How Did Martin Luther Use Indulgences?

The Catholic Church during the early 16th Century was rooted throughout Europe. The Church influenced every country and its respective monarchs through the Church’s wealth and power. The Catholic Church placed a tight hold on the general populace with individuals who went against the Church being branded as heretics and excommunicated. The wealth and power of the Church eventually caused the quality of the clergy to deteriorate. Priests became corrupt and subjected to their physical desires. They frequented taverns, gambled and kept mistresses. The reputation of the clergy were horrid as the general populace was relieved that “their priest [kept] a mistress” because it “[secured] their wives from seduction” The knowledge of the clergy degenerated as well as they were no longer required to learn and teach the Holy Scriptures because the Church dictated their actions. The pinnacle of the Church’s corruption was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence was the “extra-sacramental remission of the temporal punishment” sold by priests as a temporary relief from sins. The indulgences were then sold to the general populace for money as the monetization of a priest’s services. Johannes Tetzel was a prominent preacher of indulgences who relied on the money from the sales to subsidize the rebuilding of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome. The corrupt sales did not go unnoticed as Martin Luther, in an effort to stop the corruption of the Church, posted the 95 Theses on the door of a Castle

At the beginning of the sixteenth century the church was promptly losing respect due to the corruption and simony within the church. However when Johann Tetzel began to sell indulgences, many felt that the church had reached rock bottom. Due to this sale of indulgences, Martin Luther issued his 95 Theses which sparked a religious reformation movement that spread throughout Europe. During the reformation, religious, political, and social aspects were associated with the changes in the church, significantly affecting Europe.

Through different inspirations, the Protestant Reformation and Age of Enlightenment sought to change the stagnant traditions of European thinking in the 15th and 16th centuries. Began by German priest named Martin Luther in 1517, he was one of the first people to publicly call out the Catholic Church and their bargaining of indulgences by pasting the 95 Theses on the door of the Wittenberg church for everyone to see. The 95 Theses was a short list of the 95 flaws of the Catholic Church revolving around the use of their indulgences. Luther believed that people should not be scammed by the church and pay for fake indulgences for salvation, but rather come to a new understanding of salvation that came through faith alone. The other change of tradition was not getting your source of beliefs from the Catholic Church, but solely the Bible, which was a

Martin Luther was already questioning his catholic fate and this became worse when the pope allowed John Tetzel to sell indulgences. Luther strongly believed that the Catholic Church was conning the people of Wittenberg into believing they could pay off their sins. Indulgences are a remission of the purgatorial punishment due for sins according to the Roman Church. In acknowledgement to Tetzel’s actions, Luther wrote the “95 Theses”. The 95 Theses was a criticism of indulgences and it had ninety five points attacking the churches practices selling indulgences.

Utter disgust fills Luther because he truly understood how unscrupulous and deceitful these indulgences are. According to Luther, people should have to use their faith instead of paying for a

Purgatory is like the waiting room to heaven. It’s the suffering that one endures before reaching heaven. Tetzel was trying to lure in money with this sermon. “, For as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs.” (Document Two). Luther was dedicated to the idea that salvation and forgiveness could be gained through faith and grace. He was against the practice of selling indulgences. In response to Tetzel’s actions, Martin wrote the 95 Theses which was a list that later became “the foundation of the Protestant Reformation”. (Outside Source- Website2) “Thus those preachers of indulgences are in error who say that by the indulgences of the Pope a min is freed and saved from all punishment. 32. Those that believe that, through letters of pardon, they are made sure of their own salvation will be eternally damned along with their teachers. 43. Christians should be taught that he who gives to a poor man, or lends to a needy man, does better than if he bought pardons….” (Document

“When the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”, as Friar Tetzel would claim. Clergymen advertised that buying indulgences will rid you of sin and reduce the time you spent in purgatory. A religious movement known as the Protestant reformation brewed in 16th century Europe over the absurdity of indulgences. The sale of indulgences posed a major issue prior to and during the movement. Martin Luther sparked the movement with his publication of his The 95 Theses, a series of points which displayed the corruption of the church. As his 66th point states, “The treasures of the indulgences are nets with which they now fish for the riches of men.” Luther is arguing that indulgences only serve as a means of generating wealth for

With indulgences, evil people may be able to buy indulgences and believe themselves to be forgiven, while poor people may not afford indulgences and believe they are cursed with sin, despite their behavior. Bishops are more obligated to selling indulgences, while their sole purpose should be to prevent men from teaching their personal dreams. Indulgences were a way for the rich to become more wealthy, while the poor may be swapping the purchase of necessities for the purchase of indulgences, believing this would save them and their loved ones from condemnation. Luther stated both that “Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better deed than he who buys indulgences,” and that “Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, yet gives money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences but God’s wrath.” Luther emphasized that good people were better than people who sought to purchase indulgences. In many of his thesis, Luther affirmed that indulgences are not neccessary for forgiveness and that forgiveness is not granted with the purchase of indulgences. He shares his fear that those who buy indulgences would neglect to repent and fear God. These people would be convicted. As for the dead, Luther believed that your debts were erased. Those in Purgatory needed to find love, and this would reduce their sins and punishments. Luther also disapproved of priests who “act ignorantly

