The students of the Alcalá University were a very merry community. Many are the tales repeated of their frolics, their escapades, and their Bohemianism. They prided themselves upon the carelessness of their dress, and at holiday time sang to the guitar for chance coppers thrown from the windows. Yet there were many serious students in the colleges, which numbered about twenty, and many youths sat at the feet of the sage teachers and learned lecturers who were retained by Cardinal Ximenez for the instruction of the pupils. Cervantes was among the students of Alcalá before he went to Madrid; but we read that he was not much inclined to follow the academic course, preferring poetry and romance to the dry tomes of theology and philosophy.
The ancient University was first established on the site of the present Colegio de San Ildefonso, which was built in 1583. Two celebrated architects, Gumiel and Gil de Hontañon, designed the building, and showed great taste in planning the front and the patios. The amphitheatre, in which the honours of the college were bestowed upon diligent students, and the chapel, are fairly preserved, and contain some interesting memorials of the days of prosperity and culture at Alcalá. In design the chapel is a curious mixture of the Renaissance and Morisco styles of architecture.
Ximenez, more correctly called Cisneros, is one of the most impressive figures in Spanish history. He was a shrewd politician, a profound pietist, a promoter of learning, an ascetic, and an exemplar in works of charity. He was, however, tainted with fanaticism, and at his direction many hundreds of ancient Arabic books were burned, a step the wisdom of which is still a matter of controversy. From 1516 till his death in 1518, the Cardinal held the regency of Castile, an office which provoked the resentment of many old and noble houses in the kingdom, for, though Ximenez was of high birth, he came of an impoverished family. Upon being challenged by the grandees for his authority, the Cardinal led a deputation to the window of his palace, and pointing to a body of armed men in the courtyard, said: “By these powers I govern Castile until Prince Carlos shall arrive or shall supersede me.”