They were posted on the door of the Wittenberg castle church on October 31, 1517. The document disagreed with the selling of indulgences. An indulgence is when a sinner pays the church to forgive their sins. For example, if one committed a sin they would confess to the priest, and the priest would let their sin be forgiven for twenty dollars. One could also pay for a relative to be released from purgatory. At the time the money from indulgences was being used to help build St. Peter’s Basilica. Another topic Luther disagreed on was power. Martin Luther thought that priest should not be able to grant salvation. He believed that God was the only being that could. He also believed that the pope had too much power. At that time the pope was practically an emperor because all of the Christians in Europe abided by his rules and decisions. When Luther posted the 95 Theses he did not want to break away from the church, but he wanted the pope to see them as suggestions to make the church appeal to other people. Pope Leo X excommunicated Luther in 1521 because of his speaking against the church.
Martin Luther had many followers after his excommunication. These people were called Lutherans. The Lutherans believed in the same ideas as Martin Luther. A main reason that the Lutheran church was created was because their bible was translated into German from Latin by Martin Luther in 1534. Martin Luther also believed that