Martin Luther and the Birth of the Reformation

"Now it was this particular action that infuriated Martin Luther as a professor of theology and Bible studies at the University of Wittenberg. And so in a state of anger Luther wrote down in clear, terse language 95 theses of protests against the corruption that was involved in the sale of these indulgences. He was chiefly agitated by the way in which they were communicated by Tetzel, the Dominican monk, and thought that Tetzel was going over the edge from what was actually authorized by the church in the case of the distribution of indulgences." [00:03:22]

"In fact, Prince Albert had made it very clear that the value of indulgences depended upon a true spirit of contrition by those who purchase them. But all of that was obscured in the marketing techniques of Tetzel. So initially Luther's protest was not against Rome itself but against this agent of the church, whom Luther was convinced was misrepresenting the church. But at the same time, there were elements involved in the whole process about which Luther raised serious questions, and so he wrote these 95 theses in Latin, which was the language of the scholars not of the people." [00:04:16]

"And on All Hallows Eve day, which would be Halloween Day, All Saints Eve, at about noon Luther walked all the way down the city streets of Wittenberg accompanied by his friend Agricola and got to the castle church, and there he tacked the 95 theses up on the church door at Wittenberg. Now at first blush that seems to suggest that Luther was engaged in some kind of vandalism or disrespect for the castle church by nailing something on its door, but actually the front door of the castle church served as a bulletin board for the University." [00:05:17]

"And what Luther was asking for in these 95 theses prepared in Latin was for the faculty of the University behind closed doors to have a disputation or a discussion, a theological discussion about the points that Luther raised in the theses. Well a couple of things occurred that Luther did not expect. The first thing was that none of the academicians responded to the invitation. No one showed up to discuss the 95 theses. But some enterprising students saw the theses tacked to the door, and they could read the Latin and saw the significance of what Luther was questioning, and they without Luther's knowledge or without his permission had the theses translated into the vernacular, into the German language." [00:06:08]

"And taking advantage of the recent invention of Mr. Gutenberg, they were able to print off multitudes of copies, literally thousands of copies, and it was said that within two weeks the 95 theses were discovered in every village in Germany. And all of a sudden this private desire for an academic discussion with the scholars became now a public affair of the highest magnitude. Karl Barth made the statement that what happened here was something like a blind man climbing a ladder in a church tower and when he loses his footing reaches out for anything he can find to help stabilize him, and his hand grasps a hold of a rope, which unbeknownst to the blind man is attached to the church bell, and in his innocence he awakens everybody in the town." [00:07:14]

"Because the last thing that Luther wanted to do or expected to do was to start a protest or a reformation. He wanted to look at the theological issues inherent in the whole question of indulgences. Now at the same time that he tacked these theses up and people began to respond to him, Luther had a high view of the church and of the papacy. Despite the dissolution that he experienced in 1510 during his pilgrimage to Rome, he nevertheless wanted to be a dutiful son of the church. And so in the midst of all of this commotion, he wrote an exposition in much calmer language of each the theses and sent several copies of it to prince Albert." [00:08:26]

"Well at the same time Tetzel sent his arguments to prince Albert and made all kinds of complaints against Luther's interference in the collection of the revenue from indulgences. And so prince Albert was not mollified by Luther's gentle exposition, and he sent along copies of Luther's exposition of the theses to Rome and to the Pope in protest against Luther. Now part of the machinations that were going on was that there was some competition in Germany between the Dominican monastic order and the Augustinian monastic order, and Tetzel represented the Dominicans, Luther the Augustinians, and so all of this got back to Rome, and it was fomenting more and more dissension." [00:09:42]

"When the pope looked at the theses, his initial response according to some historians was this, 'Ah, this is just the work of a drunken German monk. He'll get over it in the morning.' However Luther didn't get over it in the morning, and the issue began to mushroom as more and more people got caught up in the controversy. In 1518 Johann Tetzel wrote his own theses in response to Luther and sent these theses to Wittenberg, whereupon the students there at the University burned the theses of Johann Tetzel. So again, things were starting to heat up, and there were those who were demanding that Luther be summoned to Rome to go on trial for heresy, and the Pope himself was inclined to acquiesce to those requests and probably would have forced Luther to come to Rome for a heresy trial, except that Frederick the Wise interceded on Luther's behalf and got the Pope to relinquish the order of bringing Luther to Rome itself." [00:11:01]

"And what Luther kept begging for was a theological disputation where he would be able to engage the representatives of the church in discussion and in debate over the issues raised by the 95 theses. Now one of the ironies of the theses, if you ever read them, you will say that there's next to nothing in them about the doctrine of justification which later became the firestorm of the Reformation. But the basic emphasis of the theses was about this whole indulgence matter and the doctrine of the treasury of merits upon which it was established." [00:12:21]

"And Luther complained early on in the theses that the way they were being communicated by Tetzel with his jingle every time a coin in the coffer rings a soul from purgatory springs, he said this bypasses the sober call for true contrition and replaces contrition with attrition. And that distinction is one thing for us to be aware of at all times. Attrition is repentance that is motivated out of a fear of punishment or as a ticket out of hell, whereas contrition is repentance that is motivated by a deeply felt, serious sorrow and recognition for having offended God by our sins." [00:12:58]

"Well what followed in the ensuing couple of years were three very important meetings, and then the ultimate watershed meeting that took place in 1521 at the Imperial Diet of Worms. But between posting of his theses and the Diet of Worms in 1521, there were three other significant meetings that Luther was involved in. The first took place in 1518 in April at Heidelberg, Germany. The occasion there was a dispute over philosophy and theology between the Augustinians and the Dominicans having to do with the theology and philosophies of the middle ages, both specifically having to do with the classic debate, for those of you who are aware of it, between nominalism and realism." [00:14:44]

"And so the purpose of the debate or the discussion in Heidelberg was not to discuss the theses or justification or anything such as that. But Luther was asked to go to represent the Augustinian faculty from Wittenberg with the scholars that were meeting there at the University in Heidelberg. A couple of things came to pass in that. In Luther's discussion defending the Augustinian professors from Wittenberg, he set forth some of the most important concepts of his own theology that was developing even at this early time, where he made a distinction between what is called the teologia crucis and teologia Gloria, that is a theology of the cross or a theology of glory." [00:15:32]