chief among them at Salamanca. Here flourished, shortly before the outbreak of the Reformation, the famous classical scholar, Peter Martyr, Prior of the Church of Granada. He and other scholars labored with such success for the higher education of the nobility, that no Spaniard was considered noble who showed any indifference to learning. Erasmus also declares that "the Spaniards had attained such eminence in literature, that they not only excited the admiration of the most polished nations of Europe, but served likewise as models for them."[1] Many belonging to the first houses of the nobility – once so high and proud – now made no hesitation to occupy chairs in the universities. Among others Don Gutierre de Toledo, son of the Duke of Alva and cousin of the King, lectured at Salamanca. Noble dames likewise vied with illustrious grandees for the prize of literary pre-eminence; while many even held chairs in the universities, and gave public lectures on eloquence and classical learning. Some of the names of these literary ladies have been preserved: the Marchioness of Monteagudo, Doña Maria Pacheco, and Queen Isabella's instructor in Latin, Doña Beatriz de Galindo, and others.[2] With such a zeal for knowledge the
- ↑ Epist. 977. (Hefele, Life of Ximenez, p. 115.)
- ↑ Hefele, The Life of Cardinal Ximenez, translated by the Rev. Canon Dalton, p. 115. – Rashdall remarks on this fact: "Salamanca is not perhaps precisely the place where one would look for early precedents for the higher education of women. Yet it was from Salamanca that Isabella, the Catholic, is said to have summoned Doña Beatriz Galindo to teach her Latin long before the Protestant Elizabeth put herself to school under Ascham." Univ. in the M. A., vol. II, p. 79. The education of women was not so entirely neglected as is
