The Use Of Indulgences In Martin Luther's Ninety-Five Theses

Martin Luther started a religious reform with the intent to purify Christianity in the early 1500s, but his actions brought about an unintended social revolution. As the leader of the Reformation, he needed to take responsibility for what his movement caused. Yet, despite what his Catholic critics said, Luther never deviated from his support of the nobility, and was never a hypocrite in his views. His writings and teachings consistently defended the nobility’s power. In his Ninety-Five Theses, Martin Luther criticized many practices of the Roman Catholic Church, most notably the sale of indulgences. Indulgences were a piece of paper, that for a small price, were believed to send souls from purgatory, a place between Heaven and Hell, directly to Heaven. In his Ninety-Five Theses, Luther criticized the sale of indulgences, saying “Any truly repentant Christian has a right to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without indulgence letters.” In his later arguments, Luther stated that only faith will save the Christian, and because of this, indulgences were not only unnecessary, but completely immoral. …show more content…
In this pamphlet, Luther took the side of the nobility once again. Luther claimed that the peasants, “are doing the devil’s work,” and that they, “have taken upon themselves the burden of … terrible sins against God and man.” Throughout the entire Reformation, Luther consistently took the side of the nobility, and continued to take his stance when he wrote this pamphlet. Luther owed his life to the nobility, and after taking their side for eight years, Luther could not change who he supported, especially because the nobility gained the upper hand when the Turks were defeated and the German borders were safe once again, thereby allowing the nobility to have more troops to use against the