I was the member of an ELCA
(Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) for many years, yet never was taught
the great truths communicated by the Father of the Reformation – Martin Luther
there. It was a Presbyterian Minister that first opened my eyes to the life and
teachings of this man that started a spiritual revolution by simple standing
firm on the Word of God and standing up against the doctrine of man. The
Reformation Movement began when he nailed up these 95 issues within the church
for discussion and debate, and the flame of righteousness began. The “just”
shall live by faith. God has no grandchildren and nobody can buy their way in
Heaven. Here is what Martin Luther nailed up for us.
Out of love for the truth
and the desire to bring it to light, the following propositions will be
discussed at Wittenberg, under the oversight of the Reverend Father Martin
Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and Lecturer on these subjects at
Wittenberg. Wherefore he requests that those who are unable to be present and
debate orally with us, may do so by letter.
In the Name of Our Lord
Jesus Christ. Amen.
1. WHEN OUR LORD and Master
Jesus Christ said “Repent,” he intended that the entire life of believers
should be repentance.
2. THIS WORD REPENTANCE
cannot be understood to mean the sacrament of penance, or the act of confession
and satisfaction administered by the priests.
3. YET IT DOES not mean
inward repentance only, as there is no inward repentance that does not manifest
itself outwardly through various mortifications of the flesh.
4. THE PENALTY OF sin,
therefore, continues so long as hatred of self, or true inward repentance,
continues, and it continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
5. THE POPE DOES not intend
to remit, and cannot remit, any penalties except those that he has imposed
either by his own authority or by the authority of the canons.
6. THE POPE CANNOT remit any
guilt, except by declaring that it has been remitted by God and by assenting to
God’s work of remission. To be sure, however, the pope may grant remission in
cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in such cases
was disregarded, the guilt would remain entirely unforgiven.
7. GOD REMITS GUILT to no
one whom he does not at the same time humble in all things and also bring him
into subjection to his vicar, the priest.
8. THE PENITENTIAL CANONS
are imposed only on the living, and according to them nothing should be imposed
on the dying.
9. THEREFORE THE HOLY SPIRIT
through the pope is kind to us, because in his decrees he always makes
exception of the article of death and of necessity.
10. IGNORANT AND WICKED are
the acts of those priests who, in the case of the dying, reserve canonical
penances for purgatory.
11. THIS CHANGING OF the
canonical penalty to the penalty of purgatory is quite evidently one of the
tares that were sown while the bishops slept.
12. IN FORMER TIMES the
canonical penalties were imposed not after but before absolution, as tests of
true contrition.
13. THE DYING ARE freed by
death from all penalties. They are already dead to canonical laws and have a
right to be released from them.
14. THE IMPERFECT SPIRITUAL
health, or the imperfect love, of the dying person necessarily brings with it
great fear; and the smaller the love, the greater is the fear.
15. THIS FEAR AND horror is
sufficient in itself alone, to say nothing of other things, to constitute the
penalty of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.
16. HELL, PURGATORY, AND
heaven seem to differ as do despair, near despair, and the assurance of safety.
17. CONCERNING SOULS IN
purgatory, it seems necessary that horror should grow less and love increase.
18. IT SEEMS UNPROVED, either
by reason or Scripture, that they are outside the state of merit, that is, of
increasing love.
19. AGAIN, IT SEEMS unproved
that souls in purgatory, or at least that all of them, are certain or assured
of their own blessedness, though we may be quite certain of it.
20. THEREFORE BY “FULL
remission of all penalties” the pope means not actually “of all,” but only of
those penalties imposed by himself.
21. THEREFORE THOSE
PREACHERS of indulgences are in error, who say that by the pope’s indulgences a
man is freed from every penalty and is saved.
22. IN FACT, THE pope remits
no penalty for the souls in purgatory that, according to the canons, they would
have had to pay in this life.
23. IF IT IS at all possible
to grant to anyone the remission of all penalties whatsoever, it is certain
that this remission can be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to the
very few.
24. THEREFORE, THE GREATER
part of the people are necessarily deceived by that indiscriminate and
high-sounding promise of release from penalty.
25. THE POWER THAT the pope
has in a general way over purgatory is just like the power that any bishop or
curate has in a particular way over his own diocese or parish.
26. THE POPE DOES well when
he grants remission to souls in purgatory, not by the power of the keys, which
in this case he does not possess, but by way of intercession.
