Students and Society in Early Modern Spain

Abstract

Bureaucratic organizations, public and private, have two essential operating requirements: specialized knowledge and a steady supply of manpower equipped with this knowledge. 1Although bureaucracies of many ages and empires have relied upon institutions of higher learning to supply them with the second of these fundamental needs,2 far too little is known about the long-range effects of this demand upon the evolution of the educational institutions involved.Nowhere is this more true than in Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, an age marked by the emergence of strong, monarchical government as well as growing popular interest in universities and schools.3One of the central themes of this book is the concept that these phenomena were closely linked, and, in essence, the book is an attempt to measure the response of Spain's universities to the growth and recruitment policies of the Habsburg state.Of course, to suppose that "education" responds only to "bureauc racy" is a gross oversimplication of the truth.Educational institutions do far more than supply governments and other bureaucratic organizations with the manpower they require; conversely, governments are not the only ones to demand the expertise in which schools and universities specialize.Nevertheless, it is the contention of this study that the rise of bureaucratic institutions in Spain in the years between 1500 and 1700, and the changes in Spanish society that this occasioned, were the most important and far reaching influences upon Spanish educational history during that period.With "bureaucracy" and "education" as the starting points, this sur vey is not intended to be a "standard" history of education.Works of this nature are generally concerned with the history of curriculum, pedadogy, and scholarship, not to mention the history of the governance of univer sities and schools.Then, too, they have a special fascination with the educational planks of political parties, the lives and writings of famous teachers, and various projects for academic reform.However important, such topics are not this inquiry's primary concern.Rather, the aim here is to explore changes in the extent, utilization, and role of educational insti tutions within a society-in this case, Habsburg Spain-and then to assess 1 Max Weber on bureaucracy in From Max Weber,

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