The university was founded in 1635 in Nagyszombat, Kingdom of Hungary, (today Trnava, Slovakia) by the archbishop and theologian Péter Pázmány. Leadership was given over to the Jesuits. Initially the university only had two colleges (College of Arts and College of Theology). The College of Law was added in 1667 and the College of Medicine was started in 1769. After the dissolution of the Jesuit order, the university was moved to Buda (today part of Budapest) in 1777 in accordance with the intention of the founder.