile.^{[citation required]}

History

On March 11, 1747, the Royal University of San Felipe was formally established. That day, its main promoter, Tomás de Azúa, was elected as the first rector.

However, classes did not begin until January 9, 1758, 11 years later, with a chair of Law that its promoter was unable to see realized. As expected, he was governed by the parameters established for the oldest universities in Spanish America, such as the Real Universidad de San Marcos in Lima, the Universidad del Rosario in Bogotá or the Colegio de México. Through the University of San Marcos he received the privileges of the University of Salamanca, Spain.

The true organizer of the University is considered Valeriano de Ahumada y Ramírez de Carvajal, wise scholar, vice-rector of it between 1757 and 1765, and 3rd rector between 1758 and 1759. He organized the courses that were taught, controlled the attendance of students and professors, and was a tenacious opponent of granting degrees to those who did not meet the academic requirements (it was common to buy academic degrees at that time). In honor of his ancestors, Ahumada Street in the center of Santiago is named after him.

It replaced or resumed the work carried out by the Dominican Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (1622), and after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1767, the property and students of the Caroline Convictory.

Like its counterparts in Mexico and Lima, the University of San Felipe had the faculties of Theology, Philosophy, Law, Medicine and Mathematics. More than a thousand students graduated from this establishment, some of them from Cuyo, Córdoba, Buenos Aires and Salta. This structure functioned regularly until 1813, the university disintegrated to build the National Institute.

Its structure was diminished and the institution became ossified. This process led, in 1843, to the founding of the University of Chile, an institution more in line with the cultural and educational ideals of republican society.

Transition to the University of Chile

During the Old Homeland, the creation of the National Institute in 1813 took away its teaching function.

Declared the Independence of Chile on February 12, 1818, the University changed its name and began to be called simply Universidad de San Felipe.

In 1823 the power to grant bachelor's and doctor's degrees was withdrawn.

After the organization of the Republic, in 1835 the University of San Felipe de la República de Chile began to be used.

On April 17, 1839, the Minister of Justice, Worship and Public Instruction, Mariano Egaña, issued a Supreme Decree that declared the University of San Felipe extinct, and in its place created the University of Chile, passing the assets and the cloister to the latter. Its last rector was Monsignor Juan Francisco Meneses Echanes.

To regularize this change from a relative post-colonial autonomy to a once again state institution, which was fought by the Faculty of Theology, the Government for completeness decreed on January 26, 1846 the continuity of both institutions for legal purposes.

Importance

The most important people who would be protagonists of the Independence of Chile studied in its classrooms. Furthermore, many foreigners completed their studies at the University, and later became protagonists in the history of Argentina or Paraguay.

4 rectors of the University were Argentine: Pedro Asensio De Tula Bazán y Soria Medrano (2nd rector), Gregorio Eulogio De Tapia Zegarra y Encinas, José Joaquín De Gaete y Vera Mujica, and José Gregorio De Cabrera y Romero.

The capitular vicar of Santiago, bishop's advisor, staunch royalist during Independence and eternal candidate for the bishopric of Santiago in struggle with the patriotic authorities, Monsignor José Santiago Rodríguez Zorrilla, was also rector, like his brother José Joaquín Rodríguez Zorrilla.

Bishop José Antonio Martínez de Aldunate y Garcés, vice president of the First Government Board of 1810, already a dying old man, was rector during his period of intellectual plenitude.

Miguel Eyzaguirre Arechavala, brother of Agustín Eyzaguirre Arechavala, hero of Independence, member of several Government Boards and President, was also rector.

It was in the premises of the institution where the graphic arts in Chile formally began, through the founding of an experimental workshop directed by José Camilo Gallardo, who was the senior janitor of the university and considered one of the precursors of the printing, typography and engraving in the country.

Figures of Chilean independence passed through its classrooms, such as Bernardo Vera y Pintado (2nd Argentine ambassador), Manuel Dorrego (Argentine, distributed the summons to the open Town Hall of 1810), José Antonio Álvarez Jonte Y Carreño (1st Argentine ambassador), the priest Juan Pablo Fretes (Argentine, President of the First National Congress of 1811), the leader of the First Government Junta of 1810 Juan Martínez de Rozas, Hipólito de Villegas (Jurisconsult, lieutenant and Minister of Finance of Bernardo O' Higgins), and leaders such as Juan Egaña (constitutionalist, deputy, senator) or Manuel Montt (President of the Republic between 1851 and 1861).

Many members of the first open Cabildo of 1810, in present-day Argentina, also studied, such as the Jurisconsult (since July 17, 1798), Trustee and Advisor of the First Government Board and the First Triumvirate of the United Provinces of the Río de la Plata and Deputy of the General Congress, Miguel Mariano de Villegas. Felipe Arana also graduated from this University.