It boasted 24 department chairs, a faculty of some 100 doctors and close to 300 students, in addition to 117 schoolchildren in the seminary, which was incorporated into the university, as well as the seminary of Saint Fulgencio of Murcia. During the War of Spanish Succession, Orihuela chose the side of the Habsburg candidate, and after the war ended in 1713, the political positions of the city of Orihuela and of the new Bourbon monarchy had negative repercussions on the university, with teachers not being able to attend the town council easily. The 1807 education reform plan restricted the disciplines to philosophy and theology, in fact losing almost all the secular students. The university was going to be closed down by the General Decree of University Closures, because of which the likes of Baeza, Ávila, etc. were closed down in 1818, but in the end, its closure was postponed until 1824 and once again until the final date of 1835, after three hundred years of history. This closure was carried out by the minister Francisco Tadeo Calomarde. The real reason for its removal was the fact that it was overshadowing the University of Valencia, the city that received King Fernando VII on his return to Spain. Finally, in 1836, after the Law of Expulsion of the Religious Orders and the Ecclesiastical Confiscations of Mendizábal, the building was passed on to the Diocese of Orihuela, that, from 1871 supported the Collegiate school until 1956, when the current Diocesan College was built. In the beginning, it was for general studies, where the "Trivium" and the "Quadrivium" were taught in accordance with the legal teachings, but Pope Paul III elevated the university a short while after its creation, creating diverse departments such as philosophy, theology, the arts, and grammar. The teachings of the university were reformed in the 17th century with new statutes provided by King Philip IV. Likewise, in the Age of Enlightenment, new reforms were attempted. The university was given departments of Civil Law, Canonical Law, Medicine, Theology, Philosophy, among others. In addition to the teachings in this university, in the Orihuela convent (currently the Monastery of the Salesian Religious Order), the Society of Jesus established departments of Rhetoric and Grammar, which expanded the General Studies. The University was established in one of the largest capitals of the kingdom, and in one of the few to gain the Royal and Pontifical titles (along with those of Salamanca and Alcalá).