of the chest the soul springs out of purgatory, but even before it reaches the bottom. As early as 1516 Tetzel had begun his work in the neighborhood of Saxony. Within that territory he was forbidden by Frederick the Wise to ply his trade, because that prince would not consent that Saxon gold should fill the treasury of a neighboring electorate. The first mention of the subject in a sermon by Luther was made on the tenth Sunday after Lent, in the year 1516. At this LUTHER time he had no doubt that the merits of Christ and the saints could be purchased, together with the indulgences. He only complained that the sale was carried on for the purpose of gain, and that sinners were encouraged to continue in their sins. To him many points were doubtful which appeared settled in the minds of the purchasers. Luther's purpose at that time evidently was to check the unreflecting masses from yielding to what might prove a deception. Again, on October 31, just one year before he posted the theses, he preached on the subject. He was still very cautious, but exhorted his hearers rather to a true repentance than to efforts to secure immunity from punishment. On February 24, 1517, however, he spoke in a much more positive tone. Through indulgences the people learned to fear only the punishment, not the guilt, of sin. But for the fear of penalty no indulgences would be purchased. The result was a feeling of security in sinful practices. As Tetzel approached nearer, in the autumn of 1517, members of Luther's parish in Wittenberg crossed the borders and purchased indulgences, returning to Luther and defiantly presenting them to him when he refused them absolution on account of their unrepentant state. It was plain that the whole matter needed discussion and illumination. That there was something true in the theory of indulgences Luther firmly believed, yet he could not shut his eyes to the injury they were causing by what he suspected was an abuse. He would bring the matter to the test. On October 31, 1517, the day before the festival of All Saints, he nailed his ninety-five theses on the door of the Castle Church, where they would be seen by the theologians and others who would throng that sanctuary the next day. They were posted before twelve o'clock noon, and on the same day he wrote to Archbishop Albert concerning the abuses the 1 Berger quotes the sentence, "Out of love, and a real desire to bring the truth to light, the following should be discussed in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ," and adds, "This opening sentence of the series of theses is nothing else than the symbol of Protestantism."—Martin Luther, i, 198. indulgences were introducing, and beseeching him to disclaim the responsibility, warning him that if he failed some one would arise to oppose the professed archiepiscopal sanction, which event would result in disgrace to his Highness. He signed himself, "His Highness's unworthy son, Martin Luther, called to be a doctor of theology." THE THESES. The theses, written in Latin,' were intended for the eyes of scholars, and did not treat the doctrine of justification by faith, but rather the nature of true repentance and its relation to indulgences. The power of absolution was not denied, but the necessity of true repentance was emphasized in such way as to make this, and not priestly absolution, the all-important matter. The first thesis held that when our Lord commanded us to repent he meant that repentance should extend over the entire life of the believer; the second, that this repentance cannot refer to the sacrament of penance; the third, that inward repentance is of no avail if not accompanied by the crucifixion of the flesh; the fifth, that the pope cannot and will not remit any penance except such as he himself or the Church has imposed; the seventh, that God forgives no one's sins except he submit himself in all humility to the priest, God's representative; the twenty-second, that the pope can remit no penance to souls in purgatory which they ought to have suffered, according to ecclesiastical ordinances, in this world, because (thirtieth) the dead are dead to the canons of the Church; the thirty-third, that the papal indulgence is not that unspeakable gift of God whereby the soul is reconciled with him; the thirty-sixth and thirty-seventh, that to every Christian who truly repents belongs complete remission of punishment and guilt without an indulgence, and every true Christian, whether living or dead, has a part in all the benefits of Christ and the Church as the gift of God without the papal indulgence; and the thirty-eighth, that the papal forgiveness is not to be despised, since it declares the divine forgiveness. 