The Alma Mater Lipsiensis was founded in 1409 by an initiative of scholars who emigrated from the University of Prague, and in 1519 the Leipzig Disputations at the university were the beginning of the schisma between Rome and the Lutherans. During the reformation the university received donations that turned it into one of the riches universities in the Holy Roman Empire. Numerous scholars of world fame have tought and studied here, and time and again important impulses for the development of science emerged in Leipzig. Moreover, due to its role as leading university of the kingdom (and later state) of Saxony it contributed markedly to the development of the wider region. A corner stone of these endeavors has always been its Motto Surpassing Borders by Tradition.