The old university institution has been linked to the Church since its origins. The oldest and most prestigious European universities, as well as later the American ones, were founded by bishops and popes, and were given the prestige of being called "pontifical" by the degree scroll . The Roman university of La Sapienza, founded by Boniface VIII in 1303, claims to be the oldest in Europe. But there are also those of Salamanca, in Spain, Paris, in France, Bologna in Italy, or those of Santo Domingo and San Marcos de Lima in America.

On the other hand, since the age of average it has been observed that successive popes have been university professors and, in some cases, even professors. This trend was consolidated in the modern age, starting with the humanist popes of the end of the 15th century: Calixtus III, Pius II and Sixtus IV. After Trent, the high academic level of the successive pontiffs profile is a verifiable fact, practically all of them are graduates or doctors, especially in Law and also in Theology. Gregory XIII (1572-1585) was professor of Law at the University of Bologna, where he had as students such outstanding figures as Cardinals St. Charles Borromeo and Reginald Pole, figures core topic of the Catholic Reformation. A century later, Clement IX (1667-1669) could display his doctoral degrees in Theology, Philosophy and also in utroque iure, that is, in Civil Law and canonical. Like him, and only in the 17th century, Clement VIII (1592-1605), Paul V (1605-1621), Gregory XV (1621-1623), Urban VIII (1623-1644), Innocent X (1644-1655), Alexander VII (1655-1667), Innocent XI (1676-1689), Alexander VIII (1689-1691) and Innocent XII (1691-1700) were also doctors in one or both rights. That is, all except Clement IX (1667-1669) who "only" was graduate in Philosophy and in Theology.

The so-called "century of lights" brought a new series of academically solvent popes to the pontifical roster. It begins with Clement XI (1700-1721), who was a doctor in both rights, as was Innocent XIII (1721-1724). However, the most outstanding figure of the eighteenth century is undoubtedly Benedict XIV (1740-1758), a true scholar, graduate in Philosophy and Theology, and doctor in both rights by La Sapienza. He was a man very much of his time, imbued with the enlightened spirit, fond of all the arts and sciences, of great erudition and open to all cultural currents (he corresponded with thinkers and scientists of all subject, even with Voltaire, and with personalities such as Czarina Catherine the Great of Russia and King Frederick II of Prussia) to the point of being respected and admired by the Protestants.

In the 19th century the figures of Pius VIII (1829-1830) stand out as a great canonist and recognized archaeologist, and above all Leo XIII (1878-1903), doctor in Theology and in both rights, expert Latinist who wrote no less than 51 encyclicals, among them the Rerum Novarum in which he consolidated the social doctrine of the Church. Referring to the twentieth century, it is necessary to mention first of all Pius XI (1922-1939), also a doctor in Theology and in both rights, whose intellectual prestige and his numerous publications allowed him to interact with leading personalities in the world of culture, such as Marconi, from whom he requested the installation of a radio station in the Vatican. It is worth mentioning that he was director of the Library Services Ambrosiana in Milan and prefect of the Vatican Library Services . All the other pontiffs have had an excellent intellectual preparation, including John Paul II (1978-2005), Doctor of Theology at the Roman University of the Angelicum and then professor of ethics at the Jagiellonian University of Krakow and at the Catholic University of Lublin. Finally, we can only refer to the undisputed intellectual and academic excellence of Benedict XVI (2005-2013), professor at the universities of Bonn, Münster, Tübingen and Regensburg.