SAXONY
499
SAXONY
were now subject only to the imperial government;
the case was the same with a large number of secular
countships and cities.
The Diet of Gelnhausen is of much importance in the history of Germany. The Emperor Frederick exe- cuted here a great legal act. Yet the splitting up of the extensive country of the Saxons into a large num- ber of principalities subject only to the imperial government was one of the causes of the system of petty states which proved so disadvantageous to Germany in its later history. The territory of the old duchy never again bore the name of Saxony; the large western part acquired the name of WestphaUa. However, as regards customs and peculiarities of speech, the designation Lower Saxony is still in exist- ence for the districts on the lower Elbe, that is, the northern part of the present Province of Saxony, Hanover, Hamburg, etc., in distinction from Upper Saxony, that is, the present Kingdom of Saxony, and Thuringia. From the era of the conversion of the Saxons up to the revolt of the sixteenth century, a rich religious Ufe was developed in the territory included in the medieval Duchy of Saxony. Art, learning, poetry, and the writing of history reached a high degree of perfection in the many monasteries. Among the most noted places of learning were the cathedral and monastery schools of Clorbie, Hildes- heim, Paderborn, and Munster. This era produced architecturally fine churches of the Romanesque style that are still in existence, as the cathedrals of Goslar, Soest, and Brunswick, the chapel of St. Hartliolomew at Paderborn, the collegiate churches at Quedlinburg, Konigslutter, Gernrode, etc. Hildesheim, which con- tains much Romanesque work, has especially fine churches of this style. The cathedrals at Naumburg, Paderborn, Munster, and Osnabriick are striking ex- amples of the Transition period. Only a few of these buildings still belong to the Catholic Church.
II. Electoral Saxony. — After the dissolution of the medieval Duchy of Saxony the name Saxony was first applied to a small part of the ancient duchy situ- ated on the Elbe around the city of Wittenberg. This was given to Bernard of A.scania, the second son of Albert the Bear, who was the founder of the Mark of Brandenburg, from which has come the pres- ent Kingdom of Prussia. Bernard's son, Albert I, added to this territory the lord.ship of Lauenburg, and Albert's sons divided the possessions into Saxe-Wit- tenberg and Saxc- Lauenburg. When in L3.56 the Emperor Charles IV issued the Goldcm Bull, the fun- damental law of the empire which settled the method of electing the German emperor, the Duchy of Saxe- Wittenberg was made one of the seven electorates. The duke as elector thereby received the right to elect, in company with the other six electors, the Ger- man emperor. In this way the country, though small in area, obtained an influential position. The elec- toral dignity had connected with it the obligation of primogeniture, that is, only the oldest son could suc- ceed as ruler; this excluded the division of the terri- tory among several heirs and consequently the dis- integration of the country. The importance of this stipulation is shown by the history of most of the Ger- man principalities which were not electorates. The Ascanian line of Saxe-Wittenberg became extinct in 1422. The Emperor Sigismund bestowed the country and electoral dignity upon Margrave P'rederick the Val- iant of Meissen, a member of the Wettin line. As was mentioned above, the Margravate of Meissen had been founded by the Emperor Otto I. In 1089 it came into • the possession of the Wettin family, who from 1247 also owned the eastern part of the Margravate of Thurin- gia. In 1422 Saxe-Wittenberg, and the Margravatesof Meissen and Thuringia were united into one country, which gradually received the name of Saxony. Elec- tor Frederick the Valiant died in 1464, and his two eons made a division of his territories at Leipzig on 26
August, 1485, which led to the still existing separation
of the Wettin dynasty into the Ernestine and Alber-
tine lines. Duke Ernest, the founder of the Ernestine
line, received by the Partition of Leipzig the Duchy
of Saxony and the electoral dignity united with it,
besides the Landgravate of Thuringia; Albert, the
founder of the Albertine line, received the Margravate
of Meissen. Thus the Ernestine line seemed to have
the greater authority. However, in the sixteenth
century the electoral dignity fell to the Albertine line,
and at the beginning of the nineteenth century it re-
ceived the royal title as well.
The Protestant revolt of the sixteenth century was effected under the protection of the electors of Saxe- Wittenberg. The Elector Frederick the Wise estab- lished a university at Wittenberg in 1502, at which the Augustinian monk Martin Luther (q. v.) was made professor of philosophy in 1508; at the same time he became one of the preachers at the castle church of Wittenberg. On 31 October, 1517, he posted up on this church the ninety-five theses against indulgences with which he began what is called the Reformation. The elector did not become at once an adherent of the new opinions, but granted his protection to Luther; consequently, owing to the intervention of the elector, the pope did not summon Luther to Rome (1518); also through the elector's mediation Luther received the imperial safe-conduct to the Diet of Worms (1521). When Luther was declared at Worms to be under the ban of the empire the elector had him brought to the Castle of the Wartburg in Thuringia. The new doc- trine spread first in Saxe-Wittenberg. The succes- sor of Frederick the Wise (d. 1525) was his brother John the Constant (d. 1532). John was already a zealous Lutheran; he exerci.sed full authority over the Church, introduced the Lutheran Confession, ordered the deposition of all priests who continued in the Catholic Faith, and directed the use of a new liturgy drawn up by Luther. In 1531 he formed with a num- ber of other ruling princes the Smalkaldic League for the maintenance of the Protestant doctrine and for common defence against the German Emperor Charles V, because Charles was an opponent of the new doc- trine. The son and successor of John the Constant was John Frederick the Magnanimous (d. 1554). He also was one of the heads of the Smalkaldic League, which was inimical to the emperor and Catholicism. In 1542 he seized the Diocese of Naumburg-Zeitz, and attacked and plundered the secular possessions of the Dioceses of Meissen and Hildesheim. The Catholic Faith was forcibly suppressed in all directions and the churches and monast(Ties were robbed. John Fred- erick was defeated and captured by Charles V at the Battle of Miihlberg on the Elbe, 24 April, 1547. In the Capitulation of Wittenberg, 19 May, 1547, the elector was obliged to y'uM Saxe-Wittenberg and the electoral dignity to Duke Maurice of Saxe-Meissen. After this the only possession of the Ernestine line of the Wettin family was Thuringia, which, however, on account of repeated divisions among the heirs was soon cut up into a number of duchies. Those still in exist- ence are: the Grand Duchy of Saxe- Weimar-Eise- nach, the Duchies of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, Saxe-Mein- ingen, and Saxe-Altenburg.
Duke Albert (d. 1500) was succeeded in the Duchy of Saxe-Meissen by his son George the Bearded (d. 1539). George was a strong opponent of the Lu- theran doctrine and had repeatedly sought to influ- ence his cousins the Electors of Saxe-Wittenberg in favour of the Catholic Church, but George's brother and successor, Henry the Pious (d. 1541), was won over to Protestantism by the influence of his wife Catharine of Mecklenburg, and thus Saxe-Meissen was also lost to the Church. Henry's son and suc- cessor Maurice was one of the most conspicuous per- sons of the Reformation period. Although a zealous Protestant, ambition and desire to increase his pos-