27. THEY PREACH MAN-MADE
doctrines who say that so soon as the coin jingles into the money-box, the soul
flies out of purgatory.
28. IT IS CERTAIN that when
the coin jingles into the money-box, greed and avarice can be increased, but
the result of the intercession of the church is in the power of God alone.
29. WHO KNOWS WHETHER all
the souls in purgatory wish to be bought out of it, as in the legend of Sts.
Severinus and Paschal?
30. NO ONE IS sure that his
own contrition is sincere, much less that he can attain full remission.
31. AS THE MAN who is truly
repentant is rare, so rare also is the man who truly buys indulgences. Indeed,
such men are most rare.
32. THEY WILL BE condemned
eternally, together with their teachers, who believe themselves sure of their
salvation because they have letters of pardon.
33. MEN MUST BE on their
guard against those who say that the pope’s pardons are that inestimable gift
of God by which man is reconciled to him;
34. FOR THESE GRACES of
pardon concern only the penalties of sacramental satisfaction, and these are
appointed by man.
35. THEY PREACH NO Christian
doctrine who teach that contrition is not necessary in those who intend to buy
souls out of purgatory or to buy confessional privileges.
36. EVERY TRULY REPENTANT
Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without
letters of pardon.
37. EVERY TRUE CHRISTIAN,
whether living or dead, has part in all the benefits of Christ and the church;
and this is granted to him by God, even without letters of pardon.
38. NEVERTHELESS, THE
REMISSION and participation in the benefits of the church, which are granted by
the pope, are in no way to be despised, for they are, as I have said, the
declaration of divine remission.
39. IT IS VERY DIFFICULT,
even for the most educated theologians, at one and the same time to commend to
the people the abundance of pardons and also the need of true contrition.
40. TRUE CONTRITION seeks
and loves penalties, but liberal pardons only relax penalties and cause them to
be hated, or at least they give a reason for hating them.
41. PAPAL INDULGENCES ARE to
be preached with caution, so that the people may not falsely think of them as
preferable to other good works of love.
42. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that the pope does not intend the buying of pardons to be compared in
any way to works of mercy.
43. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a better work
than buying pardons;
44. BECAUSE LOVE GROWS by
works of love, man becomes better by doing works of love. By buying pardons,
however, man does not grow better, only more free from penalty.
45. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that he who sees a man in need and passes him by and gives his money for
pardons instead, purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation
of God.
46. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that unless they have more money than they need, they are bound to
reserve what is necessary for their own families, and by no means to squander
it on pardons.
47. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that the buying of pardons is a matter of free will, not of commandment.
48. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that the pope, in granting pardons, needs and therefore desires their
devout prayer for him more than their money.
49. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that the pope’s pardons are useful so long as they do not put their
trust in them; but altogether harmful if they lose their fear of God because of
them.
50. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the indulgence preachers, he
would rather that St. Peter’s church should go to ashes than that it should be
built up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.
51. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
taught that it would be the pope’s wish, as it is his duty, to give of his own
money to many of those from whom certain hawkers of pardons cajole money, even
though the church of St. Peter might have to be sold.
52. THE ASSURANCE OF
salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the indulgence commissary
or the pope himself were to stake his soul upon it.
53. THEY ARE ENEMIES of
Christ and the pope who bid the Word of God to be silent in some churches in
order that pardons may be preached in others.
54. INJURY IS DONE to the
Word of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or a longer time is spent on
pardons than on the Word.
55. IT MUST BE the pope’s
intention that if pardons, which are a very small thing, are celebrated with
one bell, single processions, and ceremonies, then the gospel, which is the
very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred
processions, and a hundred ceremonies.
56. THE TREASURES OF the
church, out of which the pope grants indulgences, are not sufficiently named or
known among the people of Christ.
57. THAT THEY ARE not
temporal treasures is certainly evident, for many vendors do not pour out such
treasures so easily, but only gather them.
58. NOR ARE THEY the merits
of Christ and the saints, for even without the pope, these always work grace
for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outward man.
59. ST. LAURENCE SAID that
the treasures of the church were the church’s poor, but he spoke according to
the usage of the word in his own time.
60. WITHOUT BEING RASH we
say that the keys of the church, given by Christ’s merit, are that treasure;
61. FOR IT IS clear that the
power of the pope is in itself sufficient for the remission of penalties and of
cases reserved for his jurisdiction.
62. THE TRUE TREASURE of the
church is the most holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
63. BUT THIS TREASURE is
naturally most odious, for it makes the first to be last.
