Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Sale of Indulgence
Left: Johann Tetzel, Dominican monk and Indulgence merchant
Right: Tetzel's wares
In 1514 Luther became one of the priests in the Wittenberg City Church; he was already a monk and professor in Wittenberg at this time. As a priest he was not as concerned with academic theses and counter-theses, but with the salvation of his flock. It was Luther's obligation, through sermons, holding confession and celebrating Holy Mass, to lead people along the right path to understanding and discovering God's will. It was also his responsibility to show those who were going astray what they were doing and to bring them back to God. This is the point upon which Luther collided with the Catholic Church's system of righteousness of works in the form of letters of indulgence.
During the sping of 1517 Luther's congregation often bought letters of indulgence in either Brandenburg or Anhalt, usually in the towns of Jüterbog or Zerbst, rather than going to confession. Buying letters of indulgence as punishment for sins was a popular way to clear one's conscience. These people then wanted Luther to absolve them, even though they felt no remorse for the sins they had commited and had no intention of changing their ways. That hit the confessor hard. Luther made up his mind to make his interpretations known in this agonizing process. He believed that because we are sinners, yet love God, we need to carry remorse for our sins around with us throughout our whole lives. The church promised to scoff at the idea that people must experience sorrow and remorse, because its followers had the opportunity to buy indulgence which allowed them to have a clear conscience.
Tetzel's Indulgence box
Price for Letters of Indulgence
- · robbing a church and pergury - 9 Ducats
- · murder - 8 Ducats
By the late middle ages, the practise of selling indulgence had degenerated into impenetrably merky financial and political transactions. In response to the wildly growing financial needs of the Papal Court, church institutions were given the rights to sell letters of indulgence as punishment for sin.
Although Luther, along with many others, distrusted indulgence even before he released his theses, he had no intention of rebelling. What really bothered him was the sale of the Peter Indulgence (indulgence money used to finish building St. Peter's Basilica in Rome), started by Pope Julius II in 1507. The distribution of indulgence within Germany was handed over to the top customs official, Prince Albrecht, by Pope Leo X. Albrecht was already Bishop of Magdeburg (1513), administrator for the diocese Halberstadt and Archbishop of Mainz (1515). Because it was illegal for one man to hold so many offices simultaneously, he had to pay the Papal Court in Rome about 29,000 Gilder. In order to be able to afford this, Albrecht took out credit from the Fugger bank in Augsburg. From the money he was supposed to make by selling indulgences, half of it was to go to Rome to help build St. Peter's Basilica and the other half (over 36,000 Gilder) to the Cardinal to pay off his debt to the Fugger.
Albrecht had instructions written up for his indulgence merchants so they would know how to sell indulgences. Johann Tetzel, an infamous Dominican monk, used these instructions to work his way through towns and villages north of Wittenberg in the lands of Magdeburg and Brandenburg where he ostentatiously sold indulgences. Soon all sorts of rumors about him were spreading around the area. It was said that Tetzel could sell indulgences for the sins of deceased friends and relatives; and who wanted a friend or relative to spend time in purgatory when it was so easy to get them into paradise? It was also said that Tetzel could sell indulgence for sins one was going to commit in the future; can you imagine a better life insurance? And lastly, if the virgin Mary had been violated, could Tetzel have sold indulgence for that as well?
This 'christian' financial manipulation wasn't what angered Luther the most. It was the concept of indulgence, spread by Tetzel, which defied Luther's convictions. Luther believed that the sinful person ought to spend his/her life filled with remorse and in humility towards God's magesty. Tetzel's wares promised a comfortable and superficial life along a false path which was also offensive to God. In Luther's eyes it had to be put to a stop at once.
In his sermons, Luther had occasionally expressed his opinions against the misuse of indulgence. He warned that it was a breach of God's honor to buy indulgence without feeling true inner remorse and pennance. In order to have the shameful works of the indulgence priests changed, he turned to those responsible for writing up the instructions for the sale of indulgence, his church superiors, Bishop Hieronymus Schulze of Brandenburg and Archbishop Albrecht of Magdeburg. On October 31, 1517 Luther wrote a letter to them, and possibly other bishops as well; the only letter preserved is the one to Archbishop Albrecht.
