into education, the Popes also were
touched by the educational time-spirit, and there came a rejuvenation
of the University of the City, which now acquired a new name, that of
the Sapienza, and became the home of some of the most distinguished
teaching in Europe in every department. Early in the sixteenth century
the medical department of the Sapienza, or Papal University at Rome,
became one of the most noteworthy institutions of Europe because of
the work in medicine accomplished there, and had among its faculty the
most distinguished investigators in medical science, and especially in
that department of medicine--anatomy--which by an unfortunate
tradition the Popes are said to have hampered.

The most important event in the history of the institution, after its
foundation, was its establishment in the home which it was to occupy
down to our own time. Its new habitation was prepared for it by the
Pope who has probably been the most maligned in history--Alexander VI.
A magnificent site was appropriated for it, and the construction of
suitable buildings begun. A little more than a decade later, Leo X.,
another one of the misunderstood Popes, came to the conclusion that
the two universities in Rome, that of the Papal Court and that of
{232} the City, would do better work if combined into one, and
accordingly this combination was effected. This made provision for one
very strong teaching faculty in Rome. The final steps for the
completion of the union of the two universities were taken by Pope
Alexander VII., and the buildings which the new university was to
occupy were finished in a manner worthy of the great institution of
learning which it was hoped to create in Rome.

The first of the great professors who made the Papal Medical School
famous was Realdo Colombo, often spoken of as Columbus simply, who was
invited to teach in Rome by Pope Paul III., the same Pope who issued
the bull founding the Jesuits. Some people might consider the two
actions as representing contrary tendencies in education, but they are
not such as know either the history of the Jesuits, or of the constant
endeavor of the Popes to foster education. Columbus came to Rome, as
we have said, with the prestige of having succeeded Vesalius at Padua,
and later having been specially tempted by the reigning prince in
Pisa, who wanted to create a great medical school in connection with
his university in that city, which he was at that moment trying to
rais