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Martin Luther and the 95 Theses · Gil I Am

0:13
Speaker 1: In this lecture, we're going to be looking at Luther's
0:16
Speaker 1: ninety five theses, and I think we all know the
0:19
Speaker 1: basics of the story. On October thirty first, fifteen seventeen, Luther,
0:24
Speaker 1: fed up with some element of Catholic teaching or practice,
0:27
Speaker 1: walks up to the castle church door in Wittenberg and
0:31
Speaker 1: nails ninety five theses, ninety five propositions that he was
0:35
Speaker 1: willing to defend and somewhat unintentionally set off a chain
0:40
Speaker 1: reaction of events that led ultimately to the Protestant Reformation.
0:45
Speaker 1: And again, most people know the basics of the story.
0:48
Speaker 1: Some know more of the details of it. They know
0:51
Speaker 1: that Johann Tetzel was hawking indulgences and abusing the Catholic
0:55
Speaker 1: system in an effort to procure more money for the
0:59
Speaker 1: Catholic chure. Others are aware somewhat of Luther's Reformation breakthrough
1:04
Speaker 1: and of some of the things that bothered him about
1:06
Speaker 1: this Still in historical research, one of the biggest challenges
1:11
Speaker 1: by far is whenever an important event becomes all too familiar,
1:16
Speaker 1: it almost preconditions us, as students or as those who
1:20
Speaker 1: would look into the Reformation to want to sort of
1:23
Speaker 1: assume that we know what's going on here. And this
1:26
Speaker 1: is particularly a problem if we have an affinity towards Luther,
1:30
Speaker 1: if we ourselves are Protestant, or if we just find
1:32
Speaker 1: his fight one worth having in this day and age.
1:35
Speaker 1: But the story of the ninety five Theses has grown
1:38
Speaker 1: with the telling of it. Now it's almost axiomatic that
1:42
Speaker 1: most people find this story so comfortable and normal that
1:46
Speaker 1: they just simply believe that they understand what Luther was
1:48
Speaker 1: attending here, or that they understand the context, or that
1:51
Speaker 1: they understand all that's going on with his story. And
1:55
Speaker 1: I have to admit I chuckled a bit at some
1:57
Speaker 1: of the artwork that I looked up for this course.
2:00
Speaker 1: By and large, there are a number of paintings and
2:02
Speaker 1: artistic representations, both from Luther's day and ever since, of
2:06
Speaker 1: both his portrait but also of the ninety five Theses posting.
2:10
Speaker 1: Some of the images of the ninety five Thesis posting
2:13
Speaker 1: are pretty straightforward. There's Luther with a little tack hammer
2:17
Speaker 1: posting the ninety five thess. But what did give me
2:20
Speaker 1: a chuckle were some of the artistic licenses that people
2:23
Speaker 1: took when they do these portraits. It seems inevitably that
2:27
Speaker 1: these pictures always have some throng of people around him.
2:31
Speaker 1: Sometimes he's pointing at them with the sort of stern
2:34
Speaker 1: countenance on his face. By far, my favorite adaptation is
2:38
Speaker 1: the size of the hammer. It seems more and more
2:40
Speaker 1: that artists, particularly in the twentieth and twenty first centuries,
2:43
Speaker 1: just simply want the hammer to grow and grow. Luther
2:47
Speaker 1: might as well have a sledge hammer up there pounding
2:49
Speaker 1: the door with these thick nails as this all too
2:52
Speaker 1: important document goes up in the door. Well, we're going
2:55
Speaker 1: to sue for sanity in this course, and we're going
2:56
Speaker 1: to sue for a more historically accurate understand standing of
3:00
Speaker 1: what Luther is doing in the ninety five Theses. And
3:03
Speaker 1: we can begin by noticing the two things that are
3:06
Speaker 1: often misunderstood about the ninety five Theses. The first is
3:10
Speaker 1: the context, what was going on around Luther that both
3:14
Speaker 1: inspired him to post the ninety five Theses, and more importantly,
3:18
Speaker 1: something that's often overlooked. The context is what drives the
3:22
Speaker 1: fact that the ninety five Theses were seen as a
3:24
Speaker 1: great offense to the Catholic Church, especially since, as we'll
3:28
Speaker 1: point out later in this lecture, a significant number of
3:31
Speaker 1: people complained, in particular about Tetzel, but also about the
3:35
Speaker 1: selling him indulgences during this period of time. So the
3:38
Speaker 1: context is important. The other thing that's often overlooked is
3:42
Speaker 1: what Luther seems to have intended with the posting of
3:45
Speaker 1: the ninety five theses, because the fact of it is,
3:48
Speaker 1: if you drilled on into the historical record, it doesn't
3:51
Speaker 1: appear as if Luther intended much of anything at all,
3:54
Speaker 1: certainly not a reformation, and hardly much more than something
3:58
Speaker 1: that would spark fights in Wittenberg. Well, let's go through
4:01
Speaker 1: both of these halps. First. First of all, the context.
4:05
Speaker 1: The buying and selling of indulgences, as we noticed in
4:08
Speaker 1: previous lectures, was during this time a fundamental feature of
4:12
Speaker 1: Catholic life. Now we noted before that the buying of
4:15
Speaker 1: indulgences is not buying heaven. Rather, it's buying the reduction
4:20
Speaker 1: of the time that you'll have to spend in purgatory.
