The 95 Theses & Related Correspondences

Disputation of Doctor Martin Luther on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1517

Published in: Works of Martin Luther
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), Vol. 1, pp. 29-38.

DISPUTATION OF DOCTOR MARTIN LUTHER
ON THE POWER AND EFFICACY OF
INDULGENCES

OCTOBER 31, 1517

Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it to light,
the following propositions will be discussed at Wittenberg,
under the presidency of the Reverend Father Martin Luther,
Master of Arts and of Sacred Theology, and Lecturer in
Ordinary on the same at that place. Wherefore he requests that
those who are unable to be present and debate orally with us,
may do so by letter.

In the Name our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.

1. Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, when He said Poenitentiam
agite, willed that the whole life of believers should be
repentance.

2. This word cannot be understood to mean sacramental penance,
i.e., confession and satisfaction, which is administered by
the priests.

3. Yet it means not inward repentance only; nay, there is no
inward repentance which does not outwardly work divers
mortifications of the flesh.

4. The penalty [of sin], therefore, continues so long as
hatred of self continues; for this is the true inward
repentance, and continues until our entrance into the kingdom
of heaven.

5. The pope does not intend to remit, and cannot remit any
penalties other than those which he has imposed either by his
own authority or by that of the Canons.

6. The pope cannot remit any guilt, except by declaring that
it has been remitted by God and by assenting to God's
remission; though, to be sure, he may grant remission in cases
reserved to his judgment. If his right to grant remission in
such cases were despised, the guilt would remain entirely
unforgiven.

7. God remits guilt to no one whom He does not, at the same
time, humble in all things and bring into subjection to His
vicar, the priest.

8. The penitential canons are imposed only on the living, and,
according to them, nothing should be imposed on the dying.

9. Therefore the Holy Spirit in the pope is kind to us,
because in his decrees he always makes exception of the
article of death and of necessity.

10. Ignorant and wicked are the doings of those priests who,
in the case of the dying, reserve canonical penances for
purgatory.

11. This changing of the canonical penalty to the penalty of
purgatory is quite evidently one of the tares that were sown
while the bishops slept.

12. In former times the canonical penalties were imposed not
after, but before absolution, as tests of true contrition.

13. The dying are freed by death from all penalties; they are
already dead to canonical rules, and have a right to be
released from them.

14. The imperfect health [of soul], that is to say, the
imperfect love, of the dying brings with it, of necessity,
great fear; and the smaller the love, the greater is the fear.

15. This fear and horror is sufficient of itself alone (to say
nothing of other things) to constitute the penalty of
purgatory, since it is very near to the horror of despair.

16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ as do despair,
almost-despair, and the assurance of safety.

17. With souls in purgatory it seems necessary that horror
should grow less and love increase.

18. It seems unproved, either by reason or Scripture, that
they are outside the state of merit, that is to say, of
increasing love.

19. Again, it seems unproved that they, or at least that all
of them, are certain or assured of their own blessedness,
though we may be quite certain of it.

20. Therefore by "full remission of all penalties" the pope
means not actually "of all," but only of those imposed by
himself.

21. Therefore those preachers of indulgences are in error, who
say that by the pope's indulgences a man is freed from every
penalty, and saved;

22. Whereas he remits to souls in purgatory no penalty which,
according to the canons, they would have had to pay in this
life.

23. If it is at all possible to grant to any one the remission
of all penalties whatsoever, it is certain that this remission
can be granted only to the most perfect, that is, to the very
fewest.

24. It must needs be, therefore, that the greater part of the
people are deceived by that indiscriminate and highsounding
promise of release from penalty.

25. The power which the pope has, in a general way, over
purgatory, is just like the power which any bishop or curate
has, in a special way, within his own diocese or parish.

26. The pope does well when he grants remission to souls [in
purgatory], not by the power of the keys (which he does not
possess), but by way of intercession.

