Prior to the foundation of the university, Salamanca was home to a cathedral school, known to have been in existence by 1130. The university was founded as a
studium generale by the
Leonese king Alfonso IX in 1218 as the
scholas Salamanticae, with the actual creation of the university (or the transformation of the existing school into the university) occurring between August 1218 and the following winter. A
papal bull of
Alexander IV in 1255 confirmed the Royal Charter of Alfonso X and granted universal recognition to the university's degrees. The historical phrases
Quod natura non dat, Salmantica non praestat (what nature does not give, Salamanca does not lend, in Latin) and
Multos et doctissimos Salmantica habet (many and very versed Salamanca has) give an idea of the prestige the institution rapidly acquired. In the reign of King
Ferdinand II of Aragon and Queen
Isabella I of Castile, the
Spanish government was revamped. Contemporary with the
Spanish Inquisition, the expulsion of the
Jews and Muslims, and the conquest of
Granada, there was a certain professionalization of the apparatus of the state. This involved the massive employment of "letrados", i.e., bureaucrats and lawyers, who were "licenciados" (university graduates), particularly, of
Salamanca, and the newly founded
University of Alcalá. These men staffed the various councils of state, including, eventually, the
Consejo de Indias and
Casa de Contratacion, the two highest bodies in metropolitan Spain for the government of the
Spanish Empire in the New World. While
Columbus was lobbying the King and Queen for a contract to seek out a western route to the Indies, he made his case to a council of geographers at the University of Salamanca. While the geographers were skeptical of Columbus and his voyage calculations, the University of Salamanca always defended the theory of unknown territories to the west, and supported Columbus' voyage, believing that new territories may be discovered. In the next century, the morality and laws of
colonization in the
Indies were debated by the
School of Salamanca, along with the development of the study of
science,
geography and
cartography of the
Americas, and as well as the study of general subjects of
economics,
philosophy and
theology. Salamanca's colleges (
Colegios Mayores) were founded as charitable institutions to enable poor scholars to attend the university. By the eighteenth century they had become closed corporations controlled by the families of their founders, and dominated the university between them. Most were destroyed by Napoleon's troops. In the 19th century, the Spanish government dissolved the university's faculties of
canon law and
theology. They were later reestablished in the 1940s as part of the
Pontifical University of Salamanca. ==Related affairs==