26. Chapter 23: The Church Is Shaken, October 31, 1517

CHAPTER 23 The Church Is Shaken, October 31, 1517

1. A New Era Opens

We have come to the Reforma­tion, the sixth turning point in the Church’s history (ch. 2, sec. 4 and 6; ch. 5, sec. 4; ch. 10, sec. 2; ch. 21, sec. 2).

We shall now enter that period in the long history of the Church which was the most important since its founding on Pentecost (ch. 1, sec. 2) and its extension into the pagan world of the Roman Empire (ch. 2, sec. 6, 7, and 8).

He who was called of God to be the man at whose voice the dry bones of the Church would stir was Martin Luther.

MARTIN LUTHER The shaking of the Church began with Luther’s talking about indulgences (sec. 3, this chap; ch. 20, sec. 5). This was the first step in a movement which ran its course over several years, and which finally came to a climax in the Protestant Reformation.

2. The Sacrament of Penance Be­comes Central in the Catholic Religion The Church in medieval times put great emphasis on sin and its punishment in purgatory and hell. According to the Roman Catholic Church there are three sacraments which particularly deal with the forgiving and removal of sin and the cancellation of its punishment. These are baptism, the mass, and penance. You know something about the sacrament of baptism. Mass has also been described in a previous chapter. It remains for us to explain the so-called sacra­ment of penance. In reality the sacrament of pen­ance in Luther’s day was the center of Catholic religious practice. It consisted in four things: (1) con­trition, (2) confession to a priest, (3) satisfaction, and (4) absolu­tion (forgiveness of sin and release from the penalty of sin).

After hearing the expression of contrition and the confession of sins, the priest decided what satis­faction the sinner should make. Satisfaction always consisted in something the sinner should do. It took a great variety of forms, but it was always in the nature of a penalty for sin committed. Fre­quently the satisfaction involved pain. The story is told that once upon a time a certain priest de­manded that the penitent should walk for a whole week with dried peas in his shoes. (The penitent did so, but he first boiled the peas.) Usually satisfaction was made by the saying of a prescribed number of prayers, by fasting, by the giv­ing of alms, by going on a pil­grimage to some shrine, or by tak­ing part in a crusade.

Only after contrition, confession, and the giving of proof of contri­tion by making the required sat­isfaction, would the priest grant absolution. It was the word of absolution spoken by the priest which declared to the penitent sin­ner the forgiveness of his sin and release from its punishment.

LETTER OF INDULGENCE
This papal ticket is written in official document in medieval Latin. Notice the seals that make it an official document.

3. The Practice of Indulgences Arises In process of time a certain de­velopment took place in this sys­tem. It is to this particular devel­opment that we shall turn our attention here, because it is of the greatest importance. Without a knowledge of it you will be unable to understand how Luther shook the Church. This development had to do with the third stage in the sacrament of penance, namely the satisfaction. The development consisted in this, that the Church permitted the penitent to substitute the payment of a sum of money for other forms of penalty or satisfaction. The Church would issue to the penitent an official statement that he had received release from other penal­ties through payment of money. Such a document or papal ticket was called an indulgence.

Money thus paid in place of other penalties amounted to what we would call a fine. Not only could one buy indulgences for one’s self. One could also buy indulgences for relatives and friends who had died and passed into purgatory, and in this way shorten the time they would otherwise have to spend in the place of purification (ch. 14, sec. 3; ch. 19, sec. 3). The practice of granting indul­gences was based on the Catholic doctrine of works of supereroga­tion. Works of supererogation were works done beyond the demands of God’s law. These works earned a reward. Christ by his life of per­fect holiness had done more than was necessary for the salvation of man. In that way Christ had earned what amounted to a rich treasury of merits laid up in heaven. The saints had added much to this fund of merits. The Church taught that the Gospel not only imposes commands upon man, but that it also comes to us with coun­sels of perfection. It based this teaching upon the story of the rich young ruler. He said that he had observed all the commandments. "Jesus said unto him, if thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven" (Matthew 19:21). The Church taught that if he had heeded Jesus’ admo­nition, he would have performed a work of supererogation, and would have merited great reward. The saints had done just that. They had sold their goods and given them to the poor or to the Church. All these were added to the treas­ury of merits stored up in heaven. The fund of merits earned by works of supererogation was in charge of the pope as Christ’s vicar on earth. Much as we draw a check against our account in the bank, so the pope, for the benefit of sin­ners who were short of merits, could grant indulgences by draw­ing upon this fund of merits in heaven.