Luther foresaw the explosive effect of his letter, which was appearently written 'under fear, trembling and prayer' (Martin Brecht). He presented himself as a representative of the Bishop and Pope; that should be seen as his hope that they would stop the sale of indulgence, rather than as cunning and conniving on Luther's part. In his letter to Archbishop Albrecht, Luther included a copy of his 95 Theses; some critical questions were asked about the sale of indulgences without questioning indulgence on the whole, the church, its representatives or its doctrine of salvation. It was not chance, as one occasionally reads, that the fight over the sale of indulgence caused conflict with Rome. Without trying to, the Indulgence Theses had a more direct influence on changing the central power of the church than the theses about scholastic theology.
Until recently it was stated in the educational canon that Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg on October 31, 1517 so that they could be openly discussed which inspired the fantasy of many 19th century artists. In 1961 the catholic Luther researcher, Erwin Iserloh, came out with the claim that Luther's nailing the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle church was purely legend. This idea caused quite a stir because Luther nailing the 95 Theses to the door of the Castle church had been celebrated as the symbol of the protestant reformation for centuries. The heavy discussion which it triggered hasn't been able to prove one way or the other whether Luther did nail his theses to the door of the Castle Church. It is certain that there never was an open discussion of the theses in Wittenberg or elsewhere. Initially no one seems to have reacted to the theses, neither Luther's friends nor any of the bishops.
Irregardless of that, Luther was in high spirits. During the beginning of November 1517 he started signing some of his letters, 'Eleutherius' (a mixture of greek and latin, the greek eleutheros = free); Luther sees himself as a 'free citizen' or 'Liberated'. It was appearant that Luther knew the explosive effect this subject would have in regard to the practises of the church, and that he had just stuck his hand into a wasps nest.
Despite Martin Luther's carfulness in sending his theses to only a few trusted friends and bishops, they began spreading like wildflowers. Copies reached Nuremberg, Leipzig and Basel, as well as other cities, and were already printed in December 1517. Luther later said that from this time on the theses "liefen schier in 14 Tagen durch ganz Deutschland" (virtually ran through all of Germany in 14 days).
Initially the Bishops reacted differently. The Bishop of Merseburg's reaction was dependent upon the reaction of Duke George of Saxony who was a champion of the wide-spread church reforms and therefore approved of Luther standing up against the sale of indulgence letters. Bishop Schulze of Brandenburg held back in order to follow the matter further before choosing sides. Archbishop Albrecht, the most powerful and influencial Bishop, asked the Mainz University for an expert opinion, informed the Pope at once and demanded that the Merseburg councilors forbid Luther to futher hinder Indulgence Priests in their work. On December 17, 1517 the Mainz experts suggested that the Papal Court look into the matter itsself. The Papal Court didn't see cause to take drastic measures just yet. On February 3, 1518 Pope Leo X merely advised the general of the Augustine to use his influence to curb Luther. Tetzel, who felt personally attacked by Luther, is said to have made a death threat against him, but initially only reacted on an academic level. He disputed theses for the sale of indulgence letters at the university in Frankfurt on the Oder on January 20, 1518. When a guidebook with these new theses showed up in Wittenberg, students took all 800 copies and burned them in protest.
We know very little about Luther's attitudes, his hopes and fears after sending out his theses. The first known comment he made was on February 15, 1518. Understandably, he mentioned his shock over the fact that the theses penetrated such high political spheres so quickly; they were written for the salvation of Christians, not for political purposes. He was suspected of being the accomplice of the Elector of Saxony, who had forbidden the sale of the Peter Indulgence within his territory. His political rival, the Archbishop of Magdeburg, should not be allowed to expand his economic power with money from Saxony. The reproach that Luther was an opportunist, which comes up now and again, should never be considered, even though the question of indulgence was a religious, economical, social and political one.
