Essay: Martin Luther – 95 theses

Martin Luther who lived in from 1471 to 1553 was a son of a peasant with a great pursuit to find and understand holiness. He was born into peasant family who had eventually prospered through different business ventures. (Roberts 2018) His father became a lawyer and Luther went to University thinking to do the same. In 1505, rather than following in his father’s footsteps and studying law, Martin Luther joined the Augustinian monastery order and was on a path to understanding and reforming the Church. Luther became so focused on discovering and uncovering God, he began to obsess and developed extreme anxiety. He believed he would never be able to satisfy God, which eventually leads into one of his most famous beliefs called justification of faith which we will discuss later. (Smith 2013) It can be said that through Luther’s personal struggles, one of the most impactful documents was written and changed the way we look at religion forever.
The 95 theses, written by Martin Luther, was nailed to the door of the Wittenberg’s Castle Church on October 31st, 1517. The date, October 31st, might come to mind for most of us as Halloween, but it also had a significant meaning in the sixteenth century. October 31st was All Saints Day eve which is when Fredrick the Wise would show on display all of his relics. Relics were usually remains or personal effects of an important Saint. This caused an attraction and an influx of people would come into town for this event. (Smith 2013) People would pilgrimage in for this event. It has been said that Luther strategically posted the theses on this day because of the increased number of people who were traveling into town.         Usually, nailing something to the door of Wittenberg wasn’t a huge deal; many professors would post what they were teaching and lecturing on during the week. Most posting were just seen as an academic newsletter, but, something was different about it this time. Luther’s list was unusually long, containing a list of close to one hundred. The 95 Theses also had a unifying theme of the Church’s corruption. During the time period, this was a bold move that caused a lot of uprising. Martin Luther had big beliefs to go along with his big actions. Luther came up with the view of ‘justification of faith’. This meant that humans couldn’t earn salvation through worldly efforts, but only by the grace of God. Luther questioned the authority of the Church and brought attention to the power they were exerting and how creditable it actually was. Luther believed that helping the needy, loving your family, and being saved by grace is what ultimately lead you to spiritual purity. Generally, the 95 Theses was Luther’s way of exposing the corruption of the Church and the start to the Protestant Reformation. Luther brought up many questions involving the church including the pope’s creditability, indulgences, salvation and the life we were supposed to be living. The 95 theses had a huge impact during the century and lead people to question the practices of the Roman Catholic Church.
The corruption of the Roman Catholic Church in general was a main motivator for Luther’s 95 Theses. Luther was not one who agreed with any of the practices that the Roman Catholics were pursing. But, a huge thing for Luther was the selling of indulgences. Indulgences was the act of paying money back to the church for your sin. This directly went against his beliefs and especially his ‘justification by faith’ standpoint. He didn’t believe what the church was preaching about how you could earn your gift to heaven was correct. Luther believed the only way to heaven was not through human efforts, but by salvation alone. He didn’t understand how the Roman Catholic Church had the ability to sell indulgences and how there was a correlation with your personal salvation.
In 1514, Bishop Albert of Hohenzollem purchased three bishoprics at the age of twenty-four. There were two weird things about this. First, it was not common to purchase more than one bishoprics, and secondly, he was still at such a young age. This led to Leo X allowing the sale of indulgences in Albert’s territories (Madgeburg, Halberstradt, and Mainz) to help fund his rebuilding. It didn’t come freely though, he only authorized these sales for fifty percent of the proceeds. (Roberts 2018) The money he made from these indulgences were used to fund the enormous expenses of St. Peter’s Basilica. Leo X then allowed anyone who wanted to fund the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica to be granted indulgence. Indulgences were seen as a way to cover the guiltiness of sins and as a way out of purgatory. After confessing your guilt from your sin, the Pope could decide to grant you indulgence that set you free. Indulgences were a way the church abused the people for their own benefit.  People believed they had to pay their way out of sin to earn their salvation. Obviously, Martin Luther did not believe in this at all and saw this as a corrupt way the church was promoting power over the people. Luther was deeply troubled by the selling of indulgences and therefore started to prepare his 95 theses.