4. The System of Indulgences Gives General Satisfaction This system worked out to the great satisfaction of all concerned. It pleased the people. They found it easier to buy an indulgence than to undergo other penalties. And they preferred paying a sum of money for the soul of a dear one in purgatory to saying many pray­ers for that soul. To shorten the soul’s sojourn in purgatory to any worthwhile degree took an enor­mous number of prayers. It was a great chore to say so many pray­ers. The same thing could be ac­complished much more easily, in much less time and on a much larger scale, by buying an indul­gence. The system pleased the Church. The sale of indulgences was a source of huge income. It kept money flowing into the pope’s cof­fers in a steady stream.

More and more frequently the popes issued indulgences. Although they raised the price, the people bought them in ever greater quan­tities. As the indulgence business grew, abuses attendant upon it also grew. At the time of which we are now speaking, Tetzel, an elo­quent Dominican Friar and high pressure salesman, was peddling indulgences in an unusually scan­dalous manner near the Saxony border in the neighborhood of Wit­tenberg. In his sales talk he said, "The moment you hear your money drop in the box, the soul of your mother will jump out of purga­tory."

TETZEL SELLING INDULGENCES
Religious News Service

It was Tetzel’s conduct that made Luther speak up concerning in­dulgences. How did this come about? The story will have to be delayed until we get acquainted with Luther, the man who was to kindle the fires of the Reformation. 5. Luther’s Early Life Martin Luther was born in Eis­leben in Electoral Saxony (ch. 11, sec. 6) in the heart of Germany, on November 10, 1483. When Mar­tin was still a baby half a year old, the family moved to Mansfeld on the eastern edge of the Harz Mountains. The parents were pious people; they were poor, but the father was industrious. He slaved and saved in order to make it possible for his promising son to have an educa­tion.

Martin received his elementary education in Mansfeld. He at­tended high school in Magdeburg (ch. 22, sec. 11) and Eisenach (ch. 24, sec. 19), and college in Erfurt (ch. 22, sec. 11) . From the Uni­versity of Erfurt he obtained his Master’s degree in 1505. His father was very happy on this occasion. He felt proud that his Martin, the son of poor parents, had gained that much-coveted scholastic dis­tinction. In accordance with the wishes of his father Luther now took up the study of law in the same university. Half a year later he suddenly dropped that study and entered the Augustinian monastery in Erfurt.

Luther’s father was a man of strong will and fiery temper. To see his son a famous lawyer had been the great ambition of his life. With that end in view he had sac­rificed, slaved, and saved. Now his son, whom he dearly loved, had in gross ingratitude, as he thought, disappointed his fondest hopes and long-cherished expectations. He was not only disappointed; he was furious. But Martin was equally strong willed. He might have retraced his steps. But in spite of his father’s terrible anger he persisted in his course, and after a trial period of half a year he took the vow. Broth­er Martin was now a monk. He fully believed at this time that he would be a monk for life.

Instead of law Luther now stud­ied theology, and in 1507 he was ordained as priest. The next year he was sent from Erfurt to Witten­berg to become a tutor in the uni­versity in that place. While there he obtained his first degree in the­ology, that of Bachelor of Bible.

After one year in Wittenberg Luther was suddenly transferred back to Erfurt. There he received his second degree in theology, that of Sententiarius. He was called upon to teach the Sentences of Pe­ter Lombard. At the youthful age of only twenty-six years, Luther occupied an important position. The Sentences of the Lombard was the standard textbook of theology. To teach it was considered a highly responsible task.

While teaching in Erfurt, Luther was sent to Rome as companion to an older brother on business for his monastic order. While the other brother attended to the business, Luther roamed the city which had once been the capital of the ancient Roman Empire, and which at this time was the capital of the Roman Church. He visited all the famous shrines. On his knees he climbed the Scala Santa, the stairway which was said to be the one which Jesus had climbed to reach Pilate’s judgment hall. This stairway was supposed to have been brought from Jerusalem to Rome. There is a story that when half way up the stairway Luther heard a voice with­in him say, "The just shall live by faith." He got up from his knees and walked down. It has been said by many that this was Luther’s conversion, but that is not correct. Luther’s conversion took place late in 1512 in his own cell in the tower of the Black Cloister in Witten­berg, not in 1511 on the steps of the Scala Santa in Rome.

Religious and moral conditions were very bad in Rome at that time. Much of what Luther saw and heard there shocked his moral sense and wounded his piety. Years later his memories of his visit to Rome did much to stiffen him in his opposition to the hierarchy. But at this time his faith in the Roman Church remained unshaken. He came back still a loyal Catholic.

