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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Husband to 1 wife, daddy to 4 kids, ravenous consumer of peanut butter.
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