MAURICE, ELECTOR OF SAXONY (1521-1553)
Protestatio facta in Dieta Augustana 1550 circa conciliu[m]
p[er] oratores electoris Ducis Mauritij saxonici, Augsburg, 1550.
MANUSCRIPT NUMBER 144
EXTENT: 2 leaves, 2 pp.
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CITATION: Maurice, Elector of Saxony, 1521-1553, Protestatio facta in Dieta Augustana 1550 circa. . ., MSS 144, Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection, Archives and Manuscripts Dept., Pitts Theology Library, Emory University.
A contemporary report of a remonstration against the Imperial policy
of Charles V for participation in the recently convened ecumenical Council
of Trent on terms proposed by the new Pope Julius III (del Monte). The
Elector Maurice, of the Ernestine branch of the Wettin family of the duchies
of Saxony, was one of the great and enigmatic figures of German history
in the mid 16th century. He had been won over to the Habsburg side by the
diplomacy of Charles and his successor Ferdinand, and had in 1547 been
invested with the dignity of Elector of Saxony held till then by his cousin
John Frederick. Earlier in the 1550 Diet of Augsburg he had been entrusted
with the task of reducing to the Imperial allegiance the city of Magdeburg,
still holding out for the Protestant Schmalkaldic league, but, as this
protest shows, he was far from an uncritical adherent of Charles V's.
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