2 Luther had no expectation that the effect of the theses would be what it was. He was amazed that in a fortnight they were known all over Germany. Myconius said that in a month they 'In their Latin form they may be seen in Ranke's Deutsche Geschichte, vol. vi, 6th ed., pp. 83–89, and in any edition of the works of Luther. * See most of the theses in d'Aubigné, vol. i, pp. 281-285, and complete in Schaff, vi, 160-166. Schaff also appends the Protestation, which, as its wording shows, was not an original part of the theses. They are also complete in Wace, Bucheim, and Krauth. EFFECT OF were spread throughout all Christendom, as though carried by the swift wings of an angel. The day of press censorship had not yet arrived. Soon they were translated into German and made available to the laity. To this end they were not well adapted. THE THESES. According to custom they did not in all cases clearly express what their author wished to defend. They were accepted as statements of doctrine, whereas he intended them only as scholastic theses for purposes of disputation. In some quarters they excited great favor. In others, as in Erfurt, they awakened indignation. Reuchlin rejoiced because he thought the theses would keep his enemies so busy that they would let him alone. It was characteristic of the Humanists thus to wish for quiet. The convent in Wittenberg was alarmed lest the order should be brought into disrepute. Tetzel induced Wimpina to write a set of counter theses, which were discussed in Frankfort in January, 1518. The order of Dominicans made common cause with him against the Augustinians. Luther's theses were never publicly disputed. They were rather taken up by the people and adopted with such earnestness that in many places Tetzel's occupation was gone.' In February, 1518, Luther published a German sermon on the subject of indulgences and grace, in which he more fully expressed his views, thereby, however, spreading the fire. The students at Wittenberg took sides with Luther and carried their friendship to the point of danger. The elector was accused of instigating Luther, for reasons of jealousy, against Archbishop Albert of Mayence, but he quietly took up the cause of the monk, so far, at least, as to protect him.' Among the many enemies whom these theses raised up for Luther none was more bitter than Eck, who the year before had apparently been his friend. Frightened at first, Luther soon summoned courage to answer his opponents, and he did it with terrific vigor. Not only were his arguments mighty, but, unfortunately for his reputation in the present day, he used most abusive lan 1 Erasmus, Fleck, prior of the monastery of Steinislausitz, Bibra, Bishop of Würzburg, the emperor, Maximilian I, and Leo X were pleased, or at least not angered. See d'Aubigné, i, 293–295. ? See several of these Tetzelian theses in d'Aubigné, i, 312, 313. 3 Köstlin describes at length the reception of the theses by different classes of persons-i, 175–185. 4 D'Aubigné relates, with acceptance of its essential parts, a dream of the elector to the effect that God had sent him a monk who, with a pen that reached to Rome, pierced the head of a lion (Leo X), shook the triple crown of the pope, and wrote something on the door of the Castle Church-i, 276-279. Schaff and Köstlin regard the dream as wholly fictitious. guage. Eck he called Dreck (dirt); Tetzel, he said, dealt with the Bible as a "sow with a sack of oats;" Cardinal Cajetan knew no more of true theology than a donkey does of the harp; Alveld, of Leipzig, was a most "asinine ass. The time was approaching when this undignified mode of disputation would be displaced by one of the sublimest struggles of history. 99 1 These coarse epithets were taken as arguments by many controversialists of the time. With Luther they were rather the spice than the substance of his argument. The saying, "Spoken in jest, meant in earnest," would apply here. 13 CHAPTER VIII. FROM THE THESES TO THE BURNING OF THE POPE'S BULL. THE theses were condemned as heretical successively by the faculties of Cologne, Louvain, and the Sorbonne. At first Luther had honestly anticipated a favorable judgment of the pope, who indeed was for a time disposed to treat the matter as "a mere squabble of envious monks." As it began to appear that the pope would really join issue with Luther, the latter, whose views now developed rapidly, did not know what to think of the pope. He alternated between the most abject submission to his authority and the suspicion that he was the antichrist of revelation. In March, 1518, Leo appointed a Dominican monk, Silvester Mazzalini, commonly called Prierias, head of a commission to investigate Luther's cause. He reported Luther as an ignorant and blasphemous heresiarch, and spoke of the effect of the theses as similar to the bite of a cur. Luther and Prierias fell into a personal controversy which only increased the animosity of both sides. As a result Luther, on August 7, 1518, was cited to Rome to answer for his heresies. The pope also demanded that Frederick the Wise should deliver Luther to the papal legate. The elector refused to obey, and arranged for Luther and the legate to meet at Augsburg, where a diet was in session. Cajetan, the legate, was a man of learning, and afterward spent his energies in furthering the study of the Bible. He and Luther had three interviews in October, 1518, but to no purpose. Luther bears testimony to the courtesy which the legate showed him,' but also states that the one condition of peace with the pope was recantation. Cajetan, the disdainful Italian, speaks of Luther to Staupitz as "a deep-eyed German beast." Staupitz advised and assisted him to make good his escape, which he did, arriving at Wittenberg on October 31, just one year after the posting of the theses. On November 28 Luther appealed from the pope to a general council. Once more the pontiff undertook a peaceful settlement of the dispute. Sending his nuncio, Miltitz, with the decoration In a letter to Carlstadt under date of October 14.-De Wette, i, 161. Luther's opinion of the spirituality of Cajetan is seen in his letters of Novem. ber 19 and December 13 to the elector and Staupitz respectively.-De Wette, i, 175, 194. |