Martin Luther and His Problem with Indulgences

Martin Luther (1483-1546)
Martin Luther (1483-1546) (add pic and text) was a long time professor of theology at the university of Wittenberg, Germany and a local minister of his church. Wittenberg had built a printing press to commemorate the university’s opening in 1501, but was initially unsuccessful as scholars of the university already had a supply of books they needed and simply traded for whichever ones they were lacking. Before he printed his famous 95 theses, Martin Luther had prior experience working with the printing press as he often printed manuscripts of his church’s sermons to distribute.

Pope Leo X (1475-1521) and the Church's use of Indulgences
Martin Luther’s main reason for publishing his 95 theses was to expose and denounce the Pope Leo X and the Church’s use and encouragement of indulgences. Indulgences are pieces of paper which are traded for with money that the church claimed lessened one’s sins. Theoretically, if one had bought enough indulgences, they could be absolved of all their sins, regardless of the actual strength of their faith and repentance. The main reason these indulgences were sold were to raise funds for the pope and for local christian churches. Indulgences were known to be used to fund the rebuilding of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, build local churches, and help fund the crusades. Ironically, the way indulgences were produced were through printing presses. Printing indulgences was always highly profitable since they were ordered and paid for by advance by members of the church. This guarantee of a profit for each print helped the spread of indulgences as every printing press had nothing to lose by accepting an order to print them.