4:23
Speaker 1: And this was a practice that really got underway with
4:25
Speaker 1: some vigor in the High Middle Ages, and so by
4:28
Speaker 1: the time of Luther in the fifteen hundreds is a
4:30
Speaker 1: relatively established process. In other words, what you get in
4:34
Speaker 1: this context from people who will eventually become reformers, people
4:37
Speaker 1: like Luther or Zimingli is not so much a keen
4:40
Speaker 1: understanding of the relatively recent history of this buying and
4:43
Speaker 1: selling of indulgences, but rather the first line of attack
4:47
Speaker 1: usually is decrying the fact that they are abused. But nonetheless,
4:52
Speaker 1: the context of the buying and selling of adultnces was
4:55
Speaker 1: fixed by the time of Luther. A couple of the changes, though,
4:59
Speaker 1: that had happened over the previous couple hundred years, is
5:02
Speaker 1: that while indulgences were sold in a sort of distant
5:05
Speaker 1: past in the Middle Ages, it was in the relatively
5:07
Speaker 1: recent period of time from the fourteenth century on that
5:10
Speaker 1: it became customary not only to purchase an indulgence for
5:14
Speaker 1: your own penance, but also people were eventually given the
5:18
Speaker 1: opportunity to purchase indulgences for their dead relatives, those who'd
5:22
Speaker 1: already died, those who were passed on and believed to
5:24
Speaker 1: be in purgatory. And the thing that comes in late
5:27
Speaker 1: here by the fourteenth century is this idea of a
5:30
Speaker 1: treasury of merit, and the treasury of merit is this
5:33
Speaker 1: concept that when you consider the work of the saints
5:37
Speaker 1: and all the extra merit that they accrue all the
5:40
Speaker 1: good works they do above and beyond their own mortification
5:44
Speaker 1: of the flesh. It became customary to believe that the
5:47
Speaker 1: extra merits that are achieved by the saints are somehow
5:52
Speaker 1: stored up, and it is legitimately called a treasury. Today
5:55
Speaker 1: we might call it the bank of merit. Well, just
5:58
Speaker 1: as the saints have more the deductions, their accounts are
6:02
Speaker 1: in the black well on their death, they go right
6:05
Speaker 1: up to heaven, they pass purgatory, and it seemed only
6:09
Speaker 1: logical at the time to say that their merit still
6:11
Speaker 1: sort of remains on the ledger well. This feeds into
6:15
Speaker 1: this evolving concept that you now not only buy indulgences
6:18
Speaker 1: for yourself to reduce the amount of penance that you
6:21
Speaker 1: have to perform, but now there is this excess, and
6:25
Speaker 1: you could apply this to those who have passed on,
6:27
Speaker 1: who either died before they could perform enough penance, or
6:31
Speaker 1: who were simply unable by their own means to pay
6:34
Speaker 1: for the indulgences that they needed. Now again, the buying
6:38
Speaker 1: and selling the adultnesces by Luther's day is a fixed practice. However,
6:43
Speaker 1: the big issue that is arising in the sixteenth century,
6:46
Speaker 1: and it goes back to the fifteenth century and the
6:48
Speaker 1: Renaissance folks often had critiques of this as well. The
6:53
Speaker 1: problem with the buying and selling the adultnesces during this
6:55
Speaker 1: period of time is that if you have leadership that
6:58
Speaker 1: is corrupt, or a pope who simply wants to fill
7:01
Speaker 1: up the coffers of the church for either projects or
7:04
Speaker 1: simply because the money's going out faster than it's coming in.
7:08
Speaker 1: If there's corruption and if there is a willingness by
7:11
Speaker 1: the leadership to leverage indulgences for the sake of raising money,
7:15
Speaker 1: well then you have a system that's right for corruption.
7:18
Speaker 1: And in a manner of speaking, that's exactly what happens.
7:20
Speaker 1: With the context of the ninety five thess. The story
7:24
Speaker 1: is is that in Rome there stood Saint Peter's, But
7:28
Speaker 1: the Saint Peter's in Rome at this day and age,
7:30
Speaker 1: in this time before the Reformation was not the magnificent
7:35
Speaker 1: building we go and see today, the building that has
7:38
Speaker 1: the magnificent dome that Michelangelo designed with a sort of
7:42
Speaker 1: cavernous expanse within it. The oppression you get walking up
7:46
Speaker 1: to Saint Peter's today for the first time is just
7:48
Speaker 1: the simple awe of the size of the building and
7:51
Speaker 1: the energy and finances that went into it. Well, in
7:54
Speaker 1: fifteen seventeen, the Saint Peter's that stood in Rome was
7:58
Speaker 1: Old Saint Peter's, and Old Saint Peter's had been built
8:02
Speaker 1: by Constantine following his conversion and his takeover of the
8:05
Speaker 1: Roman world. But the problem is by the sixteenth century
8:09
Speaker 1: it was relatively unimpressive, and it was somewhat dilapidated. It
8:14
Speaker 1: had gotten to the point where Saint Peter's was relatively
8:16
Speaker 1: unusable or unserviceable as a functioning church. While the pope
8:21
Speaker 1: at this time, Lea the Tenth, wished to rebuild Saint Peter's,
8:25
Speaker 1: and his desire was to build something that was so
8:27
Speaker 1: impressive and so awe inspiring that it would become the
8:31
Speaker 1: beacon of the Catholic Church for the rest of history.
8:35
Speaker 1: Now this can be a bit confusing to students because
8:38
Speaker 1: when you see the facade of Saint Peter's today, of course,
8:40
Speaker 1: you don't see the name of Leo the tenth. You
8:42
Speaker 1: see the name of the pope who actually managed to
8:45
Speaker 1: finish the building, which disproves the old adage he who
8:48
Speaker 1: finishes it gets to put his name on it, but
8:51
Speaker 1: modern Saint Peter's was begun the initial impulse for it
8:55
Speaker 1: in the fundraising for it was begun through the efforts
8:57
Speaker 1: of Lea the tenth. There was another player on the scene, though,
9:01
Speaker 1: who contributed to the buying and selling of indulgences throughout Germany,
9:06
Speaker 1: and that man was Albert of Mainz. At the time,
9:10
Speaker 1: he was Archbishop of Mainz, which was an incredibly important
9:14
Speaker 1: figure in continental Europe. He was one of the seven
9:18
Speaker 1: electors of the Holy Roman Emperor, and it was an
9:20
Speaker 1: incredibly lucrative and long established seat of Catholic power in Europe. Now.
9:25
Speaker 1: Albert is one of these folks that we talked about
9:27
Speaker 1: in our discussion on the late medieval background who availed
9:31
Speaker 1: himself of all of the corruptions of the late medieval Church.