Soon after his return from Rome, Luther a second time it Erfurt for Wittenberg. That town now became his permanent resi­dence. For the rest of his life he lectured on the Bible in the uni­versity at Wittenberg. He also be­gan to preach, and the degree of Doctor of Theology was conferred upon him. From 1512 to 1517 he did what every professor does, he studied and lectured. He also made trips to Cologne and Leipzig. He was elected prior or head of his monastery in Wittenberg, and dis­trict vicar, which imposed upon him the oversight of eleven other monasteries.

6. Luther’s Conversion Such in short had been Luther’s outward career up to 1517. What had been his inner development during this time?

Luther was of a deeply religious nature, and from childhood on he had absorbed the teaching of the Church of his day. He had been taught about sin and the eternal punishment of the sinner in hell. He was greatly concerned about the salvation of his soul. Under the influence of the Church’s teaching he came to the conclusion that the best way to gain salvation was to flee the world (ch. 7, sec. 5; ch. 14, sec. 2) . That is why, in spite of the bitter grief and anger of his father, he had entered the monas­tery. Deliberately, against the vio­lent opposition of his father, and notwithstanding the great pain he caused him whom he loved with all his heart, he had turned his back upon a brilliant career in the world as a lawyer, buried himself in a cloister (a residence for monks or nuns) and become a monk. In the monastery he lived a life of strictest asceticism (ch. 14, sec. 2) . With all his might he tried to earn salvation by his own good works. He cheerfully performed the humblest tasks. He swept the floor; he cleaned the cells of the other monks; he dusted, and wound the clock. He prayed and fasted and chastised himself even beyond the strictest monastic rules. He wasted away till he looked like a skeleton. His cell, even in the se­verest cold of winter, was un­heated. When he slept he slept on a mat, but often he spent the night in vigils. More than once he was found on the cold stone floor of his cell in a dead faint.

Frequently he groaned, "My sin, my sin, my sin !" He was oppressed with a terrible sense of his utter sinfulness and lost condition, and this cast him into the deepest gloom of black despair. Always he thought of Christ as an angry judge ready to cast him into hell. No matter how hard he tried, never, it seemed to him, had he done enough to earn salvation. In a letter he wrote to the pope after his conversion he said: "I often endured an agony so hellish in violence, that if those spells had lasted a minute longer I must have died then and there." But from time to time rays of light fell into the darkness of his soul. He found some comfort in the writings of Bernard of Clair­vaux (ch. 20, sec. 6) The vicar of Luther’s monastic order, Johann Von Staupitz, spoke to him many a word of cheer. Some of the writ­ings of Augustine helped him (ch. 6, sec. 8). Above all he began to study the Bible.

It was toward the end of the year 1512. Luther was sitting in his cell in the tower of the Black Cloister in Wittenberg, with his Bible open before him. He had be­gun to study Paul’s letter to the Romans. Coming to verse 17 he read, "The just shall live by faith." He paused. He pondered. Then joy unspeakable flooded his heart. The burden of his soul rolled away. Up until now he had tried to earn sal­vation by his own good works, but never had he been able to feel that he had done enough. Now God had spoken to him. Luther had learned that man is saved not by works but by faith.Romans 1:17 had become to him the "gate to Paradise." That was Luther’s conversion.

7. Luther Posts the Ninety-five Theses It will be easy for you now to understand how Tetzel’s conduct led Luther to talk about indul­gences.

Luther’s soul was now filled with peace and joyful hope, instead of with torturing fears and dark de­spair. A new note rang in his lec­tures to the students. He began to look at life round about him and at the Church with new eyes. He began to see the many abuses in the Church, and more and more clearly and boldly he spoke out against them. The traffic in indulgences had long been the cause of great scan­dal. Now Tetzel was hawking in­dulgences at the very gates of Wittenberg in a most shameless manner. In droves people went to him to buy them. But Luther knew now that salvation was not to be found in that way. He saw the people being deceived for eternity.

Luther’s indignation was aroused. He felt a righteous anger against the irreverent peddler of indulgences, who was trifling with the eternal welfare of men’s im­mortal souls; and he felt pity for the people who were being led astray. His anger and his pity moved him to action.

He went up to his cell in the tower of the Black Cloister, where he had suffered the tortures of hell but where he had also enjoyed the raptures of heaven. There he sat down at the table, took his pen, and wrote out his views about in­dulgences in ninety-five theses, that is, in ninety-five statements or propositions.

Then around noon on the thirty-first day of October, 1517, he went out and nailed these ninety-five theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, In this way he made his views about indul­gences known to the public.

LUTHER NAILS HIS NINETY-FIVE THESES TO THE CASTLE CHURCH DOOR This act of Luther was not the Reformation. But it was the first in a series of acts which were to lead up to the Reformation.

