John Luther's Theory Of Indulgences

To begin the discussion of indulgences you need to know the origin, which you should grasp, indulgences rested on three principles. First, God is merciful and just. Second Christ and the Saints, through their infinite virtue established a “treasury of merits”, on which the church could draw, due to the special relationship with Christ and the Saints. Third, the church had the authority to grant sinners the spiritual benefits of those with merits. An indulgence was a sheet of paper signed by the pope or another church official that substituted a virtuous act from the treasury of merits for penance of time in purgatory, which was an idea created 12th century by theologians, it was a place where souls on their way to heaven wen to make further

Luther raises the question of why indulgences are part of the Christian belief to begin with. True penance by a Christian was always the bottom line with the concept, but unsurprisingly, over the centuries the substitution of money instead of services such as alms, crusades, pilgrimages or gifts took on something of the appearance of a modern vending machine. Put money into the offering box and receive an indulgence. John Eyck and some others believed indulgences are to be reverenced because the Roman Catholic Church sanctions them. Although indulgences began as an old tradition, indulgences were often more of a business transaction than charity. The problem from the Papacy’s point of view was that the Ninety-five Theses undermines the Church’s authority. The main point Luther was trying to get across is while the indulgence preachers were using bells to grab the attention of men, the church should put the focus upon the real substance that men ‘ought to place their attention – the

Another example is “86. Again: Since the Pope’s wealth is larger than that of the crassest Crassi of our time, why does he not build this one basilica of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with that of the faithful poor?” Here Luther brings into question why the practice of indulgences are being used in a business matter and often taking hard-earned hen money from families to be used for things other than what indulgences were originally created