64. ON THE OTHER hand, the
treasure of indulgences is naturally most acceptable, for it makes the last to be
first.
65. THEREFORE THE TREASURES
of the gospel are nets with which they would formerly fish for men of riches.
66. THE TREASURES OF the
indulgences are nets with which they now fish for the riches of men.
67. THE INDULGENCES THAT the
preachers cry as the “greatest graces” are known to be truly such, insofar as
they promote gain.
68. IN TRUTH, HOWEVER, they
are the absolute smallest graces compared with the grace of God and the piety
of the cross.
69. BISHOPS AND CURATES are
bound to admit the commissaries of papal pardons with all reverence.
70. BUT STILL MORE are they
bound to strain all their eyes and attend with all their ears, lest these men
preach their own dreams instead of the pope’s commission.
71. LET HIM WHO speaks
against the truth of papal pardons be anathema and accursed!
72. BUT LET HIM who guards
against the lust and license of the pardon-preachers be blessed!
73. THE POPE JUSTLY thunders
against those who, by any means, contrive harm to the traffic of pardons.
74. BUT MUCH MORE does he intend
to thunder against those who use the pretext of pardons to contrive injury to
holy love and truth.
75. TO CONSIDER THE papal
pardons so great that they could absolve a man even if he had committed an
impossible sin and violated the Mother of God is madness.
76. WE SAY, ON the contrary,
that the papal pardons are not able to remove the very least of venial sins, so
far as its guilt is concerned.
77. IT IS SAID that even St.
Peter, if he were now pope, could not bestow greater graces. This is blasphemy
against St. Peter and against the pope.
78. WE SAY, ON the contrary,
that even the present pope, and any pope at all, has greater graces at his
disposal: namely, the gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written
in 1 Corinthians 12.
79. TO SAY THAT the cross
emblazoned with the papal arms, which is set up by the preachers of
indulgences, is of equal worth with the cross of Christ, is blasphemy.
80. BISHOPS, CURATES, AND
theologians who allow such talk to be spread among the people will have to account
for this.
81. THIS UNBRIDLED PREACHING
of pardons makes it difficult, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence
due to the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questions of the laity.
82. SUCH QUESTIONS AS the
following: “Why does the pope not empty purgatory, for the sake of holy love
and for the sake of desperate souls that are there, if he redeems an infinite
number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church?
The former reasons would be most just, while the latter is most trivial.”
83. OR: “WHY ARE funeral and
anniversary masses for the dead continued, and why does he not return or permit
the withdrawal of the endowments founded on their behalf, since it is wrong to
pray for the redeemed?”
84. OR: “WHAT IS this new
piety of God and the pope, that for money they allow a man who is impious and
their enemy to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and do
not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul’s own need, free it for pure
love’s sake?”
85. OR: “WHY ARE the
penitential canons, long since in actual fact and through disuse abrogated and
dead, now satisfied by the granting of indulgences, as though they were still
alive and in force?”
86. OR: “WHY DOES not the
pope, whose wealth today is greater than the riches of the richest, build this
one basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the money of
poor believers?”
87. OR: “WHAT DOES the pope
remit, and what participation in the benefits of the church does he grant, to
those who, by perfect contrition, have a right to full remission and
participation?”
88. OR: “WHAT GREATER
blessing could come to the church than if the pope were to do a hundred times a
day what he now does once, and bestow on every believer these remissions and
participation?”
89. OR FINALLY: “SINCE the
pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of souls rather than money, why does
he suspend the indulgences and pardons granted prior to now, since these have
equal efficacy?”
90. TO REPRESS THESE
convincing arguments of the laity by force alone, and not to resolve them by
giving reasonable answers, is to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule
of their enemies, and to leave Christians unsatisfied.
91. IF, THEREFORE, PARDONS
were preached according to the spirit and mind of the pope, all these doubts
would be readily resolved. Indeed, they would not exist.
92. AWAY, THEN, WITH all
those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace,” and there is no
peace.
93. BLESSED BE ALL those
prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Cross, cross,” and there is no
cross!
94. CHRISTIANS ARE TO be
exhorted to be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties,
death, and hell;
95. AND THUS BE confident of
entering into heaven through many tribulations, rather than through the false
assurance of peace.
This text is taken from
Stephen J. Nichols, ed., Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses (Phillipsburg,
N.J.: P&R, 2002).
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