8. Luther Is Already a Man of High Attainments

Luther is often spoken of as be­ing at this time only a simple and obscure monk. This is by no means true to fact. He held an important position, had wide experience, and was mature beyond his age. To be sure, he was a monk, but he was not simple, and he was ob­scure only as far as the world at large was concerned. In his own professional circle he was by now a man of distinction.

Surely, Luther was young at this time. He was only thirty-four years old. But he was experienced and accomplished far beyond most young men of his age. Since his fourteenth year he had been away from home. He had lived in Mag­deburg, Eisenach, and Erfurt. He had been to Cologne, and to Leip­zig, and had crossed the Alps and traveled to Rome. He had met a great number and a great variety of people. In Rome he had seen Pope Julius II. He had read and studied the writings of many great men.

He was prior of his monastery and district vicar over eleven other monasteries. He had to look after the material interests of these mon­asteries. He had to visit and in­spect them personally. When Stau­pitz, the vicar general of the Augustinian Order, was away on a trip it was Luther’s responsibility to fill his place. He then had to visit and inspect forty monasteries. He had to appoint and remove priors; he had to instruct, counsel, and comfort brother monks beset with temptations, and discipline those who misbehaved. He had to attend to the repair of buildings and the auditing of accounts. He had to take care of legal matters pertaining to these monasteries. He even had to supervise the fishpond at Leitskau.

He could sing and play the lute. He was a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Theology. He was a great preacher and very popular. He was one of the great preachers of all times. By now he had been teach­ing for nine years, and had gained a high reputation as a teacher. He was one of the first theological pro­fessors in Germany to base his lec­tures in the Old and New Testa­ments on the original Hebrew and Greek texts instead of on the Latin Vulgate translation of Jerome (ch. 6, sec. 6) , as had been customary for centuries. He was also one of the first professors in Germany to lecture in the German language in­stead of in Latin, the customary language of scholars. His alma mater, the University of Erfurt, was one of the oldest institutions for higher learning in Germany, and for a long time the most famous. Luther was always proud of the fact that he was an alumnus of that great university. Wittenberg University, where Lu­ther taught, was the youngest uni­versity in Germany. It had been founded only six years before Lu­ther came to Wittenberg for the first time. It had only a very small number of students and no build­ings of its own. Classes were held in the Black Cloister. But Luther’s growing fame as a professor at­tracted a rapidly increasing num­ber of students. After Luther had learned from Romans 1:17 the true way of salvation, and began to lec­ture on that epistle, the students heard something really and star­tlingly new in the classroom. Large numbers of enthusiastic young men crowded his classroom, and Lu­ther’s old alma mater began to grow jealous of the swiftly rising fame of the young university at Wittenberg.

Luther was favorably known to his prince, the elector Frederick the Wise, and he carried on corres­pondence with some of the most prominent men of his time. Out­standing among these were John Eck, with whom Luther two years later held a history-making debate (ch. 24, sec. 5 and 6); and Eras­mus, the man of European fame.

No, Luther at this time was neither a simple monk, nor ob­scure!

9. He Is Still a Catholic in Good Standing

It should be borne in mind that when Luther published his ninety-five theses, he was a member in good standing of the Roman Catho­lic Church. His parents were Cath­olics. All his relatives and friends were Catholics. He counted among his friends many monks and priests. Everybody he knew was a Catholic. All people in western Europe at this time were regarded as Catholics.

Luther himself was baptized, brought up, and confirmed in the Catholic Church. He attended its services, went to mass, made con­fession regularly and often, bought indulgences, visited shrines, re­vered relics. He prayed to the saints and to Mary. He believed that they could intercede for him, and also that they had power to work mircles.

THE CASTLE CHURCH, WITTENBERG
American Lutheran Publicity Bureau Luther was a monk, an ordained priest, a preacher, and a professor in the Roman Catholic Church.

10. Posting of Theses Is a Com­mon Practice When on October 31, 1517, Lu­ther nailed his theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg he did nothing unusual. It was a common practice. The door of the Castle Church served as the Uni­versity bulletin board. In posting these theses he invited any doctor of theology who might so wish, for the purpose of clarify­ing the truth, to debate with him publicly on the value of indul­gences. In those days it was an ordinary thing for professors to hold a disputation, or debate, on some point of doctrine. In his ninety-five theses Luther had set forth his ideas on indulgences. These ideas he offered to debate in a public disputation.

11. The Ninety-five Theses Are Published and Widely Read When Luther published his ninety-five theses he did not say to himself, "Now I am going to start the Reformation." No such thing ever entered his mind. No man was more surprised than Luther him­self at the results of his action. Never did he expect that things would turn out as they did. In the first place no debate was held at this time. No one accepted Luther’s challenge. It was not until two years later that an opponent presented himself.