In April 1518, one of Luther's sermons from the end of March was printed under the title, "Ein Sermon von Ablaß und Gnade" (A Lecture on Indulgence and Grace), later an extensive explanation of his theses was printed. In this sermon, Luther explained his interpretation of the problem with indulgence in simple terms, but more importantly, he did it in German, not Latin. This was Luther's first big literary success. Prior to 1520 there were already 20 copies printed in the cities of Wittenberg, Leipzig, Nuremberg, Augsburg and Breslau. It is easy to see what a huge roll new technology, the printing press, played in the spreading of new ideas.
Everything started happening quickly. The inability of the Papal Court to take Luther's religious authority seriously didn't lead to discussions, but to suppression of the matter. The stronger the suppression, the more Luther was forced to defend and make his interpretations more concrete. The rebel Martin Luther was described as a Bohemian and heretic in March of 1518 by Johann Eck who, until then, had been a sympathizer of the Wittenberg monk. At the end of April or beginning of May 1518 Tetzel released a publication in which he portrayed Luther in the heretical tradition of Wyclif and Hus. Luther's printed responses to these reproaches were polemic. This conflict was the basis for all further arguments such as: power of free will, the sacraments, the Pope's power of forgiveness and the authority given to priests. A basic authority conflict is suggested even though Luther still hoped the Pope would defend him. During the summer of 1518 Luther was put on trail in Rome for heresy, although he was still in the Wittenberg area.
Many contrasts and differences of interest were put on the back burner for the time being, everyone was either for or against Luther. He continued his fight against Rome, even though he did not really want to at first. One of the stops along the way was the 'fatherly interrogation' at the Augustinian monestary in Augsburg in October 1518 by Cardinal Cajetan. It took place in Augsburg because Elector Friedrich would not allow the rebel to travel to Rome for fear of Luther not being allowed to return. Luther himself spoke of this as the most difficult time of his life, his fate was to be the same as Jan Hus, a funeral pyre, wasn't it? Yet he was not ready to recant. He escaped impending arrest in Augsburg by sneaking out of town during the night on October 20.
In 1519 when Emperor (Kaiser) Maximilian died, an unprecidented struggle over his successor followed. Charles I of Spain, with the help of the Fugger, gave the largest bribes to the electors and was therefore voted Emperor Charles V on June 28, 1519; he beat Francis I of France and Henry VIII of England. In consideration of the powerful elector Friedrich of Saxony, the trial against Luther was quieted down; above all, chamberlain Karl von Miltitz arranged a settlement to hold back mutual controversies. This agreement gave the Reformation an opportunity to take hold and spread within Europe. An ignited controversy between the Ingolstadt Theologian Johann Eck and the Luther supporter Andreas Bodenstein, called Karlstadt, had its origins in Luther's indulgence theses. They held an open dispute in Leipzig's Pleißenburg from June 27 - July 14, 1519. When the dipute between Karlstadt and Eck came to a standstill, Luther stepped in. Eck's goal was to expose Luther as a heretic. In the dispute over the authority of the Pope and Council, Luther questioned the divine origin of the Papacy, explaining that the ideas of Jan Hus were solid christian ones and that councils can make mistakes; that they have made mistakes. Whereupon Eck believed he had won and declared Luther a heretic. The only thing Eck achieved was more popularity for the monk from Wittenberg, especially among learned humanists who enthusiastically grabbed hold of Luther's ideas.
The patron of the dispute, Duke George the Bearded of Saxony, was decidedly against the Reformation from that moment on. The reason for his extreme anti-reformation sentiment was multi-faceted. One of the important factors, other than the political rivalry with his relative Friedrich, was that he was the grandson of the Bohemian 'King of Heretics', George Podiebrad, who was banned by the Roman Church. Because of that, he rejected all reformist ideas which were anti-Rome and could posslibly be called heretical.
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