Download The Spark for the Reformation: Indulgences

The Spark for the Reformation: Indulgences
Although there were many causes of the Reformation, the immediate issue that sparked
Luther into the position of a reformer was the sale of indulgences. Indulgences were
remissions or exemptions for punishment due to an individual for the sins he had
committed in life. They could be granted by the papacy because of the doctrine that it
could draw on the treasury of merit or pool of spiritual wealth left by Christ and
extraordinarily good Christians over time. As with some other practices of the Church,
what was once used primarily for spiritual purposes, such as rewarding acts of penitence,
was by the early sixteenth century being ""abused" for secular purposes, such as
providing money for Church of officers. This was apparently the case with the sale of
indulgences by Johann Tetzel (1465?-1519), a persuasive, popular Dominican friar who
was appointed by Archbishop Albert of Mainz in 1517 to sell indulgences in Germany.
Proceeds of the sale were to be split between Albert and the papacy. The following is an
excerpt from a sermon on indulgences by Tetzel.
Consider: The most convincing "selling points" made by Tetzel; the requirements for
obtaining effective indulgences; how Tetzel might have defended himself against attacks
on this sale of indulgences as an abuse.
“You may obtain letters of safe conduct from the vicar of our Lord Jesus Christ, by
means of which you are able to liberate your soul from the hands of the enemy, and
convey it by means of contrition and confession, safe and secure from all pains of
Purgatory, into the happy kingdom. For know, that in these letters are stamped and
engraver all the merits of Christ's passion there laid bare. Consider, that for each and
every mortal sin it is necessary to undergo seven years of penitence after confession and
contrition, either in this life or in Purgatory.
How many mortal sins are committed in a day, how many in a week, how many in a
month, how many in a year, how many in the whole extent of life! They are well-nigh
numberless, and those that commit them must needs suffer endless punishment in the
burning pains of Purgatory.
But with these confessional letters you will be able at any time in life to obtain full
indulgence for all penalties imposed upon you, in all cases except the four reserved to the
Apostolic See.
Do you not know that when it is necessary for anyone to go to Rome, or undertake any
other dangerous journey, he takes his money to a broker and gives a certain per cent-five
or six or ten-in order that at Rome or elsewhere he may receive again his funds intact, by
means of the letters of this same broker? Are you not willing, then, for the fourth part of a
florin, to obtain these letters, by virtue of which you may bring, not your money, but your
divine and immortal soul, safe and sound into the land of Paradise?”
To most historians the publication of Luther's Ninety-Five Theses marks the beginning of
the Reformation. To Luther, they were simply a response to what he considered to be the
blatant abuses of Johann Tetzel's selling of indulgences. Although written in Latin, the
theses were soon translated into German and scattered widely across Germany. Luther,
writing to the Pope in the early days of the Reformation, before Luther felt that a split
was necessary, stated with some embarrassment, “It is a mystery to me how my
theses…were spread in so many places. They were meant exclusively for our academic
circle here [and written] in such a language [Latin] that the common people could hardly
understand.” However, with the printing press and increased knowledge of languages,
they quickly made their rounds. The theses made an immense impression on Germans
already dissatisfied with the ecclesiastical and financial policies of the papacy.
Martin Luther, Selections from the Ninety-Five Theses
5. The Pope has neither the will nor the power to remit any penalties beyond those he has
imposed either at his own discretion or by canon law.
21. Hence those preachers of Indulgences are wrong when they say that a man is
absolved and saved from every penalty by the Pope's Indulgences.
27. It is mere human talk to preach that the soul flies out [of purgatory] immediately the
money clinks in the collection-box.
28. It is certainly possible that when the money clinks in the collection-box greed and
avarice can increase; but the intercession of the Church depends on the will of God alone.
45. Christians should be taught that he who sees a needy person and passes him by,
although he gives money for pardons, wins for himself not Papal Indulgences but the
wrath of God.
50. Christians should be taught that, if the Pope knew the exaction's of the preachers of
Indulgences, he would rather have the basilica of St. Peter reduced to ashes than built
with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep.
86. Since the Pope's wealth is larger than that of the riches of the richest, why does he not
build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with that of the
faithful poor?"
91. If, therefore, pardons were preached in accordance with the spirit and mind of the
Pope, all these difficulties would be easily overcome or rather would never have arisen.
94. Christians should be exhorted to seek earnestly to follow Christ, their Head, through
penalties, deaths, and hells.
95. And let them thus be more confident of entering heaven through many tribulations
rather than through a false assurance of peace.