27. They preach man who say that so soon as the penny jingles
into the money-box, the soul flies out [of purgatory].

28. It is certain that when the penny jingles into the
money-box, gain and avarice can be increased, but the result
of the intercession of the Church is in the power of God
alone.

29. Who knows whether all the souls in purgatory wish to be
bought out of it, as in the legend of Sts. Severinus and
Paschal.

30. No one is sure that his own contrition is sincere; much
less that he has attained full remission.

31. Rare as is the man that is truly penitent, so rare is also
the man who truly buys indulgences, i.e., such men are most
rare.

32. They will be condemned eternally, together with their
teachers, who believe themselves sure of their salvation
because they have letters of pardon.

33. Men must be on their guard against those who say that the
pope's pardons are that inestimable gift of God by which man
is reconciled to Him;

34. For these "graces of pardon" concern only the penalties of
sacramental satisfaction, and these are appointed by man.

35. They preach no Christian doctrine who teach that
contrition is not necessary in those who intend to buy souls
out of purgatory or to buy confessionalia.

36. Every truly repentant Christian has a right to full
remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of
pardon.

37. Every true Christian, whether living or dead, has part in
all the blessings of Christ and the Church; and this is
granted him by God, even without letters of pardon.

38. Nevertheless, the remission and participation [in the
blessings of the Church] which are granted by the pope are in
no way to be despised, for they are, as I have said, the
declaration of divine remission.

39. It is most difficult, even for the very keenest
theologians, at one and the same time to commend to the people
the abundance of pardons and [the need of] true contrition.

40. True contrition seeks and loves penalties, but liberal
pardons only relax penalties and cause them to be hated, or at
least, furnish an occasion [for hating them].

41. Apostolic pardons are to be preached with caution, lest
the people may falsely think them preferable to other good
works of love.

42. Christians are to be taught that the pope does not intend
the buying of pardons to be compared in any way to works of
mercy.

43. Christians are to be taught that he who gives to the poor
or lends to the needy does a better work than buying pardons;

44. Because love grows by works of love, and man becomes
better; but by pardons man does not grow better, only more
free from penalty.

45. Christians are to be taught that he who sees a man in
need, and passes him by, and gives [his money] for pardons,
purchases not the indulgences of the pope, but the indignation
of God.

46. Christians are to be taught that unless they have more
than they need, they are bound to keep back what is necessary
for their own families, and by no means to squander it on
pardons.

47. Christians are to be taught that the buying of pardons is
a matter of free will, and not of commandment.

48. Christians are to be taught that the pope, in granting
pardons, needs, and therefore desires, their devout prayer for
him more than the money they bring.

49. Christians are to be taught that the pope's pardons are
useful, if they do not put their trust in them; but altogether
harmful, if through them they lose their fear of God.

50. Christians are to be taught that if the pope knew the
exactions of the pardon-preachers, he would rather that St.
Peter's church should go to ashes, than that it should be
built up with the skin, flesh and bones of his sheep.

51. Christians are to be taught that it would be the pope's
wish, as it is his duty, to give of his own money to very many
of those from whom certain hawkers of pardons cajole money,
even though the church of St. Peter might have to be sold.

52. The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain,
even though the commissary, nay, even though the pope himself,
were to stake his soul upon it.

53. They are enemies of Christ and of the pope, who bid the
Word of God be altogether silent in some Churches, in order
that pardons may be preached in others.

54. Injury is done the Word of God when, in the same sermon,
an equal or a longer time is spent on pardons than on this
Word.

55. It must be the intention of the pope that if pardons,
which are a very small thing, are celebrated with one bell,
with single processions and ceremonies, then the Gospel, which
is the very greatest thing, should be preached with a hundred
bells, a hundred processions, a hundred ceremonies.

56. The "treasures of the Church," out of which the pope.
grants indulgences, are not sufficiently named or known among
the people of Christ.

57. That they are not temporal treasures is certainly evident,
for many of the vendors do not pour out such treasures so
easily, but only gather them.

