Maybe you did... Maybe you didn't... I was not aware that when Martin Luther posted his 95 theses protesting indulgences* that he was not questioning the the existence of Purgatory, the authority of the pope, or even the limited validity of indulgences. Rather he was protesting against the 'corruption' of the practice. Luther was not drawing as hard a line in the sand as history has made it out to be. The ramifications of that moment were tremendous but not because of the doctrine, rather because with that one act, Luther injured the papacy where it hurt the most... in their pocket books! The invention of the printing press was a blessing & curse for the Catholic church. With it they could mass produce these indulgences and make even more money, however Luther's theses were quickly mass produced in the German language and made it into the hands of everyday citizens who stopped purchasing the indulgences.
*Indulgences were little pieces of paper which were bought by loved ones in order to lessen the number of days the deceased individual had to spend in Purgatory. The Roman Catholic church believed that every sin not atoned for on earth resulted in a probationary time period in Purgatory until it was absolved. For example, if I died with lots of unconfessed sin, I would go to Purgatory and have to wait there until that unconfessed sin was accounted for (who knows for how long?). However, if my living relatives were to buy some indulgences for me (which came in varied amounts like 100 days off, or 500 days off depending on $ amount) then my overall time could be lessened. The Catholic church was using this money made from indulgences to pimp out their pads and that is what Luther was bent out of shape over.
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5 comments:
I didnt know about the indulgences.
Concise history??
Well I had read that before but not until I read it in 'Concise' did I figure it was probably factual.
I do not know much about Martin Luther or the Catholic Religion, however, Praise God for Jesus and that with our own repentance we gain immediate forgivness of all sin, and that there's no waiting time or money involved. Have a great day.
In 9th grade I heard about this for the first time. But I and my entire history class thought for several weeks that Luther had nailed his "feces" to the door of the church in Wittenburg. We were not, therefore, surprised by the controversy that followed this act.
I was 'that' close to mentioning that in this post. Saying something like, "Kristen, it was theses... not feces!"
Ha
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