9:34
Speaker 1: He was a recidivist when it comes to simony. For example,
9:37
Speaker 1: Albert had actually gone to a very important family called
9:39
Speaker 1: the Fugers, who were a banking family who were you
9:43
Speaker 1: might say, the financiers of really big important projects. If
9:48
Speaker 1: you needed a lot of money to buy something like
9:50
Speaker 1: the Archbishopric of Mainz, well you would go to the Fugures,
9:54
Speaker 1: and Albert did just this, he bought a large sum
9:56
Speaker 1: of money to gain the archbishopric, so Albert is a
10:00
Speaker 1: practicer of simony. The archbishopric, though, was not enough for him,
10:04
Speaker 1: and right about the time of the Reformation, just a
10:07
Speaker 1: year or two before, Albert sets his eyes on another office,
10:12
Speaker 1: a bishopric, this time which would increase his power and
10:15
Speaker 1: increase his wealth. And again he brought money and was
10:19
Speaker 1: established as this bishop well. Obviously, as a result, Albert
10:23
Speaker 1: was cash poor, and so the thing that sends Tetzel
10:27
Speaker 1: into Germany to sell indulgences and to work, frankly, as
10:31
Speaker 1: hard as he possibly could to extort as much money
10:34
Speaker 1: out of the lady as he could was a bit
10:36
Speaker 1: of a deal, a bit of a backroom deal really,
10:39
Speaker 1: between Pope Leo the tenth and Albert, and Albert lobbies
10:44
Speaker 1: to the Pope asking if the sale of indulgences could
10:47
Speaker 1: be allowed in his lands, and Leo responds back and says, yes,
10:52
Speaker 1: how about we split the profits. Leo needed money to
10:55
Speaker 1: begin Saint Peter's and Albert needed money to repay the
10:59
Speaker 1: fugers for his loan that he'd used to buy these offices.
11:04
Speaker 1: So this is the sort of wider backdrop, This is
11:06
Speaker 1: the wider story of why Tetzel is sent into these
11:10
Speaker 1: lands to sell indulgences. Now, Tetsa wasn't the only one,
11:14
Speaker 1: and this is an important factor to realize. There were
11:17
Speaker 1: several of these indulgence hawkers as we call them today.
11:21
Speaker 1: There were an enormous amount of people who found the
11:23
Speaker 1: buying and selling of indulgences to raise money as unseemly
11:27
Speaker 1: indespicable in Tetzel above all was depending on what side
11:33
Speaker 1: you're looking at this on, either incredibly good at what
11:35
Speaker 1: he was doing or amongst the most despicable for the
11:38
Speaker 1: way that he did it. And the process of what
11:41
Speaker 1: Tetsa would do is he would travel with a bit
11:44
Speaker 1: of an entourage. There would be this indulgence chest. We
11:48
Speaker 1: still have some of these, by the way, you can
11:49
Speaker 1: still see them in museums and things. The chess would
11:52
Speaker 1: be sort of carried along, and as Tetsel arrived at
11:55
Speaker 1: a city, there would be sort of a forerunner sent
11:58
Speaker 1: into the city to a now eunce the eventual coming
12:01
Speaker 1: of an indulgent salesman, and Tetsa would often proceed into
12:05
Speaker 1: the city the next day carrying Hi the cross. In
12:08
Speaker 1: sort of with all this pomp and circumstance. He would, then,
12:11
Speaker 1: whenever possible, either enter a pulpit or in an open
12:14
Speaker 1: air forum, would offer a real hell fire and brimstone
12:18
Speaker 1: kind of sermon, and he would play on the fact
12:22
Speaker 1: that the relatives of those in his audience were now
12:25
Speaker 1: said to be in purgatory and suffering, and he would
12:29
Speaker 1: call on those listening to consider the cries of their
12:32
Speaker 1: dead relatives as they suffered torment, as they were being
12:35
Speaker 1: essentially tortured for the sake of their penance. And as
12:39
Speaker 1: the sermon came to a close, Tetsa would then offer
12:42
Speaker 1: a way out for both the relatives as well as
12:44
Speaker 1: for those who wanted to buy indulgences for themselves. He
12:47
Speaker 1: had a knack for describing all that was necessary by
12:51
Speaker 1: the laity in order to alleviate themselves of the purgatory
12:55
Speaker 1: that they eventually faced, and the most famous jingle that
12:59
Speaker 1: he came up with was quote as soon as a
13:02
Speaker 1: coin in the coffer springs a soul from purgatory springs.
13:06
Speaker 1: Now this is heinous. It's obviously bad enough to express
13:11
Speaker 1: in very clear and unambiguous terms the suffering of one's
13:15
Speaker 1: dead relatives as they're being punished for their sins, but
13:18
Speaker 1: then to sort of stick out the hand and ask
13:20
Speaker 1: for some money in order to make it all right.
13:22
Speaker 1: Obviously goes down in history as a significant abuse of
13:25
Speaker 1: church power and authority and the privileges of ministering to
13:29
Speaker 1: those within the church. Well as the circus sort of continued.
13:33
Speaker 1: If you gave money, it was dropped in one of
13:35
Speaker 1: these war chests for indulgence monies, and you were given
13:39
Speaker 1: a certificate. And this here is actually an example of
13:42
Speaker 1: the certificate that was being offered at this time during
13:45
Speaker 1: the Reformation, And you can almost ta's a bit of
13:48
Speaker 1: a blank form if you look very closely. There are
13:51
Speaker 1: a couple spaces to put in the day, in the month,
13:53
Speaker 1: and the year of the purchase of this indulgence. Then
13:57
Speaker 1: the person's name would be scrawled down below who was
14:00
Speaker 1: receiving the adultence, whether it was the person giving the
14:02
Speaker 1: money or the relative of the person giving the money.
