Editing Heidelberg University (section)

=== Reformation and modern era ===
[[Martin Luther]]'s [[Heidelberg Disputation|disputation at Heidelberg in April 1518]] made a lasting impact, and his adherents among the masters and scholars soon became leading [[Protestant Reformation|Reformationists]] in Southwest Germany. With the [[Electorate of the Palatinate]] turn to the Reformed faith, [[Otto Henry, Elector Palatine]], converted the university into a [[calvinism|calvinistic]] institution. In 1563, the [[Heidelberg Catechism]] was created under collaboration of members of the university's divinity school.

As the 16th century was passing, the late [[humanism]] stepped beside [[Calvinism]] as a predominant school of thought; and figures like [[Paul Schede]], [[Jan Gruter]], [[Martin Opitz]], and [[Matthäus Merian]] taught at the university. It attracted scholars from all over the continent and developed into a [[culture|cultural]] and [[academia|academic]] center.<ref name="ReferenceB">{{harvnb|Cser|2007|p={{Page needed|date=November 2010}}}}</ref> However, with the beginning of the [[Thirty Years' War]] in 1618, the intellectual and [[revenue|fiscal]] wealth of the university declined. In 1622, the then-world-famous [[Bibliotheca Palatina]] (the library of the university) was stolen from the [[Heiliggeistkirche|University Cathedral]] and taken to Rome. The reconstruction efforts thereafter were defeated by the troops of King [[Louis XIV]], who destroyed Heidelberg in 1693 almost completely.<ref name="histu">{{cite web |url=http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/university/welcome/history.html |title=History of the University |access-date=16 May 2008 |work=Heidelberg University Homepage |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071219133606/http://www.uni-heidelberg.de/university/welcome/history.html |archive-date=19 December 2007 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/students/tjuelch/Bauwerke%20Altstadt/Peterskirche.htm|title=A history of the Church of St. Peter|access-date=16 May 2008|work=Heidelberg University Homepage|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080102164028/http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/students/tjuelch/Bauwerke%20Altstadt/Peterskirche.htm|archive-date=2 January 2008}}</ref>

As a consequence of the late [[Counter-Reformation]], the university lost its Protestant character, and was channeled by [[Jesuits]]. From 1712 to 1728, the Old University was constructed at University Square, then known as Domus Wilhelmina. Through the efforts of the [[Jesuits]] a preparatory seminary was established, the Seminarium ad Carolum Borromæum, whose pupils were also registered in the university. After the suppression of the Jesuit Order, most of the schools they had conducted passed into the hands of the [[Lazarists|French Congregation of Lazarists]] in 1773. They deteriorated from that time forward.

Meanwhile, the university itself continued to lose in prestige until the reign of the last elector [[Charles Theodore, Elector Palatine]], who established new chairs for all the faculties, founded scientific institutes such as the Electoral Academy of Science, and transferred the school of [[political economy]] from Kaiserslautern to Heidelberg, where it was combined with the university as the faculty of political economy. He also founded an [[observatory]] in the neighboring city of [[Mannheim]], where Jesuit [[Christian Mayer (astronomer)|Christian Mayer]] labored as director. In connection with the four hundredth anniversary of the university, the elector approved a revised statute book that several professors had been commissioned to prepare. The financial affairs of the university, its receipts and expenditures, were put in order. At that time, the number of students varied from 300 to 400; in the jubilee year, 133 matriculated.

As a consequence of the disturbances caused by the [[French Revolution]], and particularly because of the [[Treaty of Lunéville]], the university lost all its property on the left bank of the [[Rhine]], so that its complete dissolution was expected.<ref name=catholic>{{cite Catholic Encyclopedia|wstitle=University of Heidelberg}}</ref>