Duke George of Saxony

Duke of Albertine Saxony · 1471–1539 · Dresden and Leipzig

George, called “the Bearded,” ruled the Albertine half of Saxony from Dresden, with Leipzig and its university in his lands. His cousin Frederick the Wise ruled the Ernestine half, with Wittenberg. George was devout, learned, and concerned for the reform of church abuses, and in 1519 he overruled his bishop to let the Leipzig Debate go forward.1

What he heard there decided him. When Luther defended some of the articles of Jan Hus, the duke turned against him for good. He banned Luther’s New Testament in 1522 and ordered copies surrendered, employed Hieronymus Emser and Johannes Cochlaeus to answer the Reformer, and joined the Catholic princes’ league at Dessau in 1525. He also pressed Erasmus to write against Luther, and lost patience with his caution:

My dear Erasmus, wash the fur for me, and do not merely wet it.2 Duke George of Saxonyas reported by Merle d’Aubigné

George outlived his own sons. His heir was his brother Henry, a Lutheran, and when George died at Dresden on April 17, 1539, Henry introduced the Reformation at once. Within weeks Luther preached at Leipzig, in the hall where Eck had debated him twenty years before.

Catholic Opponents

Sources

  1. Roland H. Bainton, Here I Stand: A Life of Martin Luther (Nashville: Abingdon, 1950), chap. 6. Summarized. ↩
  2. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, trans. Henry Beveridge, vol. 1 (Glasgow: William Collins), bk. 1, ch. 8, with the quotation. ↩
  3. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, trans. Henry Beveridge, vol. 1 (Glasgow: William Collins), bk. 2, ch. 10, on Luther and Duke George.
  4. J. H. Merle d’Aubigné, History of the Reformation in the Sixteenth Century, trans. Henry Beveridge, vol. 2 (Glasgow: William Collins), bk. 5, ch. 3, on the Leipzig Debate.