14:06
Speaker 1: And then there at the bottom it says in Latin
14:08
Speaker 1: that this document and the giving of the moneys for
14:11
Speaker 1: it gives full and complete remission of sins, not in
14:15
Speaker 1: the sense again of salvation, but in the sense of
14:17
Speaker 1: the penance required for those sins. So this then is
14:21
Speaker 1: the context. Popelio the tenth and Albert of Maitz have
14:25
Speaker 1: conspired to raise monies divide the profits, and they have
14:29
Speaker 1: sent out a number of induldence hawkers, one of the
14:32
Speaker 1: most notorious of whom was Johann Tetzel. And Tetzel's main
14:36
Speaker 1: area of operation was in the area of Saxony and
14:40
Speaker 1: the surrounding regions of Germany. And we should pause to
14:43
Speaker 1: point out that by and large, very few people, if any,
14:47
Speaker 1: are aware of the power that is behind the sale
14:50
Speaker 1: of these indulgences. Of course, the Selgate indulgences is a
14:54
Speaker 1: practice that goes on throughout the Catholic Church of this
14:56
Speaker 1: day and age, but it wasn't broadcast that the Hope
15:00
Speaker 1: and Albert had conspired to sell these indulgences in order
15:03
Speaker 1: to raise money for their own personal needs. And so
15:06
Speaker 1: it needs to be stressed. When Luther comes out swinging
15:09
Speaker 1: on the abuse of these indulgences, he steps in a
15:12
Speaker 1: manner of speaking on a trap, not a trap that
15:15
Speaker 1: was laid for him. The Pope and Albert weren't baiting
15:18
Speaker 1: anyone to stand up against this, but he steps unwittingly
15:22
Speaker 1: into a trap because what he doesn't realize is that
15:25
Speaker 1: when he begins to criticize the sale of these indulgences
15:28
Speaker 1: in the abuses of them, he's actually taking on two
15:31
Speaker 1: of the most powerful men in the Catholic Church in
15:33
Speaker 1: that day and age. Obviously, the Pope and Albert, in
15:36
Speaker 1: terms of his leadership and his authority in Germany, were unrivaled,
15:41
Speaker 1: powerful figures who were naturally going to be defensive if
15:44
Speaker 1: anybody decided to short circuit their money operation in order
15:48
Speaker 1: to fund what they needed. But no one knew this context.
15:51
Speaker 1: And we know this because what Luther actually does when
15:55
Speaker 1: the ninety five thess are posted and after they become
15:57
Speaker 1: sort of a firestorm, is he actually takes these halting
16:01
Speaker 1: steps where he seems to be entirely unaware why everyone's
16:04
Speaker 1: losing their mind about this. At one point, he actually
16:07
Speaker 1: sends a letter to Albert himself saying, do you know
16:10
Speaker 1: what's going on with the sale of these indulgences? And
16:12
Speaker 1: one has to chuckle, because of course Albert knew what
16:15
Speaker 1: was going on. He had sent them. He wanted Tetzel
16:17
Speaker 1: to be extraordinarily successful, and he looked the other way
16:21
Speaker 1: at the abuse of it. Well, if that's the context, then,
16:25
Speaker 1: what drove Luther to post these ninety five theses. Well,
16:29
Speaker 1: given the previous lectures where we've talked about not only
16:31
Speaker 1: Luther's backdrop in the Via Maderna, but also his Reformation breakthrough,
16:36
Speaker 1: that happens sometime, I would say personally between fifteen fifteen
16:41
Speaker 1: and fifteen seventeen, it's no wonder that Luther will start
16:45
Speaker 1: to find the abuse of indulgences repugnant. The issue, though,
16:50
Speaker 1: is actually understanding what the ninety five theses are themselves.
16:54
Speaker 1: Because here's the thing, despite the fact that Luther clearly
16:57
Speaker 1: posted the ninety five theses and was convinced of their importance,
17:02
Speaker 1: when you actually look at them, and you actually look
17:04
Speaker 1: at what Luther was trying to do, they're not all
17:07
Speaker 1: that significant. Frankly, and more importantly, Luther seems to describe
17:13
Speaker 1: later in life not this one moment that sparked the Reformation,
17:18
Speaker 1: but he rather compresses everything from six or so months
17:22
Speaker 1: prior to the ninety five Theses all the way up
17:24
Speaker 1: until fifteen twenty as one sort of single event. Also,
17:29
Speaker 1: at least in general in Luther's day and age. In
17:31
Speaker 1: his own lifetime, he doesn't sort of hold up the
17:35
Speaker 1: posting of the ninety five Theses as the single most
17:37
Speaker 1: important event for his reformation. And there's a couple of
17:41
Speaker 1: reasons for this. Luther sees what happens after the posting
17:45
Speaker 1: of the ninety five Theses more as an unbelievable response
17:49
Speaker 1: to an innocent action by him than it is as
17:52
Speaker 1: he picked a fight and the Catholic Church responded. Also,
17:56
Speaker 1: and more importantly, there is very little in the ninety
17:59
Speaker 1: five three that give any context or theology that would
18:04
Speaker 1: indicate a radical break with the Catholic Church. But what
18:11
Speaker 1: was a thesis and why would Luther nail these to
18:13
Speaker 1: a door? Well, it's often remarked rightly that when you're
18:17
Speaker 1: an academic, when you're a professor in this day and age,
18:20
Speaker 1: as we've said before in previous lectures, one of the
18:23
Speaker 1: more common things that you would do is hold a
18:25
Speaker 1: public disputation or a debate, were you and an opponent
18:29
Speaker 1: or several opponents wrestled and hast things out over a
18:32
Speaker 1: couple of points. And the way you would signal the
18:35
Speaker 1: desire for this is you would write out any of
18:38
Speaker 1: a number of thesis statements about positions, not that you're
18:42
Speaker 1: ironcloud convinced of but points that you're relatively convinced of
18:45
Speaker 1: in general, but which you're willing to hear opposition on.
18:50
Speaker 1: Let me say that again, a thesis posting like this
18:54
Speaker 1: means that what Luther has written down here are a
18:57
Speaker 1: number of propositions that he is relatively convinced of, but
19:01
Speaker 1: he actually wants to hear the other side in case
19:03
Speaker 1: he's wrong. That's hardly the bold man coming up to
19:06
Speaker 1: sort of take on the Catholic Church that we're so
19:09
Speaker 1: used to seeing the man with a sledgehammer pounding on
19:11
Speaker 1: the door. And what happens, of course, is Luther hears
19:14
Speaker 1: about these abuses with the sale of indulgences. Now, Tetzel
19:19
Speaker 1: didn't come to Wittenburg because Luther wasn't the only one
19:23
Speaker 1: who found Tetzel unseemly. Frederick the Wise, the prince of
19:27
Speaker 1: the region, actually barred Tetzel from coming, which at least
19:31
Speaker 1: speaks to a general ethos in the area that a
19:34
Speaker 1: number of people were concerned with what was going on.