Martin Luther was able to handle conflict against the sale of indulgences by writing influential manuscripts. Martin Luther started as a man who was studying for law school, but was stopped by his beliefs and became a friar in the monastery of St. Augustine. The church was selling indulgences to raise money for St. Peter’s Basilica and, as a response, wrote his most famous work the 95 Theses. Martin Luther was excommunicated for debating against church practices. This is important to know because if Martin Luther had not existed, the poor followers of the Catholic Church today would be sold indulgences, which debatably aren’t real. Martin Luther made the religious people think, causing the Protestant

The Reformation started with the ideas and concepts of Martin Luther, all explained in his Ninety-Five Theses. Luther believed that God’s gift of faith was freely given to the unworthy, and the righteousness is passive and is not active or based on our good works or deeds. These ideas clashed with the Roman Church, which in turn created the “Indulgence Controversy.” To raise money to help rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Pope Leo X issued the offer of indulgences as a penance for parishioners to buy. This penance acted as a way to pay as a remission of temporal punishment due to the sins of the person whose guilt has already been forgiven. Luther caught wind of the issue of indulgences happening within his own church and went ballistic

This fundamental difference from the Catholic dogma that one could buy salvation to Luther’s new ideas as way to Heaven began to transform many people’s beliefs. Supporters of Luther adopted the concept of faith and knowledge of God as a way to repent their sins, and eventually, it reshaped the Christian culture. As Luther personally struggled to be a “perfect” monk, he discovered that faith in the gospel was the only way to be “made righteous by God”(roper 78). In response to his distress for his laity’s desire to buy indulgences, Luther wrote the “95 Theses on the Power of Indulgences.” He knew he was attacking the pope and the values of the church, but records show that he felt “...not fully in control of his actions, but handed over responsibility to a higher power”(84 roper). Cleary, Luther felt a spiritual connection with God and indulgences were in direct opposition to faith. His revolutionary claims in the “95 Theses on the Power of Indulgences” caused a conflict that would eventually be known as the Protestant Reformation.

Born in Eisleben, Germany, in 1483, Martin Luther went on to become one of Western history’s most significant figures. Luther spent his early years in relative anonymity as a monk and scholar. But in 1517 Luther penned a document attacking the Catholic Church’s corrupt practice of selling “indulgences” to absolve sin. Luther was a highly religious Catholic monk and scholar. He earned his doctoral degree in biblical studies, his intent on nailing the Ninety-Five Thesis to the church door was motivated by a desire to reform the Catholic Church by addressing and correcting what he viewed as corruption, of which, the buying and selling of Indulgences was at the heart. Luther’s thesis also brought into question papal authority along with the Catholic

Martin Luther wrote the Power and efficacy of indulgences .Know as the 95 theses. Martin Luther came up with the 95 theses in Germany in Wittenberg. These 95 theses show what the church was doing wrong in his time this change the course of the catholic church. See the church would take and fool the good christian people by take and stealing their money. Like if the person was having a bad day they would come to the church and the pope are monks would tell them they could feel mary, or anybody from the bible bones are some fake holy relic or they told them they could drop money in a pot and when it hit the bottom there person they to wanted to go to heaven went .

A long history of corruption caused people to view the Catholic Church as a for-profit organization rather than God’s voice on Earth. By the Renaissance, the Catholic Church had already lost much of its power over secular rulers but still held leverage over the masses. This authority naturally paved the way for corruption. The most outrageous form of corruption practiced by the Church was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence is the remission of temporal punishment still due for a sin that has been sacramentally absolved. One of the ways the Church would generate income was by selling them. The notion started off innocently enough; it stemmed from the idea that punishment for crimes could be converted to payments of money, in essence, a fine (Simon 35). However, it soon spiraled out of control as the Church used indulgences simply to gain money, as when Pope Leo X needed money for the construction of St. Peter’s basilica (Duiker and Spielvogel 429). People began to view salvation as something that could be bought; they could go out and sin on Saturday night, then simply pay for it monetarily Sunday morning. To encourage people to buy more indulgences, the Church even claimed that indulgences could be bought on behalf of those already dead and in purgatory (Sporre 378). This blatant victimization was what spurred Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses,

Written in his theses was the debate and criticism of the Roman Catholic Church and the Pope. Luther concentrated upon the selling of indulgences, which are extra-sacrament remission of the temporal punishment due in God’s justice, to sin that has been forgiven, which remission is granted by the Church in the exercise of the power of the keys (Knight 1993, 2009) the indulgences replaced the severe penances of the early church. The theses also included the debate of doctrine policies about purgatory, judgment, devotion to Mary the Mother of Jesus, the intercession of and devotion to the saints and the authority of the Pope there are others that were not mention in this paper.