On 31 October 1517, Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of theCastle Church of Wittenberg, according to university custom.[3] On the same day, Luther sent a hand-written copy, joined with honorable comments, to the archbishop Albert of Mainz and Magdeburg, who was in charge of the indulgence sales, and to the bishop of Brandenburg, the superior of Luther at the time. He put in his letter a copy of his Disputation of Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences, which became known asThe Ninety-Five Theses. Hans Hillerbrand wrote that Luther had no intention of challenging the church but saw his dispute as a scholarly objection to church actions, and the voice of the letter is accordingly searching, rather than doctrinaire.[4] Hillerbrand wrote that there is nevertheless an undertone of confrontation and dispute in several of the theses, especially in Thesis 86, which poses the question: Why does the pope, whose wealth today is greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build the basilica of Saint Peter with the money of poor believers rather than with his own money?[4] Within two weeks, copies of the Theses had spread throughout Germany; within two months throughout Europe.[5][6] In January 1518 Christoph von Scheurland other friends of Luther translated the Ninety-Five Theses from Latin into German, printed, and widely copied them, making the controversy one of the first in history to be aided by theprinting press.[7]
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 04:29:47 +0000
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