19:37
Speaker 1: But for whatever reason we're not quite sure. People allege
19:40
Speaker 1: that Luther heard of lay folks crossing over the borders
19:43
Speaker 1: into a nearby city where Tetzel was coming, and buying
19:46
Speaker 1: indulgences for themselves, or maybe it was the fact that
19:50
Speaker 1: Tetzel was abusing indulgences in general that provokes something in
19:53
Speaker 1: Luther where he was frustrated. But Luther is not actually
19:57
Speaker 1: intending a great deal with the posting of the ninety
19:59
Speaker 1: five thiece. For one, just a matter of weeks before
20:03
Speaker 1: he had posted ninety seven theses. In September of fifteen seventeen,
20:08
Speaker 1: Luther posted ninety seven theses, which he called a disputation
20:12
Speaker 1: against scholastic theology. Now again, the context here is this
20:17
Speaker 1: is common. You're a professor, You post thesis that you
20:20
Speaker 1: wish to discuss. Anyone who wishes to take you on
20:23
Speaker 1: may do so, or maybe they'll just simply be posted.
20:26
Speaker 1: No one will take the challenge, and you'll all go
20:28
Speaker 1: back to your normal lives. Well, the ninety seven theses
20:32
Speaker 1: are actually an important sort of pivot in Luther's coming
20:35
Speaker 1: out against a number of positions within the Catholic system
20:39
Speaker 1: that will sort of become the kernel of the things
20:41
Speaker 1: that Luther starts to say after the ninety five theses.
20:44
Speaker 1: So let me just read a couple of the thesis
20:46
Speaker 1: statements that Luther gave in the ninety seven THESS the
20:49
Speaker 1: Dissputation against Scholasticism Thesis one the very beginning says, to
20:54
Speaker 1: say that Augustine exaggerates and speaking against heretics is to
20:58
Speaker 1: say that Augustine tells lies almost everywhere. This is contrary
21:01
Speaker 1: to common knowledge. What's he saying here? Well, there arose
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Speaker 1: in the latter Middle Ages with people who are more Pelagian,
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Speaker 1: more works focused in scholastic theology. It became very common
21:13
Speaker 1: for them to say that whenever Augustine was pro grace
21:16
Speaker 1: and anti works, that he was simply exaggerating. Ah, he
21:21
Speaker 1: was just overstating it hyperbole. Of course, Augustine loves works
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Speaker 1: just like we do. And so right out of the gate,
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Speaker 1: from the very beginning, Luther says, all these classics who
21:30
Speaker 1: believe that Augustin is simply exaggerating, make Augustine a liar,
21:34
Speaker 1: because Luther will say Augustine is the doctor of grace,
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Speaker 1: and he has more in common with Luther's current position
21:41
Speaker 1: than he does with the Latter Middle Ages. Now this
21:44
Speaker 1: is important because it does speak again to this idea
21:47
Speaker 1: that the Augustinian flow of theology that sort of intensified
21:51
Speaker 1: Augustinianism from the latter Middle Ages is showing up here.
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Speaker 1: Thesis five says it is false to state that man's
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Speaker 1: incline nation is free to choose between either of two opposites. Instead,
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Speaker 1: the inclination is not free but captive. Now this is
22:10
Speaker 1: very compelling because what this is is frankly, a real nutshell,
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Speaker 1: a real kernel of a description of Luther's breakthrough. What
22:18
Speaker 1: is he talking about the inclination? Is it free to
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Speaker 1: choose between two opposites? Well, this is discussing morality. Are
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Speaker 1: you free in your will to choose the good or
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Speaker 1: the bad? And therefore, if you choose the bad, it's
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Speaker 1: your own will, And if you choose the good, you've
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Speaker 1: done a good work by your own strength. Luther says here, No,
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Speaker 1: you are not free but captive. Now make note of this,
22:41
Speaker 1: because when we get later to fifteen twenty five and
22:44
Speaker 1: Luther comes out swinging against Erasthmus on the issue of
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Speaker 1: the bondage of the will, some believe that Luther is
22:50
Speaker 1: sort of developing his idea of the will as the
22:53
Speaker 1: Reformation is unfolding. But no, it's right here. The will
22:56
Speaker 1: is in bondage. He's a pessimist. Again, the will cannot choose,
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Speaker 1: it has no inclination. If it has any inclination, it's
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Speaker 1: towards evil, not towards good. Thesis ten goes even stronger.
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Speaker 1: One must concede that the will is not free to
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Speaker 1: strive towards whatever is declared good. This in opposition to
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Speaker 1: Scotis and Gabriel. So again, the will is in bondage,
23:20
Speaker 1: it is not inclined towards good. And he takes a
23:22
Speaker 1: shot at two of the more preeminent scholastic theologians, Don
23:26
Speaker 1: Scotis and gabrielle Beel these Is seventeen. Man is by
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Speaker 1: nature unable to want God to be God. Instead, he
23:35
Speaker 1: himself wants to be God and does not want God
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Speaker 1: to be God. Theesis twenty nine again incredibly strong. Here,
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Speaker 1: the best and infallible preparation for grace in the sole
23:47
Speaker 1: disposition towards grace is the eternal election and predestination of God.
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Speaker 1: What's he saying now? In much later lectures we're going
23:55
Speaker 1: to delve into Luther's doctrine of predestination and compare it
23:59
Speaker 1: to Calvin's. But notice what he just said. The best
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Speaker 1: and infallible preparation for grace is predestination. Now, that is
24:07
Speaker 1: actually axiomatically impossible. Predestination, of course, occurs in eternity past.
24:13
Speaker 1: It occurs in God's volitional will to choose some to
24:16
Speaker 1: salvation and some not. But what Luther is playing on
24:20
Speaker 1: here is again a Scholastic idea that you could prepare
24:23
Speaker 1: yourself by doing good works for God's grace to come.
