The Ninety-Five Theses

The Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences (original Latin: Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum) were written by Martin Luther and are widely regarded as the initial catalyst for the Protestant Reformation. The disputation protests against clerical abuses, especially nepotism, simony, usury, pluralism, and the sale of indulgences. It is generally believed that, according to university custom, on 31 October 1517, Luther posted the ninety-five theses, which he had composed in Latin, on the door of All Saints' Church in Wittenberg.

Background

The Ninety-Five Theses question the Catholic Church's practice of selling indulgences and view skeptically the notion that a papal pardon rather than penance or genuine contrition can achieve forgiveness of sins. Luther argued that Christians were being falsely told that they could obtain absolution for souls in purgatory by buying indulgences.

All Saints' Church in Wittenberg, Saxony in the Holy Roman Empire, locally known as the Castle Church (Schlosskirche), where the Ninety-Five Theses famously appeared, held one of Europe's largest collections of holy relics. These had been piously collected by Frederick III of Saxony. At that time, pious veneration of relics supposedly allowed the viewer to receive relief from temporal punishment for sins in purgatory. By 1520, Frederick had over 19,000 relics, purportedly "including vials of the milk of the Virgin Mary, straws from the manger [of Jesus], and the body of one of the innocents massacred by King Herod."