Martin Luther Ninety-Five Theses Essay

Martin Luther’s creation of the Ninety-Five Theses concerning the issue of indulges, which he posted on the door of the church, was a condemnation of practices by the clergy which for the preceding 150 years, had festered and weakened the religious institution to the point of rendering it a contradiction of itself. The actions Luther targeted were the main issues which had caused a slow deterioration of the standing of the church through the years. The degrading actions of the religious institutions were pointed out by reformers before Luther, but the public did not catch on to the movement. Luther simply expressed and furthered the ideas of many reformers and included the complaints of the public in his Ninety-Five Theses.

One of the first critics to identify the faults of the church was John Wycliffe. An English scholar, Wycliffe, wrote about the less than pious lives of the clergy and how their collective behavior contradicted the teachings of the church and undermined the faith. The leaders of the …show more content…
1310. In this piece of work, the narrator takes a tour through Hell. He talked of the eighth circle, the one closest to the Devil, where the simonists, the priest who used their position in the church to deceive people while gaining riches. “The eighth circle contains among others those guilty of simony, the technical name for buying and selling pardons (Doc 4).” Dante explains how the punishing of simonists was proper for the crime they committed because they metaphorically turned the meaning of the church “upside-down”. The simonists were buried with their heads down and the soles of their feet sticking upward. The simonist made a large amount of money because people thought they could clear their name of sin by paying the priests. They thought they could trust the religious leaders because of their importance and position in society. “Complete remission by these means and once more enjoys God’s favor (Doc