Frederick III (Saxony)

Frederick III or Frederick the Wise, 1463-1525, elector of Saxony (1486-1525). At Wittenberg he founded (1502) the university where Martin Luther and Melanchthon taught. At a crucial period for the early Reformation, Frederick protected Luther from the pope and the emperor, and took him into custody at the Wartburg castle after the Diet of Worms (1521), which put Luther under the imperial ban. Frederick, however, had little personal contact with Luther and remained a Catholic, although he gradually inclined toward the doctrines of the Reformation.

Frederick III (1463–1525), Elector of Saxony from 1486, surnamed ‘the Wise’. From the outset he was interested in humanist education and Church reform. In 1502 he founded the University of Wittenberg and later invited M. Luther and P. Melanchthon to teach there. When Luther was cited to Rome in 1518, Frederick tried to have the matter settled in Germany, and when the Diet of Worms (1521) outlawed Luther, he arranged safe custody for him at the Wartburg. How far he accepted Lutheran doctrine is disputed.