24:27
Speaker 1: He's basically saying an oxymuronic statement here. The best preparation
24:31
Speaker 1: is no preparation. It's simply God has chosen you. Versis
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Speaker 1: thirty four. In brief, man by nature has neither correct
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Speaker 1: precept nor good will, again attacking some of the Scholastic
24:43
Speaker 1: impulse that we with our minds have correct precepts based
24:47
Speaker 1: only on our rationality, and that we have a good
24:50
Speaker 1: will that can choose to do good works. One more
24:53
Speaker 1: and I'll stop reading these Thesis forty one. Virtually the
24:57
Speaker 1: entire ethics of Aristotle is the worst enemy of grace.
25:01
Speaker 1: This in opposition to the Scholastics. Notice again he is
25:05
Speaker 1: attacking that Aristotelian line of logic that is there from
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Speaker 1: the High Middle Ages, encapsulated in the teachings of Aquinas,
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Speaker 1: and that flows throughout much of the theology of the
25:16
Speaker 1: High Middle Ages. Well, what do we make of all this? Well,
25:20
Speaker 1: it seems to be the case that Luther posts ninety
25:23
Speaker 1: seven theses on September of fifteen seventeen, and he is
25:27
Speaker 1: sort of coming out very strongly with his Reformation breakthrough language. Now,
25:32
Speaker 1: not much of this language would necessarily provoke heated anger
25:36
Speaker 1: in Wittenberg at least. Now, if he goes to other
25:39
Speaker 1: universities and other parts of Europe and he says these things,
25:42
Speaker 1: that would be a problem. But again, this is an
25:45
Speaker 1: Augustinian order. The professors there have been themselves influenced somewhat
25:49
Speaker 1: by this intensified Augustinianism. No one cried foul. In other words,
25:54
Speaker 1: in September, no one tried to send Luther to the gallows.
25:58
Speaker 1: No one called on the Pope to come in and
26:00
Speaker 1: swoop down and stamp on this renegade monk. So, just
26:04
Speaker 1: a matter of weeks before the ninety five theses themselves,
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Speaker 1: the thing that sparked the Reformation, Luther is actually expressing
26:10
Speaker 1: more of his theological convictions, as we'll see, than he
26:13
Speaker 1: does in the ninety five theses. And it's just simply crickets.
26:17
Speaker 1: You don't hear anyone complaining about it not in Witndenburg
26:20
Speaker 1: at least, So what does that mean. It means it
26:24
Speaker 1: took the context, frankly, of the fact that Lee of
26:27
Speaker 1: the tenth and Albert of Mainz we're backing the sale
26:31
Speaker 1: of these indulgences, and Luther fumbling and bumbling unintentionally in
26:36
Speaker 1: October the next month with criticizing the abuse of these indulgences,
26:41
Speaker 1: for that combustible mix of Luther's new breakthrough to throw
26:44
Speaker 1: a match on the pile and erupt, frankly into a
26:47
Speaker 1: dumpster fire. What we do know is that sometime probably
26:51
Speaker 1: on the thirty first of October fifteen seventeen, Luther posts
26:54
Speaker 1: again a set of THESS. This time it was ninety five.
27:00
Speaker 1: Don't take on scholastic theology, and they are not intended
27:05
Speaker 1: to describe Luther's more robust understanding of his new theology
27:09
Speaker 1: of the Cross. Rather they take on indulgences. Now, when
27:14
Speaker 1: I said that Luther was merely attacking indulgences, don't hear
27:18
Speaker 1: me saying there that they are irrelevant to Luther's reformation breakthrough.
27:22
Speaker 1: They're not. Who's the fact of the matter is is
27:25
Speaker 1: Luther's breakthrough has at least given him the kernel of
27:29
Speaker 1: the idea that if works in general or wrong, then
27:33
Speaker 1: buying your way out of penance and works is doubly wrong. No,
27:37
Speaker 1: the only issue with the ninety five theces is he
27:40
Speaker 1: actually doesn't describe his Reformation breakthrough in them. You might
27:44
Speaker 1: see them, in other words, as a bubble up from
27:46
Speaker 1: the sort of subterranean things going on beneath the surface
27:49
Speaker 1: in Luther's mind. So he's clearly operating from his new
27:53
Speaker 1: theology of the Cross, and he's clearly operating from this
27:56
Speaker 1: idea of this intensified Augustinianism. But if you just exam
28:00
Speaker 1: in the text of the ninety five theses, there is
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Speaker 1: not an overwhelming obvious critique of the Catholic Church designed
28:07
Speaker 1: to tear it down, and so it is at least
28:09
Speaker 1: historically possible, if not more obvious, which is more where
28:14
Speaker 1: I'm coming from. That were it not for the context
28:17
Speaker 1: of Leo the tenth and Albert conspiring for this, Luther
28:20
Speaker 1: might have just simply been a pesky monk writing about
28:23
Speaker 1: theology there in Wittenborg, and the Reformation itself might not
28:27
Speaker 1: have sparked because of his attack on the sale of indulgences. Okay,
28:32
Speaker 1: so let's wind this lecture up by looking at the
28:34
Speaker 1: ninety five theses themselves. And as you said a few
28:38
Speaker 1: times throughout this lecture, the ninety five theses are not
28:41
Speaker 1: necessarily a programmatic call for the change of the church. Rather,
28:46
Speaker 1: Luther is taking on the abuse of indulgences, and as
28:49
Speaker 1: you'll see, the ninety five theses are more focused on
28:53
Speaker 1: putting indulgences in their proper place, putting penance in good
28:57
Speaker 1: works in their proper place. Well, just right there, you
29:01
Speaker 1: should notice that if Luther is trying to simply restrain
29:04
Speaker 1: indulgences or restrain the exuberance with which Tetzel and others
29:09
Speaker 1: were proclaiming penance as the way of the Christian life,
29:13
Speaker 1: well that's hardly a call for the overthrowing of the
29:16
Speaker 1: Catholic Church. Still, as we're going to see, as we
29:19
Speaker 1: look at some of these theses, the jabs with which
29:22
Speaker 1: Luther skewers some of the popular conceptions of indulgences in
29:26
Speaker 1: his day does have a bit of an acerbic tone
29:29
Speaker 1: to it. But don't let that fool you. The nature
29:32
Speaker 1: of theses and disputations tend to sort of border on
29:36
Speaker 1: the hyperbolic in an effort to clarify what is really
29:39
Speaker 1: at stake again, the ninety five theses, or a series
29:42
Speaker 1: of propositions in which Luther is willing to defend them,
29:46
Speaker 1: but he's also willing to hear the other side. So
29:49
