ABSTRACT
Frederic, surnamed the Wise, who became Elector of Saxony in 1486, at once started to replenish his diminished resources. He chose Wittenberg as a sort of capital of his northern territory — usually himself residing at Altenburg in the south. He began immediately to ornament the town with public buildings, including a castle and a church, for the decoration of which he employed Albert Durer, the Nuremberg painter. In 1502 he founded a university, in order that his subjects might not have to go to Leipsic, belonging to his cousin, or to Erfurt, under the jurisdiction of the Elector of Mayence. He appointed Staupitz first dean of the faculty of theology, intending
that most of the professors should be monks of the Augustinian order, which had a chapter at Wittenberg. Staupitz entered into the work with zeal; he rebuilt and enlarged the Black Cloister (as the monastery was called, from the popular name of the Augustinians as Black Monks), began to lecture on the Bible, and gathered around him some young men whom he intended to train to fill positions as teachers.
