Ninety-five Theses: Difference between revisions

[[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}}