Maurice of Saxony

MAUR, mor (MAURUS), SAINT: A legendary disciple of Benedict of Nursia, who first became famous through the Congregation of St. Maur (q.v.). He is said to have been born at Rome in 511 and died at Glanfeuil in Anjou, 584; also to have introduced the Benedictine rule into France and to have founded at Glanfeuil the first French monastery of his order. His extant biography is ascribed to Faustus, a monk of Monte Cassino and a contemporary of Maurus, but is in reality a forgery of the ninth century. Gregory of Tours does not mention Maur, and the details of his life are doubted not only by Protestants but also by Roman Catholic scholars.

(A. Hauck.)

Bibliography: For the Vita, or other documents, consult ASS, Jan., i.1039,1051-60; ASM, exec. I., pp. 274-298, IV., 2, pp. 165-183; MPL, xciv. 1594-97; and ed. O. Holder Egger, MGH, Script., xv (1887), 462-472. Consult: S. Maur et le eanctuaire de Glaafeuil en Anjou, Angers, 1869; A. Ebert, Allgemeine Gezchichte der Literatur des Mittelalters, ii. 351, Leipsic, 1880; Zeumer, in NA, xi. 316; A. Molinier, Sources de 1'hist. de France, i. 161-162, Paris, 1901.

MAURICE OF SAXONY: Elector of Saxony; b. at Freiberg Mar. 21, 1521; d. at Sievershausen (16 m. e. of Hanover) July 11, 1553. He succeeded his father as duke of Saxony in 1541, and obtained the electoral dignity after the battle of Mühlberg, 1547. Though he had embraced the Reformation, and, together with his father, signed the Schmalkald Articles, he refused to ioin the League, probably because he considered the organization too weak, and his own position in it too subordinate, to form the basis for his ambitious schemes; and at the Diet of Regensburg (q.v.), where he and Duke Eric of Brunswick were the only Protestant princes present, he made a secret alliance with the Emperor Charles V. Accordingly, when the war broke out, he marched his troops into the territory of his cousin, the elector of Saxony, and conquered the country. But as soon as the elector, who stood in Upper Germany with a well-appointed army, heard of this treachery, he hastened back to Saxony, and not only reconquered his own land, but also expelled Maurice from his dukedom. The emperor came to his rescue; and at the Diet of Augsburg (Feb. 24, 1548) he was solemnly invested with a large portion of his cousin's territory and the electoral dignity. He rejected the Augsburg Interim; but the Leipsic Interim, which he substituted after conferring with Melanchthon, Bugenhagen, and others, proved as VIL-17

hateful to his subjects. Realizing that the Reformation would not be kept apart from politics as a purely religious issue, he decided to place himself at the head of the movement, driven onward, no doubt, also by indignation at the emperor's faithlessness toward his father-in-law, Philip of Hesse, and by fear of the intrigues recently set on foot to supersede King Ferdinand, the emperor's brother, and fasten the succession on Don Philip, the emperor's son, but a Spaniard. Concealing his plans with great adroitness, he gathered a great army, formed an alliance with France, and suddenly fell upon the emperor at Innsbruck, and compelled him to fly for his life across the Alps. By the mediation of King Ferdinand, the Treaty of Passau was brought about (1552), and full religious liberty was granted to the Protestants. Maurice now completely regained the confidence of his coreligionists; but he had only a short time to avail himself of the great opportunities thereby offered him. In a feud with the margrave of Brandenburg he was severely wounded, and died a few days after. See Interim; and Augsburg, Religious Peace of.

Bibliography: F. A. von Langenn, Moritz, Herzog and Churfiirat zu Sachsen, 2 parts, Leipsic, 1841; E. Brandenburg, Moritz von Sachsen, Leipsic, 1898. Consult further: 0. winckelmann, Der aehmalkaldischen Bund, 1650-58, Strasburg, 1892; J. Janssen, Hist. of the German People, vi. 308 sqq., St. Louis, 1903.