The 400 years of the University of Santo Tomas compelled me to read the book by Fr. John Schumacher, S.J., a renowned historian. It is entitled “Readings in Philippine Church History.” Well, i just wanted to read about the history of the institution, how it evolved, how it was possible for them to reach four centuries. I was struck by the seventh chapter. (I excerpted some part of the chapter for you to read:)
One more significant aspects of the life of the [Catholic] Church was its work of education. From the beginning of the evangelization, education, in the form of primary schools, had played a large part in the work of the missionaries. However, with the establishment of the Church in most of lowland Philippines by the early seventeenth century, attention was turned away from the pure catechetical function of education, so necessary in the first generation of evangelization, and rather to the development of the Christian community as a whole.
Indeed the development of higher education in the Philippines had begun to occupy the minds of at least a few from as early as the time of Bishop Domingo Salazar, O.P., when in 1583 he wrote the king, Philip II, emphasizing the need of a Jesuit college to provide for the needs of the colony. The reply of the king came in the form of a royal cedula of 1585, in which he ordered the governor and the bishop to seek for means by which such an institution of higher education could be established.
However, only in 1595 was something effective actually done. By this time, the number of Jesuits in the Philippines had sufficiently increased to make it possible for them to open the requested college. At the same time, the acting governor, Luis Perez Dasmariñas, assigned funds from the royal treasury for the purpose. The Jesuit Annual Letter tells of the opening of the College of Manila, as it was called. The Jesuits taught Latin and cases of conscience, that is, moral theology taught by case method.
The creation of a school for Filipino boys as well had been made possible by the benefaction of Captain Esteban Rodriguez de Figueroa, who had given funds for the main College of Manila. The fund was supposed to be an inheritance for of one of his two daughters. He named the Jesuits as the heir, should one of his daughters die before reaching proper age. The inheritance, should the Jesuits take hold of it, is dedicated to purpose of establishing a college and a boarding house.
When Figueroa’s daughter Juana drowned in the wreck of the galleon of San Antonio, the Jesuits had the inheritance. The government subsidy was then transferred to the college for Filipino boys. Unfortunately, the government subsidy for the college of natives soon failed to be paid. However, the Jesuits attempted to maintain it themselves for some years in the hopes of a further royal order, but eventually were compelled to close it.
In the mean time, however, in 1601, a residential college for the Spaniards was opened under the title of the Colegio de San Jose. The students of this college took their classes in the College of Manila, at whose side it was located. It, too, owed its origin to the generosity of Rodriguez de Figueroa, who placed its foundation on a permanent basis, so that it was refounded in his name in 1610.
Due to the benefaction of Archbishop Miguel de Benavides, in 1611, a similar college was founded by the Dominicans. It was called the Colegio de Santo Tomas de Aquino. Archbishop Miguel Garcia Serrano describes the two colleges in a letter to the king of 1621, asking that both colleges for men be given permission to grant university degrees, since the two colleges are a source of great prestige to the city.
Shortly thereafter, both colleges received the papal recognition for their academic degrees and in the course of time, the two universities came to be known as the University of San Ignacio and the University of Santo Tomas, respectively. One further college was opened about this time under the Dominican auspices, San Juan de Letran. Originally a primary school, in the course of its development, it too would be integrated with the University of Santo Tomas for secondary education.
On the basis of general papal privileges, in the case of the Jesuits, or of particular temporary concessions, as in the case of the Dominicans, both of the colleges of San Ignacio (as it was called after the canonization of Saint Ignatius in 1622) and Santo Tomas began to give university degrees in the 1620’s. On the expiration of the temporary grant in 1645, Santo Tomas obtained through King Philip IV a university charter as a university through a bull of Pope Innocent X.
The granting of this charter soon led to another of the interminable disputes between San Ignacio/San Jose and Santo Tomas, the latter arguing that the former could no longer grant university degrees. Pointing out that the University of Santo Tomas was not a studium generale, a full-fledged university in the medieval sense of the word with faculties of law and medicine, the Jesuits maintained their right (and were confirmed by the king) to grant degrees by virtue of a series of papal and royal privileges detailed by the Franciscan chronicler, Juan Francisco de San Antonio, in 1738.
Though San Ignacio seems to have received an explicit university charter, its university degrees were recognized, and particularly after both it and Santo Tomas received chairs of law in the eighteenth century, it was known generally as the University of San Ignacio. It finally disappeared when it was given to the archbishop of Manila for a seminary, after the expulsion of the Jesuits in 1768. In the nineteenth century, Santo Tomas would receive a faculty of medicine and other faculties also, and be recognized as the official university of the Philippines by the Spanish Government.
– (Excerpt from Chapter 7, “The Established Church: 1620-1760” of Readings in Philippine Church History by Fr. John Schumacher, S.J.)
So what is the point of writing the excerpt here? Well, I guess, it is not really a matter of age. What is important is how this length of time changed and formed our nation, our history as a nation. In then end, we can only thank the Lord for the gift of education which these two institutions have made possible in our land. The four hundred years is not about the institution. It is about the education that we have received from them that we celebrate. Happy 400 years, UST!
