Martin Luther's 95 Thesis Against The Sale Of Indulgences

A Simple practice of the Catholic Church such as “selling of Indulgence” arose a spark to reformation of Germany and towards the peasant’s war. This practice of selling of indulgences was questioned by a german monk “Martin Luther”, the man who believed in “sola fide”, meaning faith alone. Moreover, his ideology towards salvation was the sole authority of scripture, no human authority is required for salvation, all Christians are spiritually equal. Luther’s primary purpose was to reject authority of the papacy and this led towards Protestantism. However, his message was misguided by the peasants; there ideology was based on misperception of the scripture (the peasant’s demanded for a life that followed scripture according to their observes
of Christians being spiritually equal.), this led to rejection of nobles and royalty authority. Luther claims only supported spiritual equally among Christians and he rebelled only for spiritual equally and gods words, which were provide in the scripture. He did not claim any of peasant’s claims. However, his rebellion led towards political and social equality and peasant’s war in which he was not engaged in and nor he pledged for the peasant’s war Therefore, Luther was not a hypocrite nor he was guilty of hypocrisy in his attitude towards peasant’s claims.
The sale of indulgences was the first step towards the reformation of German.
Indulgences were sold for remission of punishments, due sins and purgatory. However, the indulgences were collected to raise funds for the reconstruction of St.Peter’s basilica in Rome. This act was inducted by Pope Leo X. In 1517 Martin Luther wrote the 95 thesis against the sale of indulgences practice by the Catholic Church. In the 95 thesis Luther stated that pope has no authority or rights to forgive any sins expect of those he imposed by his ow authority, nor the pope can remit any guilt. Luther has stated that purgatory can’t provide a place in heaven, everyone is responsible for there own salvation. Furthermore, all sins and salvation are executed on the earth and only god alone places souls according to there sins not the pope. In other words, Luther rejected the pope’s authority from the church and consider to in faith alone and, consider people directly confess to god. Through the 95 thesis, the peasants also started to reject pope’s authority and had developed significant amount of hope for improvement of their lifestyle and living more of a Christian live according to the word of God. At this point peasant had started to misrepresent Luther’s ideology. Luther rebellion had started to head in different direction, that he didn’t even though of at that
moment.
Luther message had begun to segregate into a different direction by the peasants.
This was the social and political part of life. However, Luther represented his thesis based on the spiritual and secular terms. Nevertheless, the peasants interpreted the scripture and started to related it to their whole life and also the society areas that needed reformation. For instant, the peasants had to pay the highest amount taxes, also had to pay for the water to the landlords, peasants were not allowed to hunt and cut wood directly from the woods. Peasant had to pay the landlords for almost every right they wanted. This arose the development of the peasant’s war, the reformed Message had stared to spread towards the countryside. With the benefit of the printing press the message reach out to the educated clergy. On the other hand, the eighty percent of the peasants population was uneducated, the message was read out in assemblies, market places and painted materials. The peasants started to question all types of authorities and charger towards the nobles and royalty for equal society and political rights. Peasants established their demand with the help of varies rebels. For instant, the twelve articles, violence and Thomas Muntzer letters to
princes.
The rebel approach of Thomas Muntzer, emphasized on the last days. Although he began his religious revolt by following Luther’s theological doctrines, Müntzer soon went his own way. Believed that teachings came from the Holy Spirit, he placed them in opposition to the Lutheran doctrines of justification (justification by faith alone) and of the authority of Scripture (Scripture as the exclusive source of divine truth). As an exponent of the supremacy of the inner light of the Holy Spirit as against the authority of Scripture, Müntzer was said by Luther to have swallowed the Holy Spirit, “feathers and all.”The revolutionary aspect of Müntzer’s theology lay in the link he made between his concept of the inevitable conquest of the anti-Christian earthly government and the thesis that the common people themselves, as the instruments of God, would have to execute this change. He believed that the common people, because of their lack of property and their unspoiled ignorance, were God’s elect and would disclose his will. Indeed, he came to believe that, as God’s elect, peasants would lead the struggle against the enemies of the Holy Spirit in the last days.
The Twelve Articles are a summary composed by Sebastian Lotzer of hundreds of other articles and grievances with the biblical references that support each point. On the surface they seem quite pedestrian and include: the wish to be able to elect their own pastors; the collection of tithes for use only within their own communities; an end to serfdom with a promise to obey elected and appointed rulers; the right to fish or hunt without limitation; the right to take wood as necessary; a limitation on labour due to lords; an end to traditional peasant services; reasonable rents paid to lords; fair judgements in legal cases; common lands returned to the peasants for common use; an end to the custom of heriot (the right of a lord to seize a peasant's best chattel upon his or her death); and lastly, if any of these demands can be demonstrated to be unsupported by scripture, they are null and void. The peasants wanted to hear the Gospel and live their lives accordingly, and those who could be considered enemies of the gospel were the enemies of the peasants. The idea of ‘pure gospel’ served as their justification
Luther remained largely ignorant of the extent to which the unrest permeated the peasantry until he embarked on a tour of Thuringia with Philipp Melanchthon. It was at this time that he was able to observe firsthand the severity of the situation, peasants doing "the devil's work".He attempted to prevent further violence by preaching against it, but recognised that this had little, if any impact
Luther goes so far as to justify the actions of the Princes against the peasants, even when it involves acts of violence. He feels that they can be punished by the lords on the basis that they have “become faithless, perjured, disobedient, rebellious, murderers, robbers, and blasphemers, whom even a heathen ruler has the right and authority to punish”. He even venerates those who fight against the peasants, stating that “anyone who is killed fighting on the side of the rulers may be a true martyr in the eyes of God”. He closes with a sort of disclaimer, “if anyone thinks this too harsh, let him remember that rebellion is intolerable and that the destruction of the world is to be expected every hour”. One of the reasons why Luther urged that the secular authorities crush the peasant rebellion was because of St. Paul's teaching of the doctrine of Divine Right of Kings in his epistle to the Romans, which says that all the authorities are appointed by God, and should not therefore be resisted.
Luther saw that violent upheaval would alienate the princes, nobility and certain towns, and would likely be crushed by Catholic or Imperial opposition. Since the majority of towns wanted moderate reform, and many of the princes were committed to it, it was a logical move. Luther would be chastised for this move, seen as a shill to the princes.