What did happen? That is a long but extremely interesting story. Wittenberg was located in Saxony (ch. 11, sec. 6) , one of the many countries which were held together in the loose confederacy known as the German Empire. The ruler of Saxony at this time was the elector Frederick the Wise. There were seven electors in Germany, and they chose the emperor.

Frederick was a very pious Cath­olic. He set great store by relics (ch. 7, sec. 2) . He had collected more than five thousand of them from all over Christendom. It was believed that these sacred relics were graced with enormous value as indulgences to release sinners from purgatory. To house these relics Frederick had built the Cas­tle Church. The day after Luther had nailed his theses to the door of the Castle Church was All Saints’ Day. On that day, as was customary, the relics in the Castle Church were solemnly displayed. From far and near people came to see them, and to be benefited by the graces at­tached to them. As these people approached the church they naturally saw the large sheet of paper which Luther had tacked to the door, and they stopped to read it. When they came home they told their neighbors what they had read. These told others. In this way the news spread like wildfire.

It was not long before the theses of Luther were being widely read. Printing had recently been in­vented. The theses, which had been written in Latin, were translated into many languages, printed, and carried with unbelievable speed as "on angels’ wings" to every coun­try of western Europe. This was the second in a series of events leading up to the Refor­mation.

12. The Theses Have an Immedi­ate Effect

Within two weeks the theses of Luther became known throughout Germany. Four weeks after their publication they were read all over western Europe. They had a tre­mendous and immediate effect.

They almost stopped the sale of in­dulgences. The Archbishop of Mainz, who was to receive a share of the pro­ceeds from the sale of indulgences by Tetzel, naturally did not like this. He sent a copy of the theses to Pope Leo X in Rome. The pope at first did not think it was a serious matter. He looked upon the theses only as something written by a drunken German, who would see his error when he so­bered up. Only a short time had passed since Luther had kindled the flame. It was as yet only a very little flame. The pope thought it would be easily put out. So he sim­ply asked the general of Luther’s monastic order to advise that monk in Wittenberg to keep quiet. He did not realize that one might as well ask an erupting volcano to keep quiet.

Tetzel with the assistance of a friend published a set of theses defending the sale of indulgences. Mazzolini, a Dominican monk and inquisitor in Rome, strongly disap­proved of Luther’s theses. He wrote a book in which he severely criti­cized the conclusions of Martin Luther, and in which he defended the power of the pope to grant indulgences.

Eck, a theological professor in the University of Ingolstadt, an­swered Luther in a pamphlet which he called Obelisks. Obelisks are lit­tle dagger marks used to call atten­tion to footnotes at the bottom of a page. Luther soon published his answer in a pamphlet under the title of Asterisks. Asterisks are little star figures, and have the same use as obelisks.

Most of Luther’s friends said nothing. They thought he had been too rash. This made Luther feel bad. In April, 1518, the monasteries connected with the Augustinian Order held their annual meeting in Heidelberg. Staupitz, the district vicar, in accordance with the direc­tion of the pope requested Luther to keep quiet about indulgences. But instead, Luther defended his views. He found the opposition much stronger than he had ex­pected. However, the discussion was frank and friendly, and this put Luther into a happier frame of mind.

Upon his return from Heidelberg to Wittenberg he wrote a general answer to all his opponents. This book bore the title Resolutions. It was very carefully written and was addressed to the pope. In it Luther defended his theses point by point.

13. Their Real Significance Is Recognized by the Church In his theses Luther did not at­tack indulgences themselves, but only the abuses connected with their sale (ch. 24, sec. 7) . These had long been a scandal in the Church. Already Wycliffe and Huss had protested against these abuses (ch. 22, sec. 6 and 7) . But the Church was quick to see that the thrust of Luther’s pro­test was more far reaching. By raising the question of indulgences, Luther, guided by the Spirit of God, had laid his finger on the most sensitive spot in the whole Catholic system of his day.

It was from the sale of indul­gences that the Church and its head, the pope, received an im­mense income. And furthermore, the Catholic system had declined to the point where it placed all importance on the sacraments and the priests. The Roman Catholic Church held that only the priest could administer the sacraments; and without the sacrament of penance, without absolution and indul­gences, there was no salvation. Man’s salvation, his eternal weal or woe, lay in the hands of the priest. And so the Church, through the priests, had a strangle hold on the people. That is why, by raising the ques­tion of indulgences, Luther shook the Church. What he said in his theses had the tendency to loosen the priests’ hold on the people.

Now the Church was not merely stirred. It was shaken to its very foundations.