Speaker 1: let's just go through a couple of these, just to
29:50
Speaker 1: get an overall sense of the tone of it. THESS
29:54
Speaker 1: one says, when our Lord and Master Christ Jesus said repent,
29:58
Speaker 1: he willed that the entire life of the believer be
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Speaker 1: one of repentance. Now that's a sort of an opening
30:04
Speaker 1: salvo that has some merit to it in terms of
30:06
Speaker 1: its sort of jab at the way the Catholic Church
30:08
Speaker 1: had normally understood these texts, because you see in Matthew
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Speaker 1: four seventeen or at the beginning of Mark, the words
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Speaker 1: that Christ says to those who are listening to him
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Speaker 1: right when he begins his ministry is that the Kingdom
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Speaker 1: is at hand repent and believe will. In the Middle Ages,
30:26
Speaker 1: the Vulgar had translated the word repent as an active
30:31
Speaker 1: verb do penance, and so one of the foundational verses
30:35
Speaker 1: for the doctrine of penance was this on Christ's lips,
30:39
Speaker 1: that Christ says the Kingdom of God is at hand,
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Speaker 1: do your penance and believe. But what the humanists had found,
30:45
Speaker 1: and in particular Erasmus and others, and what Luther is
30:49
Speaker 1: picking up on here, is that when you go back
30:51
Speaker 1: to the Greek, not the Latin, the word there is
30:55
Speaker 1: not do penance sort of actively making up for your sins,
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Speaker 1: but rather repent, which is a positional change. You're heading
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Speaker 1: away from Christ, and then you repent, and you turn
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Speaker 1: and head towards Him in trust and love. It's more
31:11
Speaker 1: of a process of faith, an acceptance of Christ, rather
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Speaker 1: than a doing of penance, et cetera. Thesis five, the
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Speaker 1: pope neither desires nor is able to remit any penalties
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Speaker 1: except those imposed by his own authority and that of
31:26
Speaker 1: the canons. Let me add to that thesis six. The
31:29
Speaker 1: pope cannot remit any guilt except by declaring and showing
31:34
Speaker 1: that it has been remitted by God, or to be sure,
31:37
Speaker 1: by remitting guilt in cases reserved to his judgment. What's
31:41
Speaker 1: going on here, Well, those who come to this for
31:43
Speaker 1: the first time seem to believe that what Luther is
31:45
Speaker 1: saying here is that the pope should not have certain
31:48
Speaker 1: powers over guilt and forgiveness. Here's where again Luther is
31:53
Speaker 1: more of an internal critic in one who wants to
31:55
Speaker 1: simply reform from within. Because the thing is the theory
32:00
Speaker 1: of the papacy and his relationship and the magisterium's relationship
32:04
Speaker 1: to forgiveness is technically exactly what Luther is saying here.
32:08
Speaker 1: You see, the Catholic Church has never said that the
32:10
Speaker 1: pope forgives from his own power the things that Christ
32:13
Speaker 1: has already forgiven from his own power. They don't believe
32:17
Speaker 1: that the pope is a stand in for Christ per se.
32:19
Speaker 1: And the doctorate of indulgences and some of these penalties
32:22
Speaker 1: and some of this stuff with guilts and penance, et cetera,
32:25
Speaker 1: was believed originally to be forgiveness and things imposed by
32:29
Speaker 1: the church itself, by the pope himself, and that's why
32:33
Speaker 1: the church is said to have authority to offer forgiveness
32:36
Speaker 1: for these things. But again, in the latter of Middle Ages,
32:39
Speaker 1: the idea had grown in some or at least the
32:41
Speaker 1: application of it, had grown popularly that the pope would
32:45
Speaker 1: have forgave you for everything, including the sins that Christ
32:47
Speaker 1: had already forgiven you for. So while these two theses
32:50
Speaker 1: might appear to be an attack on the papacy. Luther
32:54
Speaker 1: is not doing that at all. What Luther is saying is,
32:57
Speaker 1: let's remind ourselves what indulgences are for therefore the structures
33:00
Speaker 1: of the church. Therefore the forgiveness of the things the
33:02
Speaker 1: Church has imposed by its rightful authority hes is eighteen. Furthermore,
33:08
Speaker 1: it does not seem proved, either by reason or by scripture,
33:11
Speaker 1: that souls in purgatory are outside the state of merit
33:15
Speaker 1: that is unable to grow in love and number nineteen.
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Speaker 1: Nor does it seem prove that souls in purgatory, at
33:21
Speaker 1: least not all of them are certain and assured of
33:24
Speaker 1: their own salvation, even if we ourselves may be entirely
33:28
Speaker 1: certain of it. Now notice here Luther has not actually
33:31
Speaker 1: denied the doctrine of purgatory, nor is he denied that
33:34
Speaker 1: there is some element of purgation or some idea of merit, etc.
33:38
Speaker 1: Within the system. All he said is it seems as
33:41
Speaker 1: if we've kind of overgrown our understanding of purgatory, and
33:45
Speaker 1: those who have dead and passed on again hardly tearing
33:48
Speaker 1: down the entire system. He's not saying purgatory is fool
33:51
Speaker 1: at He's saying, let's get it right, let's sort of
33:53
Speaker 1: refine our understanding of it. And here's the kicker, As
33:56
Speaker 1: he's gone through a number of these theses up to
33:59
Speaker 1: about number twenty. Thesis twenty one says, thus those indulgence
34:03
Speaker 1: preachers are in error who say that a man is
34:06
Speaker 1: absolved from every penalty and saved by papal indulgences. Now
34:11
Speaker 1: that is crucial, because what he says is there are
34:14
Speaker 1: these preachers Tetzel among the very worst, who have gone
34:18
Speaker 1: on to talk about your salvation as being based on
34:21
Speaker 1: these papal indulgences. And Luther, rightly by the canons of
34:25
Speaker 1: medieval scholastic law and theology, is saying, we've never said this,
34:30
Speaker 1: We've never described salvation as being part of the papal
34:33
Speaker 1: system or based in any way on papal indulgences. But
34:37
Speaker 1: they are, these preachers, Luther is saying, that have gone
34:39
Speaker 1: out and done this, and they need to be stopped.
