The “Sanctio pragmatica” enacted by Emperor Ferdinand II on 13 October 1623 marked the victory of the Counter-Reformation and the recatholicisation of the university under the leadership of the Society of Jesus.
The incorporation of the Jesuit College into the university meant the end of the “Collegium ducale” founded in 1384, the actual heart of the medieval university. In its place and on the site of several bursas, the Order built the new “Collegium Academicum Viennense” with the University Church, the Gymnasium, the library, with business and residential buildings, the Observatory, the Old Assembly Hall and the magnificent Jesuit Theatre, which was to play an outstanding role in the cultural life of Vienna and the Court under Emperor Leopold I. In terms of teaching methods, content, staff and discipline, the Academic College was entirely under the control of the Jesuit Order, which played the leading role in the Alma Mater Rudolphina for the next 150 years.
