Ninety-five Theses: Difference between revisions

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The '''''Ninety-five Theses''''' ('''95 Theses''') or '''''Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences'''''{{efn|name=title|{{lang-la|Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum}}. The title comes from the 1516 Basel pamphlet printing. The first printings of the ''Theses'' use an [[incipit]] rather than a title which summarizes the content. The 1517 [[Nuremberg]] placard edition opens {{lang|la|Amore et studio elucidande veritatis: hec subscripta disputabuntur Wittenberge. Presidente R.P. Martino Lutther ... Quare petit: vt qui non possunt verbis presentes nobiscum disceptare: agant id literis absentes.}} Luther usually called them "{{lang|de|meine Propositiones}}" (my propositions).{{sfn|Cummings|2002|p=32}}<br />{{lang-de|Disputation über die Macht und Wirksamkeit des Ablasses}}|group=lower-alpha}} is a list of propositions for an academic [[disputation]] written in 1517 by [[Martin Luther]], then a professor of [[Catholic moral theology|moral theology]] at the [[University of Wittenberg]], Germany.{{efn|At the time, Luther was the youngest member of the theological faculty at the university, which was still known for its [[medieval philosophy|medieval theology]]. Luther was later promoted to take over the chair of Biblical studies of the theological staff of Wittenberg as the successor of [[Johann von Staupitz]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Luther |first1=Martin |last2=Aland |first2=Kurt |title=Martin Luther's 95 Theses: With the Pertinent Documents from the History of the Reformation |date=1967 |publisher=Concordia Publishing House |location=Saint Louis Missouri |page=1}}</ref> |group=lower-alpha}} The ''Theses'' is retrospectively considered to have launched the [[Reformation|Protestant Reformation]] and the birth of [[Protestantism]], despite various [[Proto-Protestantism|proto-Protestant]] groups having existed previously. It detailed Luther's opposition to what he saw as the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church]]'s abuse and corruption by Catholic clergy, who were selling [[plenary indulgence]]s, which were certificates supposed to reduce the temporal punishment in [[purgatory]] for [[Christian views on sin|sins]] committed by the purchasers or their loved ones.

Luther sent the ''Theses'' enclosed with a letter to [[Albert of Brandenburg]], [[Archbishop of Mainz]], on 31 October 1517, a date now considered the start of the [[Reformation]] and commemorated annually as [[Reformation Day]]. Luther may have also posted the ''Ninety-five Theses'' on the door of [[All Saints' Church, Wittenberg|All Saints' Church]] and other churches in Wittenberg—inWittenberg, in accordance with University custom{{Citation, needed|date=Septemberat 2023}}some —onpoint between 31 October or inand mid-November. The ''Theses'' were quickly reprinted and translated, and distributed throughout Germany and Europe. They initiated a [[pamphlet war]] with the indulgence preacher [[Johann Tetzel]], which spread Luther's fame even further. Luther's ecclesiastical superiors had him tried for [[heresy]], which culminated in his [[excommunication (Catholic Church)|excommunication]] in 1521. Though the ''Theses'' were the start of the Reformation, Luther did not consider indulgences to be as important as other theological matters which would divide the church, such as [[Sola fide|justification by faith alone]] and the [[On the Bondage of the Will|bondage of the will]]. His breakthrough on these issues would come later, and he did not see the writing of the ''Theses'' as the point at which his beliefs diverged from those of the [[Roman Catholic Church]].

Luther was summoned by authority of the pope to defend himself against charges of heresy before [[Thomas Cajetan]] at [[Augsburg]] in October 1518. Cajetan did not allow Luther to argue with him over his alleged heresies, but he did identify two points of controversy. The first was against the 58th thesis, which stated that the pope could not use the treasury of merit to forgive temporal punishment of sin.{{sfn|Hequet|2015|p=124}} This contradicted the papal bull ''Unigenitus'' promulgated by [[Clement VI]] in 1343.{{sfn|Brecht|1985|p=253}} The second point was whether one could be assured that theyone had been forgiven when theirone's sin had been absolved by a priest. Luther's ''Explanations'' on thesis seven asserted that one could based on God's promise, but Cajetan argued that the humble Christian should never presume to be certain of their standing before God.{{sfn|Hequet|2015|p=124}} Luther refused to recant and requested that the case be reviewed by university theologians. This request was denied, so Luther appealed to the pope before leaving Augsburg.{{sfn|Hequet|2015|p=125}} Luther was finally [[excommunication (Catholic Church)|excommunicated]] in 1521 after he burned [[Exsurge Domine|the papal bull]] threatening him to recant or face excommunication.{{sfn|Brecht|1985|p=427}}

[[File:Göttlicher Schrifftmessiger print.jpg|alt=Print showing Luther inscribing a church door with a giant quill. The opposite end of the quill pierces a lion's head. There are many other symbolic and historical figures.|thumb|upright=1.3|Print made for the [[Reformation Day#Centenary|1617 Reformation Jubilee]] showing Luther inscribing the ''Theses'' on the Wittenberg church door with a giant quill.]]

The indulgence controversy set off by the ''Theses'' was the beginning of the [[Reformation]], a [[schism]] in the Roman Catholic Church which initiated profound and lasting social and political change in Europe.{{sfn|Dixon|2002|p=23}} Luther later stated that the issue of indulgences was insignificant relative to controversies which he would enter into later, such as his debate with [[Erasmus]] over the [[Bondage of the Will|bondage of the will]],{{sfn|McGrath|2011|p=26}} nor did he see the controversy as important to his intellectual breakthrough regarding [[the gospel]]. Luther later wrote that at the time that he wrote the ''Theses'', he remained a "[[papist]]", and he did not seem to think the ''Theses'' represented a break with established Roman Catholic doctrine.{{sfn|Marius|1999|p=138}} But it was out of the indulgences controversy that the movement which would be called the Reformation began, and the controversy propelled Luther to the leadership position he would hold in that movement.{{sfn|McGrath|2011|p=26}} The ''Theses'' also made evident that Luther believed the church was not preaching properly and that this put the laity in serious danger. Further, the ''Theses'' contradicted the decree of [[Pope Clement VI]], in 1343, that indulgences are the treasury of the church. This disregard for papal authority presaged later conflicts.{{sfn|Wengert|2015a|pp=xliii–xliv}}

* {{cite journal |last1=Leppin |first1=Volker |last2=Wengert |first2=Timothy J. |year=2015 |title=Sources for and against the Posting of the ''Ninety-Five Theses'' |journal=[[Lutheran Quarterly]] |volume=29 |pages=373–398 |url=http://www.lutheranquarterly.com/uploads/7/4/0/1/7401289/lq-95theses-leppin_wengert.pdf |access-date=16 May 2016 |archive-date=26 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160326124747/http://www.lutheranquarterly.com/uploads/7/4/0/1/7401289/lq-95theses-leppin_wengert.pdf |url-status=dead }}

* [https://holyword.church/miscellaneous-resources/martin-luther-and-his-95-theses/ ''Ninety-five Theses''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210124222407/https://holyword.church/miscellaneous-resources/martin-luther-and-his-95-theses/ |date=24 January 2021 }} Modern English translation with commentary and notes