Martin Luther’s 95 Thesis BY dom0061298 Martin Luther’s “Ninety – Five Theses” was a Protestant Reformation that he made against the Catholic Church for applying indulgences into the church. “[This] religious, political, cultural, and social revolution… broke the hold of the Catholic Church over Europe. (46)” The reformation came to be when Martin Luther, who before that was a priest, complained that the church shouldn’t be planting indulgences into the people’s beliefs. There were many things he did not agree with the church for his past experience with “… hat[ing] the righteous God who punishes sinners… 51)” He elieved that you did not have to pay the church to be forgiven for your sins and to be out of guilt of whether you would go to heaven or not. He believed that you could have a personal connection with God and that through faith and hope you could be forgiven of your sins because that was the reason for Jesus Christ dying on the cross. He says in “Any Christian who is truly penitent, enjoys full remission from penalty and guilt, and this is given him without letters of indulgence. [Thesis 36]” Because of his strong beliefs that there was no need for indulgences, on October 31st, he nailed the 95 thesis on the door at Wittenberg.
This execution “of nailing in turn represented the triumph of manly action. (48)” The 95 theses were meant to be seen and discussed by expert theologians, but since the castle door was portrayed as an announcement board, many thought it was for them to see. The Theses were then “turned into next into sensational printed artefact” who were presented to the public. Most of the members of the church depended on the priests to read them the Bible because of their lack of knowledge in Latin. The priest therefore had an advantage over the church and which is why the people had no choice but to believe them.
For this reason the people broke put in dispute once the Theses were translated in German. At this period in time printing was easier and faster so many people got to read Luther’s Protestant Reformation. It was a controversial issue and the heads of the church were very mad when this feud arose. In my opinion Luther did good standing up for what he believed in and taking action into making the changes he wished to see. It says that he had “no intention to give them so much publicity’ however if he actually meant to keep this in confidence, between him and the theologians, he would have handed them the Theses personally.
On the other hand if he had done this instead of nailing it on the door, the experts would have probably not paid much attention to him and would have ignored his requests, for the better of the churches Martin Luther’s actions not only revealed them inconvenient truth the church so exquisitely tried to hide, but also made history in the Catholic books. In a way, what he did was probably the best way he could have passed it, although the outcome came out even more drastic than he expected. Without Luther many people would have probably became poor and died of lack of resources. One person really can make a difference.