58. Nor are they the merits of Christ and the Saints, for even
without the pope, these always work grace for the inner man,
and the cross, death, and hell for the outward man.

59. St. Lawrence said that the treasures of the Church were
the Church's poor, but he spoke according to the usage of the
word in his own time.

60. Without rashness we say that the keys of the Church, given
by Christ's merit, are that treasure;

61. For it is clear that for the remission of penalties and of
reserved cases, the power of the pope is of itself sufficient.

62. The true treasure of the Church is the Most Holy Gospel of
the glory and the grace of God.

63. But this treasure is naturally most odious, for it makes
the first to be last.

64. On the other hand, the treasure of indulgences is
naturally most acceptable, for it makes the last to be first.

65. Therefore the treasures of the Gospel are nets with which
they formerly were wont to fish for men of riches.

66. The treasures of the indulgences are nets with which they
now fish for the riches of men.

67. The indulgences which the preachers cry as the "greatest
graces" are known to be truly such, in so far as they promote
gain.

68. Yet they are in truth the very smallest graces compared
with the grace of God and the piety of the Cross.

69. Bishops and curates are bound to admit the commissaries of
apostolic pardons, with all reverence.

70. But still more are they bound to strain all their eyes and
attend with all their ears, lest these men preach their own
dreams instead of the commission of the pope.

71 . He who speaks against the truth of apostolic pardons, let
him be anathema and accursed!

72. But he who guards against the lust and license of the
pardon-preachers, let him be blessed!

73. The pope justly thunders against those who, by any art,
contrive the injury of the traffic in pardons.

74. But much more does he intend to thunder against those who
use the pretext of pardons to contrive the injury of holy love
and truth.

75. To think the papal pardons so great that they could
absolve a man even if he had committed an impossible sin and
violated the Mother of God -- this is madness.

76. We say, on the contrary, that the papal pardons are not
able to remove the very least of venial sins, so far as its
guilt is concerned.

77. It is said that even St. Peter, if he were now Pope, could
not bestow greater graces; this is blasphemy against St. Peter
and against the pope.

78. We say, on the contrary, that even the present pope, and
any pope at all, has greater graces at his disposal; to wit,
the Gospel, powers, gifts of healing, etc., as it is written
in I. Corinthians xii.

79. To say that the cross, emblazoned with the papal arms,
which is set up [by the preachers of indulgences], is of equal
worth with the Cross of Christ, is blasphemy.

80. The bishops, curates and theologians who allow such talk
to be spread among the people, will have an account to render.

81. This unbridled preaching of pardons makes it no easy
matter, even for learned men, to rescue the reverence due to
the pope from slander, or even from the shrewd questionings of
the laity.

82. To wit: -- "Why does not the pope empty purgatory, for the
sake of holy love and of the dire need of the souls that are
there, if he redeems an infinite number of souls for the sake
of miserable money with which to build a Church? The former
reasons would be most just; the latter is most trivial."

83. Again: -- "Why are mortuary and anniversary masses for the
dead continued, and why does he not return or permit the
withdrawal of the endowments founded on their behalf, since it
is wrong to pray for the redeemed?"

84. Again: -- "What is this new piety of God and the pope,
that for money they allow a man who is impious and their enemy
to buy out of purgatory the pious soul of a friend of God, and
do not rather, because of that pious and beloved soul's own
need, free it for pure love's sake?"

85. Again: -- "Why are the penitential canons long since in
actual fact and through disuse abrogated and dead, now
satisfied by the granting of indulgences, as though they were
still alive and in force?"

86. Again: -- "Why does not the pope, whose wealth is to-day
greater than the riches of the richest, build just this one
church of St. Peter with his own money, rather than with the
money of poor believers?"

87. Again: -- "What is it that the pope remits, and what
participation does he grant to those who, by perfect
contrition, have a right to full remission and participation?"