34:41
Speaker 1: They're the problem, not the papacy or the system itself.
34:44
Speaker 1: Per Se Thesis twenty five. The power which the pope
34:48
Speaker 1: has in general overpurgatory corresponds to the power which any
34:52
Speaker 1: bishop of curate has in a particular way in his
34:54
Speaker 1: own diocese and perish mm that's revolutionary. So the pope
35:00
Speaker 1: has power over purgatory in the same way a bishop
35:02
Speaker 1: has power over his diocese. It's a restriction of papal
35:06
Speaker 1: authority or a revolution back to the old way of
35:08
Speaker 1: understanding purgatory, not a destruction of both. And then again
35:13
Speaker 1: he crescendos with THESS twenty seven. They preach only human
35:16
Speaker 1: doctrines who say that as soon as money clinks in
35:19
Speaker 1: the money chest, the soul flies out of purgatory, an
35:22
Speaker 1: obvious shot at Tetzel Thesis thirty three. Man must especially
35:27
Speaker 1: be on guard against those who say that the pope's
35:30
Speaker 1: pardons are the inestimable gifts of God by which man
35:34
Speaker 1: is reconciled to Him. Again Luther attacking these preachers and
35:39
Speaker 1: playing himself as the true defender of the papacy veres
35:42
Speaker 1: Is forty one. Papal indulgences must be preached with caution.
35:47
Speaker 1: Notice that phrase not outlawed, not abolished. They need to
35:50
Speaker 1: be preached with caution lest people erroneously think that they
35:53
Speaker 1: are preferable to other good works of love. Now hang
35:57
Speaker 1: on here, This is supposed to be the justification by faith.
35:59
Speaker 1: Doc Luther says, preach adultenesces with caution, and let them
36:03
Speaker 1: do other works of love instead Thesis forty four. This
36:07
Speaker 1: one is simply hard to square with justification. Because love
36:10
Speaker 1: grows by works of love, man thereby becomes better. Man
36:15
Speaker 1: does not have or become better by means of indulgences,
36:19
Speaker 1: but is merely free from penalties. So again, read that
36:22
Speaker 1: out loud, Because love grows by works of love. That
36:25
Speaker 1: is really the classic late minival understanding of salvation. Love
36:29
Speaker 1: grows by works of love. It's the exercise motif again,
36:33
Speaker 1: and then he adds to it. Man therefore becomes better.
36:36
Speaker 1: But he distinguishes that exercise from the process of indulgences.
36:40
Speaker 1: And one last one Thesis eighty one. This unbridled preaching
36:44
Speaker 1: of indulgences makes it difficult even for learned men to
36:48
Speaker 1: rescue the reverence which is due the pope from slander
36:52
Speaker 1: or from the shrewd questions of the lady. Here again
36:55
Speaker 1: Luther is pitching himself as the defender of the papacy.
36:58
Speaker 1: These idiot indulgences hawkers are out there in the learned men,
37:02
Speaker 1: which is code for Professor that they are unable to
37:05
Speaker 1: defend the reverence that is due to the papacy. And
37:08
Speaker 1: we could belabor the point on and on and on,
37:11
Speaker 1: but it needs to be stressed again. What Luther is attempting,
37:14
Speaker 1: rightly or wrongly, is to sort of pitch himself as
37:16
Speaker 1: a defender of the church. And all reformers do, of course,
37:20
Speaker 1: believe that they're defending the church, whether in this age
37:23
Speaker 1: or in other ages where there's need for reform. And
37:26
Speaker 1: there is sharp language in the ninety five Theses at times,
37:30
Speaker 1: but most of that sharp language is directed at Luther
37:33
Speaker 1: believes is the erroneous preaching of men like Tetzel, and
37:37
Speaker 1: what he believes is the inability of the higher up
37:39
Speaker 1: clergy and in particular the Pope, to realize that these
37:42
Speaker 1: men are slandering their own name and their own authority.
37:46
Speaker 1: Luther again and again says the reverence do the Pope
37:48
Speaker 1: needs to be defended here, and the system needs to
37:51
Speaker 1: be put back on the tracks, and it needs to
37:53
Speaker 1: be done correctly, at least in part by removing these
37:56
Speaker 1: indulgence salesmen who are ruining the name of Christ. So again,
38:00
Speaker 1: and this is hardly a manifesto for outright rebellion, but
38:03
Speaker 1: what Luther doesn't realize is that by his tone of
38:07
Speaker 1: taking on these indulgent salesmen, he's wading into a war
38:10
Speaker 1: that he doesn't intend to fight, at least not initially.
38:13
Speaker 1: There are certainly elements within his theology that would bubble
38:17
Speaker 1: up over time, and, if pressed, if pushed, could develop
38:21
Speaker 1: to where Luther is now cognizant of the ways in
38:25
Speaker 1: which he differs with the entire medieval system, not just
38:27
Speaker 1: part of it. But at the ninety five THESS, Luther
38:30
Speaker 1: is again almost naively unaware of what he is inviting
38:35
Speaker 1: on his own head by posting these things, and the
38:38
Speaker 1: response he gets is frankly shocking to him. However, the
38:43
Speaker 1: response the Catholic Church gives is the very thing that
38:46
Speaker 1: forces Luther to come to a deeper understanding of what
38:49
Speaker 1: his reformation breakthrough actually was theologically. That is a break
38:54
Speaker 1: with the Catholic Church. Okay, that's it done with the
38:58
Speaker 1: ninety five Thess, and our next lecture. We're going to
39:00
Speaker 1: move on into six or eight months after the ninety
39:02
Speaker 1: five Theses, where Luther comes to sort of a real
39:07
Speaker 1: awakening of just how different his theology is from the
39:10
Speaker 1: Catholic Church.