What Were The 95 Theses Luther Nailed On The Wittenburg Door

The 95 Theses

Out of beloved for the truth and from desire to elucidate it, the Reverend Male parent Martin Luther, Master of Arts and Sacred Theology, and ordinary lecturer therein at Wittenberg, intends to defend the post-obit statements and to dispute on them in that place. Therefore he asks that those who cannot be present and dispute with him orally shall practise so in their absence by letter. In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, Amen.

When our Lord and Principal Jesus Christ said, ``Apologize'' (Mt iv:17), he willed the unabridged life of believers to be 1 of repentance.
This give-and-take cannot exist understood every bit referring to the sacrament of penance, that is, confession and satisfaction, as administered by the clergy.
Nonetheless it does non mean solely inner repentance; such inner repentance is worthless unless it produces various outward mortification of the flesh.
The penalisation of sin remains as long as the hatred of self (that is, true inner repentance), namely till our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.
The pope neither desires nor is able to remit any penalties except those imposed by his own authority or that of the canons.
The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring and showing that it has been remitted by God; or, to be sure, by remitting guilt in cases reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in these cases were disregarded, the guilt would certainly remain unforgiven.
God remits guilt to no one unless at the same fourth dimension he humbles him in all things and makes him submissive to the vicar, the priest.
The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and, according to the canons themselves, nothing should exist imposed on the dying.
Therefore the Holy Spirit through the pope is kind to us insofar as the pope in his decrees always makes exception of the article of decease and of necessity.
Those priests act ignorantly and wickedly who, in the example of the dying, reserve canonical penalties for purgatory.
Those tares of irresolute the canonical punishment to the penalty of purgatory were apparently sown while the bishops slept (Mt 13:25).
In former times canonical penalties were imposed, not later on, simply before absolution, as tests of true contrition.
The dying are freed past death from all penalties, are already expressionless as far as the canon laws are concerned, and have a right to be released from them.
Imperfect piety or love on the part of the dying person necessarily brings with it groovy fear; and the smaller the love, the greater the fear.
This fear or horror is sufficient in itself, to say nothing of other things, to plant the penalization of purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.
Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ the aforementioned as despair, fear, and assurance of salvation.
It seems equally though for the souls in purgatory fear should necessarily decrease and honey increase.
Furthermore, it does non seem proved, either by reason or by Scripture, that souls in purgatory are exterior the state of merit, that is, unable to grow in love.
Nor does it seem proved that souls in purgatory, at least not all of them, are certain and assured of their own salvation, even if we ourselves may be entirely sure of it.
Therefore the pope, when he uses the words ``plenary remission of all penalties,'' does non actually mean ``all penalties,'' but but those imposed past himself.
Thus those indulgence preachers are in mistake who say that a man is absolved from every penalty and saved by papal indulgences.
As a affair of fact, the pope remits to souls in purgatory no penalization which, according to canon law, they should have paid in this life.
If remission of all penalties whatever could be granted to anyone at all, certainly information technology would exist granted only to the most perfect, that is, to very few.
For this reason most people are necessarily deceived by that indiscriminate and high-sounding promise of release from penalty.
That ability which the pope has in general over purgatory corresponds to the power which whatever bishop or curate has in a particular manner in his own diocese and parish.
The pope does very well when he grants remission to souls in purgatory, not by the power of the keys, which he does not have, merely by way of intercession for them.
They preach only human doctrines who say that as presently as the money clinks into the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory.
It is certain that when money clinks in the money chest, greed and avarice tin be increased; merely when the church building intercedes, the event is in the hands of God alone.
Who knows whether all souls in purgatory wish to exist redeemed, since we have exceptions in St. Severinus and St. Paschal, as related in a legend.
No i is sure of the integrity of his own contrition, much less of having received plenary remission.
The man who actually buys indulgences is as rare as he who is really penitent; indeed, he is exceedingly rare.
Those who believe that they can exist sure of their salvation because they have indulgence letters volition be eternally damned, together with their teachers.
Men must peculiarly be on guard against those who say that the pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which homo is reconciled to him.
For the graces of indulgences are concerned but with the penalties of sacramental satisfaction established by man.
They who teach that contrition is not necessary on the part of those who intend to buy souls out of purgatory or to buy confessional privileges preach unchristian doctrine.
Any truly repentant Christian has a correct to total remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters.
Any true Christian, whether living or dead, participates in all the blessings of Christ and the church; and this is granted him by God, even without indulgence letters.
Nevertheless, papal remission and blessing are by no means to be overlooked, for they are, as I have said (Thesis 6), the proclamation of the divine remission.
It is very difficult, even for the almost learned theologians, at one and the same fourth dimension to commend to the people the bounty of indulgences and the need of true contrition.
A Christian who is truly contrite seeks and loves to pay penalties for his sins; the compensation of indulgences, however, relaxes penalties and causes men to hate them -- at to the lowest degree it furnishes occasion for antisocial them.
Papal indulgences must be preached with caution, lest people erroneously think that they are preferable to other good works of love.
Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend that the buying of indulgences should in any mode be compared with works of mercy.
Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor or lends to the needy does a meliorate deed than he who buys indulgences.
Considering honey grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better. Man does not, nonetheless, become better by ways of indulgences just is merely freed from penalties.
Christians are to be taught that he who sees a needy man and passes him by, all the same gives his money for indulgences, does not buy papal indulgences just God's wrath.
Christians are to be taught that, unless they accept more than they need, they must reserve enough for their family unit needs and past no means squander it on indulgences.
Christians are to be taught that they ownership of indulgences is a thing of free choice, not commanded.
Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting indulgences, needs and thus desires their devout prayer more than their coin.
Christians are to exist taught that papal indulgences are useful only if they do not put their trust in them, but very harmful if they lose their fear of God considering of them.
Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the exactions of the indulgence preachers, he would rather that the basilica of St. Peter were burned to ashes than congenital up with the skin, flesh, and bones of his sheep.
Christians are to be taught that the pope would and should wish to requite of his ain money, even though he had to sell the basilica of St. Peter, to many of those from whom certain hawkers of indulgences cajole money.
It is vain to trust in salvation by indulgence letters, even though the indulgence commissary, or even the pope, were to offer his soul as security.
They are the enemies of Christ and the pope who forbid altogether the preaching of the Word of God in some churches in social club that indulgences may exist preached in others.
Injury is done to the Give-and-take of God when, in the same sermon, an equal or larger amount of time is devoted to indulgences than to the Word.
It is certainly the pope'due south sentiment that if indulgences, which are a very insignificant thing, are celebrated with one bell, i procession, and ane ceremony, then the gospel, which is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred bells, a hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies.
The true treasures of the church, out of which the pope distributes indulgences, are non sufficiently discussed or known among the people of Christ.
That indulgences are not temporal treasures is certainly articulate, for many indulgence sellers do not distribute them freely simply but gather them.
Nor are they the merits of Christ and the saints, for, even without the pope, the latter always work grace for the inner man, and the cross, death, and hell for the outer man.
St. Lawrence said that the poor of the church were the treasures of the church, but he spoke according to the usage of the word in his own time.
Without want of consideration we say that the keys of the church, given by the merits of Christ, are that treasure.
For it is clear that the pope'south power is of itself sufficient for the remission of penalties and cases reserved by himself.
The truthful treasure of the church building is the well-nigh holy gospel of the glory and grace of God.
But this treasure is naturally nigh odious, for information technology makes the offset to exist last (Mt. 20:sixteen).
On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is naturally most acceptable, for information technology makes the final to be start.
Therefore the treasures of the gospel are nets with which one formerly fished for men of wealth.
The treasures of indulgences are nets with which ane now fishes for the wealth of men.
The indulgences which the demagogues acclaim as the greatest graces are actually understood to exist such only insofar equally they promote proceeds.
They are all the same in truth the most insignificant graces when compared with the grace of God and the piety of the cross.
Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of papal indulgences with all reverence.
Merely they are much more bound to strain their eyes and ears lest these men preach their own dreams instead of what the pope has commissioned.
Allow him who speaks against the truth apropos papal indulgences be anathema and accursed.
Only permit him who guards against the lust and license of the indulgence preachers be blest.
Just as the pope justly thunders against those who past any means whatever concoct damage to the sale of indulgences.
Much more does he intend to thunder against those who use indulgences as a pretext to concoct impairment to holy love and truth.
To consider papal indulgences and so swell that they could atone a human being fifty-fifty if he had done the incommunicable and had violated the mother of God is madness.
We say on the contrary that papal indulgences cannot remove the very to the lowest degree of impropriety sins as far every bit guilt is concerned.
To say that even St. Peter if he were at present pope, could not grant greater graces is irreverence against St. Peter and the pope.
Nosotros say on the contrary that even the present pope, or whatsoever pope whatsoever, has greater graces at his disposal, that is, the gospel, spiritual powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written. (1 Co 12[:28])
To say that the cantankerous emblazoned with the papal coat of artillery, and set by the indulgence preachers is equal in worth to the cross of Christ is blasphemy.
The bishops, curates, and theologians who permit such talk to be spread among the people will have to answer for this.
This unbridled preaching of indulgences makes information technology hard even for learned men to rescue the reverence which is due the pope from slander or from the shrewd questions of the laity.
Such as: ``Why does not the pope empty purgatory for the sake of holy beloved and the dire need of the souls that are at that place if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake of miserable money with which to build a church?'' The former reason would be nigh merely; the latter is virtually lilliputian.
Over again, ``Why are funeral and anniversary masses for the expressionless continued and why does he non return or permit the withdrawal of the endowments founded for them, since information technology is wrong to pray for the redeemed?''
Again, ``What is this new piety of God and the pope that for a consideration of money they permit 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, beca use of the need of that pious and love soul, free it for pure love's sake?''
Again, ``Why are the penitential canons, long since abrogated and dead in bodily fact and through disuse, now satisfied past the granting of indulgences every bit though they were yet live and in forcefulness?''
Once more, ``Why does not the pope, whose wealth is today greater than the wealth of the richest Crassus, build this i basilica of St. Peter with his own money rather than with the coin of poor believers?''
Again, ``What does the pope remit or grant to those who by perfect contrition already have a right to total remission and blessings?''
Over again, ``What greater blessing could come to the church than if the pope were to bestow these remissions and blessings on every believer a hundred times a mean solar day, as he now does only once?''
``Since the pope seeks the conservancy of souls rather than money by his indulgences, why does he append the indulgences and pardons previously granted when they have equal efficacy?''
To repress these very sharp arguments of the laity past force alone, and not to resolve them past giving reasons, is to expose the church and the pope to the ridicule of their enemies and to make Christians unhappy.
If, therefore, indulgences were preached according to the spirit and intention of the pope, all these doubts would exist readily resolved. Indeed, they would not be.
Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, ``Peace, peace,'' and in that location is no peace! (Jer six:14)
Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, ``Cross, cross,'' and there is no cross!
Christians should be exhorted to be diligent in following Christ, their Head, through penalties, death and hell.
And thus be confident of inbound into heaven through many tribulations rather than through the imitation security of peace (Acts 14:22).