88. Again: -- "What greater blessing could come to the Church
than if the pope were to do a hundred times a day what he now
does once, and bestow on every believer these remissions and
participations?"

89. "Since the pope, by his pardons, seeks the salvation of
souls rather than money, why does he suspend the indulgences
and pardons granted heretofore, since these have equal
efficacy?"

90. To repress these arguments and scruples of the laity by
force alone, and not to resolve them by giving reasons, is to
expose the Church and the pope to the ridicule of their
enemies, and to make Christians unhappy.

91. If, therefore, pardons were preached according to the
spirit and mind of the pope, all these doubts would be readily
resolved; nay, they would not exist.

92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people
of Christ, "Peace, peace," and there is no peace!

93. Blessed be all those prophets who say to the people of
Christ, "Cross, cross," and there is no cross!

94. Christians are to be exhorted that they be diligent in
following Christ, their Head, through penalties, deaths, and
hell;

95. And thus be confident of entering into heaven rather
through many tribulations, than through the assurance of
peace.
_________________________________________________________________

This text was converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by
Allen Mulvey and is in the public domain. You may freely
distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments
or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at
Concordia Theological Seminary.

E-mail: CFWLibrary@CRF.CUIS.EDU
Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA
Phone: (219) 481-2123 Fax: (219) 481-2126
________________________________________________________________

Correspondences Related to the Ninety-Five Theses

Letter to Pope Leo X, Accompanying the "Resolutions" to the XCV Theses. (1518)

Letter to John Staupitz, Accompanying the "Resolutions" to the XCX Theses. (1518)

Dr. Martin Luther to the Christian Reader, ... the older opinion of the Ninety-Five Theses. (1545 ed.)

Letter to the Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz
by Dr. Martin Luther, October 31, 1517
Published in: Works of Martin Luther
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), Volume 1, pp. 25-28

LETTER TO THE ARCHBISHOP ALBRECHT  OF MAINZ 

OCTOBER 31, 1517 

To the Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious 
Lord, Albrecht of Magdeburg and Mainz, Archbishop and Primate 
of the Church, Margrave of Brandenburg, etc., his own lord and 
pastor in Christ, worthy of reverence and fear, and most 
gracious. 

JESUS 

The grace of God be with you in all its fulness and power! 

Spare me, Most Reverend Father in Christ and Most Illustrious 
Prince, that I, the dregs of humanity, have so much boldness 
that I have dared to think of a letter to the height of your 
Sublimity. The Lord Jesus is my witness that, conscious of my 
smallness and baseness, I have long deferred what I am now 
shameless enough to do, -- moved thereto most of all by the 
duty of fidelity which I acknowledge that I owe to your most 
Reverend Fatherhood in Christ. Meanwhile, therefore, may your 
Highness deign to cast an eye upon one speck of dust, and for 
the sake of your pontifical clemency to heed my prayer. 

Papal indulgences for the building of St. Peter's are 
circulating under your most distinguished name, and as regards 
them, I do not bring accusation against the outcries of the 
preachers, which I have not heard, so much as I grieve over 
the wholly false impressions which the people have conceived 
from them; to wit, -- the unhappy souls believe that if they 
have purchased letters of indulgence they are sure of their 
salvation; again, that so soon as they cast their 
contributions into the money-box, souls fly out of purgatory; 
furthermore, that these graces [i.e., the graces conferred in 
the indulgences] are so great that there is no sin too great 
to be absolved, even, as they say -- though the thing is 
impossible -- if one had violated the Mother of God; again, 
that a man is free, through these indulgences, from all 
penalty and guilt. 

O God, most good! Thus souls committed to your care, good 
Father, are taught to their death, and the strict account, 
which you must render for all such, grows and increases. For 
this reason I have no longer been able to keep quiet about 
this matter, for it is by no gift of a bishop that man becomes 
sure of salvation, since he gains this certainty not even by 
the "inpoured grace" of God, but the Apostle bids us always 
"work out our own salvation in fear and trembling," and Peter 
says, "the righteous scarcely shall be saved." Finally, so 
narrow is the way that leads to life, that the Lord, through 
the prophets Amos and Zechariah, calls those who shall be 
saved "brands plucked from the burning," and everywhere 
declares the difficulty of salvation. 

