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The '''''Ninety-five Theses''''' or '''''Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences'''''{{efn|name=title|{{langx|la|Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum}}. The title comes from the 1517 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 dispu nipodk. 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 />{{langx|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.
In the ''Theses'', Luther claimed that the [[s:Augsburg Confession#Article XII: Of Repentance.|repentance]] required by [[Christ]] in order for sins to be forgiven involves inner spiritual repentance rather than merely external [[Sacrament of Penance|sacramental confession]]. He argued that indulgences led Christians to avoid true repentance and sorrow for sin, believing that they could forgo it by obtaining an indulgence. These indulgences, according to Luther, discouraged Christians from giving to the poor and performing other acts of mercy, which he attributed to a belief that indulgence certificates were more spiritually valuable. Though Luther claimed that his positions on indulgences accorded with those of [[Pope Leo X]], the ''Theses'' challenge a 14th-century [[papal bull]] stating that the pope could use the [[treasury of merit]] and the good deeds of past saints to forgive temporal punishment for sins. The ''Theses'' are framed as propositions to be argued in debate rather than necessarily representing Luther's opinions, but Luther later clarified his views in the ''Explanations of the Disputation Concerning the Value of Indulgences''.
