Padua

Padua is the name of an Italian province formerly in Austrian Italy, SEE ITALY, and of the capital of that province. This city is noted in ecclesiastical history as the seat of several Church councils, of which the most important was held there in the spring of 1350 by cardinal Guy d'Auvergne, legate of pope Clement IV, and which intended to effect the reformation of morals and the general purifying of the Church. Padua, it may be stated here also, is noted as the seat of one of the oldest universities in Europe. It was celebrated as early as 1221. It now supports forty-six professorships, and is attended by about 2000 students. A pretty full account of the ecclesiastical history of Padua the reader will find in Wetzer u. Welte, Kirchen-Lexikon, 12:916-920. For the councils, see Labbe, Conc. 11:1918.