This article will be permanently flagged as inappropriate and made unaccessible to everyone. Are you certain this article is inappropriate? Excessive Violence Sexual Content Political / Social
Email Address:
Article Id: WHEBN0000188050 Reproduction Date:
The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (original Latin: Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum) were written by Martin Luther in 1517 and are widely regarded as the initial catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The disputation protests against clerical abuses, especially nepotism, simony, usury, pluralism, and the sale of indulgences. It is generally believed that, according to university custom, on 31 October 1517, Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg.
Waldensians Arnoldists Girolamo Savonarola Avignon Papacy Lollards Western Schism Hussites Northern Renaissance German mysticism
95 Theses · German Peasants' War · Schmalkaldic League · Magisterials · Radicals · Counter-Reformation
Other Reformers
Czech lands · Denmark–Norway / Holstein · England · Germany · Italy · Netherlands · Poland-Lithuania · Scotland · Sweden · France · Switzerland
The Ninety-Five Theses question the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences and view skeptically the notion that a papal pardon rather than penance or genuine contrition can achieve forgiveness of sins. Luther argued that Christians were being falsely told that they could obtain absolution for souls in purgatory by buying indulgences.
All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, locally known as the Castle Church (Schlosskirche), where the Ninety-Five Theses famously appeared, held one of Europe's largest collections of holy relics. These had been piously collected by Frederick III of Saxony. At that time, pious veneration of relics supposedly allowed the viewer to receive relief from temporal punishment for sins in purgatory. By 1520, Frederick had over 19,000 relics, purportedly "including vials of the milk of the Virgin Mary, straws from the manger [of Jesus], and the body of one of the innocents massacred by King Herod."[1]
As part of a fund-raising campaign commissioned by University of Wittenberg. The Ninety-Five Theses outlined the items to be discussed and issued the challenge to any and all comers.
Luther objected to a saying attributed to
or critical
As the Reformation progressed, another element drew adherents to the ideas and practices that gradually became known as Lutheranism. Luther and others had urged that greater balance be observed in the attention given to the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures versus the long-accepted sources of tradition and reason in the formation of doctrine.[12] This concept, called sola scriptura, offered a basis for querying the tight hold Catholic prelates then had over both the content of faith and over potentially infringing corollary practices like indulgential penance (the sale of indulgences).[13] As availability of the recently invented movable type printing press spread, literacy also began to grow among a wider population that was increasingly being exposed to books and began to hear the Bible read aloud in the vernacular at church.[14] The laity, now able to read and examine traditional creedal content, was encouraged to test its fidelity to Scriptures; the Bible began to take on the character of an ur-text for faith; and a new emphasis on personal piety resulted. This required a different kind of internal balance between the new, wider accessibility of texts, and the need for informed interpretation of the Scriptures: attendance at public preaching and lecturing events grew. It also allowed individual ownership of a previously more contained theological process, so that individuals found themselves more invested in understanding and living out their faith.[15]
As early as 29 October 1521, the chapel at Wittenberg began to turn away from private Masses. In 1522, much of the city began celebrating Lutheran services instead of Masses. Luther's popularity grew rapidly, mostly because the general Catholic population were dissatisfied with the corruption and "worldly" desires and habits of the Roman Curia.[9][10][11]
On 15 June 1520, Pope Leo X rebutted the Ninety-Five Theses by issuing a papal bull entitled Exsurge Domine ("Arise, O Lord"). This document outlined the Magisterium of the Church's findings of where the pope believed Luther had erred.
Within two weeks, copies of the Theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe.[6][7] In January 1518 Christoph von Scheurl and other friends of Luther translated the Ninety-Five Theses from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied them, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by the printing press.[8]
On the same day, Luther sent a hand-written copy, joined with honorable comments, to the archbishop Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg, who was in charge of the indulgence sales, and to the bishop of Brandenburg, the superior of Luther at the time. He put in his letter a copy of his "Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences," which became known as The Ninety-Five Theses. Hans Hillerbrand wrote that Luther had no intention of challenging the church but saw his dispute as a scholarly objection to church actions, and the voice of the letter is accordingly "searching, rather than doctrinaire."[5] Hillerbrand wrote that there is nevertheless an undertone of confrontation and dispute in several of the theses, especially in Thesis 86, which poses the question: "Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of Saint Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?"[5]
However, Catholic Luther researcher Erwin Iserloh asserted in 1961 that the nailing of the theses to the church door is a myth. The first written account of the event comes from Philipp Melanchthon who could not have been an eye-witness to the event since he was not called to Wittenberg University as a professor until 1518. Also, this account appeared for the first time after Luther's death and he never commented on 'nailing anything up' in 1517. Announcements of upcoming disputes were supposedly regularly hung on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. But, openly hanging the theses without waiting for a reaction from the Bishops could have been seen as a clear provocation and Luther only wanted to clear up some misunderstandings. It is also worth noting, that there was no open discussion of the theses in Wittenberg and that no original printing of the theses could be found.[4]
Until the 20th century it was accepted as fact that on 31 October 1517, Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of the Castle Church of Wittenberg, according to university custom.[3]
Lutheranism, Ten Commandments, Protestant Reformation, Johann Sebastian Bach, Lucas Cranach the Elder
Martin Luther, Book of Concord, Lutheranism, Christianity, Philippists