The consequences following Luther’s posting of the 95 theses were large and ultimately laid the foundation of the Protestant Reformation. Because of Luther’s declaration that humans are only saved by salvation, not by human efforts, many implications and societal norms were changed. Many people started to question whether or not they needed to earn their way into heaven or if grace was enough like Luther said. Soon enough, fasting, pilgrimages, indulgences, were soon voided of their value. There was no need to do these things since there was no way to secure your way into heaven through these efforts. Luther also believed that the only true sacraments were Baptism and Eucharist. These were the only sacramental penance Luther believed in and came into life after posting his 95 theses. Another consequence of the 95 theses was the dissolution of the hierarchy. Luther’s priesthood of believers stated that everyone is equal. This meant the pope was put on the same level as all of the other rulers, not making him overly powerful or important. To make sure no one was being distinguished, one thing Martin Luther did was told the clergy to marry. Since everyone was being put on a similar level, Luther started using more common names. Instead of ‘pope’, ‘pastor’ and ‘minister’ began to be used more commonly. (Roberts 2018) Also, the 95 theses created a dissolution of monasteries and convents. The 95 theses simplified religious sites and made people read and worship the Bible more rather than having to go to monasteries to be taught and preached too. The printing press also helped make these impacts spread so wide and heavy. People began reading the bible on their own and making the connection of a one-on-one relationship with their God. People began to realize that they were capable of forming this relationship and didn’t need someone to put the information in their minds. This allowed everyone to interpret and build the relationship and caused the authority of the Pope to diminish.  The printing press also helped the wide, rapid, spread of these ideas hence the spread to Germany. After these direct implications, in 1520 Luther’s 95 Theses were deemed heretical by Pope Leo X. He was not happy that his authority was in question, and definitely didn’t like the fact that indulgences were starting to be look down upon. In response, Luther publicly burned the pope’s edict that was sent to him. In 1521, Charles V took over Diet of Worms and Luther was placed before the Holy Roman Empire and questioned and banned from the Church. Soon after, Luther’s writings were ban and he was supposed to be arrested. Luckily for Luther, Fredrick III arranged for Martin Luther to be taken by his supporters. While he was taken away and spent most days alone, Luther began to translate the Bible into German and with the help of the printing press, changed German theology, religion, and politics.  (Boehmer 1946) The Edict of Worms was never enforced and in 1522 Luther returned to Germany from France and his teachings were started at Wittenberg. Luther was often scrutinized but held firm in his beliefs.  This began the start of German princes converting to Lutheranism as well. The Protestant Reformation led to the reforming of the Roman Catholic Church as well as religious turmoil that founded different religions such as Lutheranism, Calvinism, and Anglican. The Peace of Augsburg in 1555 was launched against the new Lutheran princes. This created even more religious turmoil throughout Europe. But, because the Peace of Augsburg stated that whatever the ruler of the region was, the religion would follow. This made the Catholic rulers that were left to validate and recognize Protestantism. (Roberts 2018) The Protestant Reformation helped weakened the Roman Catholic church and caused one of the biggest uprisings in Western church history. All in all, the 95 theses changed and developed the way people interacted with God.
With the help of Martin Luther, Christianity was restored. After years of corrupt leadership, people were now connected with a God instead of being afraid of a harsh, judgmental God. People no longer had to worry about their salvation, but they began to love and do good works like charity and piety. Through Luther’s ‘Priest of all Believers’ people were now seen the same level and the Pope and others were deemed fallible.  The hierarchy that the Roman Catholic church burned into the people no longer existed and had zero value. Martin Luther is credited for creating the divide between over powering authority, and the actual way to reach salvation. It also led to different religions that served throughout Rome, German, and France. The 95 Theses had a massive impact on Western civilization and saved many people from the uncertainty and corruption of the Roman Catholic Church. The 95 Theses created human freedom and religious truth. We still see the effects of the 95 theses today through Christianity and the practices of the Bible. Without Luther and his 95 These we might still believe that we must pay for forgiveness and be living in a corruptive religious society.