Search

Search Results

• The PAPAL RECOGNITION OF THE THE FOUNDING OF THE UNIVERSITY OF NAGYSZOMBAT (TRNAVA) IN 1635

  89-125

  Péter Tusor

  Views:

  109

  It is a cornerstone of Hungarian historiography that the foundation of the University of Nagyszombat in 1635 was merely approved by the Emperor. Pope Urban VIII refused to confirm it because of the lack of a medical and legal faculty. The present study establishes that, from the side of the Apostolic See and thus also from the side of canon law, recognition was granted by prior authorization to the foundation of the University of Nagyszombat (Trnava) by Archbishop Peter Pázmány in 1635. It turns out that the failure to obtain immediate papal confirmation of the foundation of the university on 12 May 1635 was due to the objections of the leadership of the Jesuit order.  It proves that the Roman Curia's failure to solemnly confirm the founding of the Pázmány was not in fact due to the two-faculty nature of the institution, but rather to its Jesuit character. The reasons for this can be found in the more effective lobbying of the medieval universities and the mendicant orders, and the gradual decline of the Society of Jesus. Despite the subsequent confirmation by the Holy See, and the failure to grant university privileges in the form of a bull, the foundation of the university in 1635 may have been carried out with papal approval because Pázmány received a - preliminary - authorisation to found a university from Orban VIII in May 1632, during his imperial embassy to Rome.