Western European Religion Research Paper

Martin Luther was already questioning his catholic fate and this became worse when the pope allowed John Tetzel to sell indulgences. Luther strongly believed that the Catholic Church was conning the people of Wittenberg into believing they could pay off their sins. Indulgences are a remission of the purgatorial punishment due for sins according to the Roman Church. In acknowledgement to Tetzel’s actions, Luther wrote the “95 Theses”. The 95 Theses was a criticism of indulgences and it had ninety five points attacking the churches practices selling indulgences.

Indulgences were certificates bought by the people to escape purgatory; therefore the preachers would sell these indulgences to the common folk in order

Martin Luther argued that indulgences could not allow a Christian to be saved from punishment in his “95 Theses.” An indulgence was a lessening of a soul would have to spend in purgatory. People of the Middle Ages paid for these in order to go to Heaven, and this did not make sense to Martin Luther. He then read and interpreted the Bible and found nothing about paying indulgences. His twenty-first thesis states, “Thus those preachers of indulgences are in error who say that by the indulgences of the Pope a man is freed

In 1095, Pope Urban II helped terminate all punishments on people who participated in the crusades and those who confessed any sins. This began the idea of indulgences in the Catholic Church. Then the selling of indulgences was permitted to those whom couldn’t participate in the crusades and offered cash to the effort instead. In the early 1200s, the Church became as powerful as Western Europe and claimed it had a “treasury of indulgences”. This of course led to increase the power of the Church and gave the Pope more authority. 1

Martin Luther was critical of indulgences because according to the text, "[it] was currently being preached near Wittenberg to help raise funds for the rebuilding of Saint Peter’s in Rome." (pg. 327) People were going out of their way to pay for these so-called "golden ticket ' to heaven and the Church profiting from it all.

belief, the church and religion in general provided an immense amount of influence on the

The reformation encompassed a period where individuals contended with religions due to the individual’s interpretation. Ones interpretation of the scripture during the reformation had the capability to revolutionize churches as with Martin Luther’s own interpretation of the scripture. During the time of Martin Luther, the Catholic Church exploited the paranoia of its followers with the selling of indulgences. “Indulgences began as monetary gifts of charity as an expression of gratitude in exchange for forgiveness .” As time progressed the church began to sell indulgencies for those wishing to spend less time in purgatory. The low point for indulgences occurred when the church issued them for the dead. As illustrated, the living and the dead

A long history of corruption caused people to view the Catholic Church as a for-profit organization rather than God’s voice on Earth. By the Renaissance, the Catholic Church had already lost much of its power over secular rulers but still held leverage over the masses. This authority naturally paved the way for corruption. The most outrageous form of corruption practiced by the Church was the sale of indulgences. An indulgence is the remission of temporal punishment still due for a sin that has been sacramentally absolved. One of the ways the Church would generate income was by selling them. The notion started off innocently enough; it stemmed from the idea that punishment for crimes could be converted to payments of money, in essence, a fine (Simon 35). However, it soon spiraled out of control as the Church used indulgences simply to gain money, as when Pope Leo X needed money for the construction of St. Peter’s basilica (Duiker and Spielvogel 429). People began to view salvation as something that could be bought; they could go out and sin on Saturday night, then simply pay for it monetarily Sunday morning. To encourage people to buy more indulgences, the Church even claimed that indulgences could be bought on behalf of those already dead and in purgatory (Sporre 378). This blatant victimization was what spurred Martin Luther to write his Ninety-Five Theses,

The church had a dynamic effect on the development of Western Civilization. The spiritual enthusiasm displayed spiritual growth and passion during the High Middle Ages. The High Middle Ages influenced a great deal of the European Society. The church was one of the most powerful forces during the creation of the middle ages and caused great innovation throughout Europe. Therefore, the European

Christianity is a vast umbrella; a faith that shelters many souls. Believers of the Christian faith, if adhering to the scripture of the bible are governed to practice acts of empathy, compassion, kindness, selflessness, etc..Christians are supposed to reject judgment on one another, even though that is a trying task because mankind does it without effort. However, Christians believe that God created all in his image and we are all children of him. With that premise, it would be blasphemous to use such a faith to ones advantage. Political leaders tend to play on peoples emotions by using the power that Christianity holds against them by strong arming them to believe that if they do not follow them they are bad and in a sense rebelling against

The Catholic Church decided that instead of penance by prayer and expensive pilgrimages, that it would seemingly be more effective if they sold repentance to citizens for cash—this is known as an indulgence. These indulgences did not go

Even thought the Christians were able to keep their religion, they had to take certain rules that came along with that. They had to pay an

the church practices he viewed as wrong, with a primary aim to get rid of indulgences.

of their plan. Sales of indulgences was an immense thing for the church. ( See Appendix D4) During

The forefront issue in the ninety-five theses deals with indulgences. Luther delves deeply into how and why indulgences were sold by the