In Aberdeen, Scotland, there is a public research institution called the University of Aberdeen. King's College is a venerable institution of higher learning that was established in 1495 when William Elphinstone, Bishop of Aberdeen, petitioned Pope Alexander VI on behalf of James IV, King of Scots, to establish it. It is now the fifth-oldest institution in the English-speaking world and the third-oldest in Scotland (after the Universities of St. Andrews and Glasgow). King's College, which had always referred to itself as the Institution of Aberdeen, and Marischal College, a second university founded in 1593 in Aberdeen city center as a Protestant rival to King's College, were combined to become the university as it is known today in 1860. One of the two universities in Aberdeen, the other being The Robert Gordon University, the University of Aberdeen is currently consistently listed among the top 150 universities in the world.