History of October 31: What’s Martin Luther got to do with it?

Wittenberg Door

HISTORY OF OCTOBER 31: MARTIN LUTHER

See my miniseries on the life of Martin Luther.

On October 31, 1517, an Augustinian monk named Martin Luther nailed 95 propositions or theses to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany, marking the beginning of the Reformation.

Of course, the Reformation began long before that, but this date is a convenient coat-hanger for historians to mark the beginning of the Protestant* Reformation.

However, the 95 Theses were not intended as a call to reformation, and the story behind this event proves fascinating and shows their real purpose.

Fund Raising and the Vatican

Prince Albert of Brandenburg wanted the archbishopric of Mainz. You may know the city of Mainz as the home of a goldsmith named Johann Gutenberg, who had developed the uniform-sized movable type printing press some 60–70 years earlier. Because Albert was younger than 25 and because holding multiple archbishoprics was forbidden, the office of archbishop required a dispensation that would cost him 23,000 ducats (about $500,000).

Jacob Fugger

Pope Leo X, who was then financing the refurbishing of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (for $46 million), suggested that Albert borrow the money from the wealthy Fugger banking family in Augsburg. Albert was able to secure half the funds from Jacob Fugger, banker to the Pope and the Habsburg Dynasty, and for the rest, he sold indulgences.

What Are Indulgences?

An indulgence was a document that freed the holder from the temporal penalty of sin. The sale of indulgences, originally introduced by the Roman Catholic Church during the Crusades, remained a favored source of papal income. In exchange for a meritorious work – frequently, a contribution to a worthy cause or a pilgrimage to a shrine – the Roman church offered the sinner exemption from his acts of penance by drawing upon its “treasury of merits.”

According to the Roman church’s doctrine of ex opere operato, this “treasury” consisted of the superabundance of grace accumulated by Christ’s sacrifice on the cross, along with the meritorious deeds of the saints. This surplus, dispensed by the Pope, could be used by sinners. For example, in the Castle Church at Wittenberg, it was believed that the relics (bones of saints or other articles from biblical characters) collected there were reckoned to earn a remission from Purgatory for pilgrims 1,902,202 years and 270 days.

Indulgence Sale

Tetzel’s Indulgence

The Dominican friar John Tetzel came preaching through much of Germany on behalf of Albert; he boasted that for a contribution, he would provide donors with an indulgence that would even apply beyond the grave and free souls from Purgatory.

Purgatory, according to the Roman church, is a passing intermediate state after physical death for purifying or purging a soul.

Tetzel even had a German marketing slogan:

Sobald der Pfennig im Kasten klingt,
die Selle aus dem Fegfeuer springt.

In English:

“As soon as the coin in the coffer rings,
“Quickly the soul from Purgatory springs.“

Reformation Reaction

To Martin Luther, the professor of biblical studies at the newly founded University of Wittenberg, Tetzel’s preaching was bad theology, if not worse. His parishioners were not coming to him for Confession, informing him that they’d already “paid” for their sin. Luther thought this practice was wholly unwarranted “by Scripture, reason, or tradition.” He felt it encouraged not repentance but mere payment. Luther promptly drew up 95 propositions or theses in Latin, following university custom, for a call to theological debate.

Among other things, the 95 Theses argued that indulgences could not remove guilt, do not apply to Purgatory, and are harmful because they induce a false sense of security by the donor. So, the 95 Theses were not a general call to break with the Roman Catholic Church. Instead, he intended to begin his debate on the theses or “The Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” by discussing the sale of indulgences and the biblical limits of Papal power.

Printing Press and the Reformation

The irony is that his friends, to whom he had sent private copies, took the 95 Theses and translated them into German, the common person’s language. Using Gutenberg’s printing press, copies were distributed to the masses, and it went viral. This was not what Luther originally intended; it was like pressing “reply all” and being unable to call it back.

Historians consider this event to be the “spark” that ignited the Reformation. Consequently, many Protestant churches celebrate October 31 as “Reformation Day” and the closest Sunday to it as Reformation Sunday. On that day, Luther sent his 95 Theses to his superior, the aforementioned Albert of Brandenburg, now the Archbishop of Mainz in whose name the indulgences were being sold, humbly to bring it to his attention. However, Luther did not know about Albert’s involvement in the indulgence sales, as mentioned above.

And Luther also nailed them to the northern wooden door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg. Probably. Luther never wrote about the episode of “The Door,” though his close friend and fellow professor, Philip Melanchthon, did report it decades later. But Melanchthon was not a witness to it; he was out of town on that date. However, that’s when a call to debate would have been posted to the door, either then or in the middle of November.

New Light on an Old Mystery

In 2006, a discovery was made; Luther’s secretary Georg Rörer‘s handwritten comment had been found. At the end of the desk copy of the 1540 revision of Luther’s (translation into German of the original Greek) New Testament appeared Rörer’s note:

“On the evening before All Saints’ Day [October 31] in the year of our Lord 1517, theses about letters of indulgence were nailed to the doors of the Wittenberg churches by Doctor Martin Luther.”

Curiously, it mentions plural churches, suggesting that all the half-dozen churches in Wittenberg carried the call to debate – all in Latin.

So…

Did Luther “nail” the 95 Theses to the Wittenberg door? Did he attach them with thumbtacks or a hammer? I’ve noticed over the years that pictures depicting the size of the hammer have grown from a ball-peen hammer to a claw hammer, to a mallet, to a sledgehammer, to Thor’s mystic hammer Mjölnir. But Luther did mail the 95 Theses on October 31. Probably using a hammer.

* P.S. “Protestant”

Speyer Cathedral

Of course, 1517 wasn’t the actual beginning of the use of the word Protestant. That didn’t occur until over a decade later. In 1526, the Diet of Speyer met concerning the previous Imperial Edict of Worms (1521), which had condemned Luther politically. The Diet held that “every State shall so live, rule, and believe as it may hope and trust to answer before God and his Imperial Majesty.”

However, practically, it turned out that each German state (Prince) took it to grant freedom to choose its own allegiance:

“As goes the religion of the Prince, so goes the people.”

In 1529, at the Second Diet of Speyer, the Edict of Worms condemnation was reaffirmed, essentially re-condemning Lutheranism. Half a dozen Lutheran princes presented a formal “Letter of Protestation,” which was subsequently printed and made public, and so were called “Protestants.”

Bill Petro, your friendly neighborhood historian
billpetro.com