Why, then, do the preachers of pardons, by these false fables 
and promises, make the people careless and fearless? Whereas 
indulgences confer on us no good gift, either for salvation or 
for sanctity, but only take away the external penalty, which 
it was formerly the custom to impose according to the canons. 

Finally, works of piety and love are infinitely better than 
indulgences, and yet these are not preached with such ceremony 
or such zeal; nay, for the sake of preaching the indulgences 
they are kept quiet, though it is the first and the sole duty 
of all bishops that the people should learn the Gospel and the 
love of Christ, for Christ never taught that indulgences 
should be preached. How great then is the horror, how great 
the peril of a bishop, if he permits the Gospel to be kept 
quiet, and nothing but the noise of indulgences to be spread 
among his people! Will not Christ say to them, "straining at a 
gnat and swallowing a camel"? 

In addition to this, Most Reverend Father in the Lord, it is 
said in the Instruction to the Commissaries which is issued 
under your name, Most Reverend Father (doubtless without your 
knowledge and consent), that one of the chief graces of 
indulgence is that inestimable gift of God by which man is 
reconciled to God, and all the penalties of purgatory are 
destroyed. Again, it is said that contrition is not necessary 
in those who purchase souls [out of purgatory] or buy 
confessionalia. 

But what can I do, good Primate and Most Illustrious Prince, 
except pray your Most Reverend Fatherhood by the Lord Jesus 
Christ that you would deign to look [on this matter] with the 
eye of fatherly care, and do away entirely with that treatise 
and impose upon the preachers of pardons another form of 
preaching; lest, perchance, one may some time arise, who will 
publish writings in which he will confute both them and that 
treatise, to the shame of your Most Illustrious Sublimity. I 
shrink very much from thinking that this will be done, and yet 
I fear that it will come to pass, unless there is some speedy 
remedy. 

These faithful offices of my insignificance I beg that your 
Most Illustrious Grace may deign to accept in the spirit of a 
Prince and a Bishop, i.e., with the greatest clemency, as I 
offer them out of a faithful heart, altogether devoted to you, 
Most Reverend Father, since I too am a part of your flock. 

May the Lord Jesus have your Most Reverend Fatherhood 
eternally in His keeping. Amen. 

From Wittenberg on the Vigil of All Saints, MDXVII. 

If it please the Most Reverend Father he may see these my 
Disputations, and learn how doubtful a thing is the opinion of 
indulgences which those men spread as though it were most 
certain. 

To the Most Reverend Father, 
BROTHER MARTIN LUTHER. 

Letter to Pope Leo X, Accompanying the "Resolutions" to the XCV Theses
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1518
Published in: Works of Martin Luther
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915),
Volume 1, pp. 44-48


LETTER TO POPE LEO X, ACCOMPANYING 
THE "RESOLUTIONS" TO THE XCV THESES 

1518 

To the 

Most Blessed Father, 

LEO X. 

Martin Luther, 

Augustinian Friar, 

wisheth everlasting welfare. 

I have heard evil reports about myself, most blessed Father, 
by which I know that certain friends have put my name in very 
bad odor with you and yours, saying that I have attempted to 
belittle the power of the keys and of the Supreme Pontiff. 
Therefore I am accused of heresy, apostasy, and perfidy, and 
am called by six hundred other names of ignominy. My ears 
shudder and my eyes are astounded. But the one thing in which 
I put my confidence remains unshaken -- my clear and quiet 
conscience. Moreover, what I hear is nothing new. With such 
like decorations I have been adorned in my own country by 
those same honorable and truthful men, i.e., by the men whose 
own conscience convicts them of wrongdoing, and who are trying 
to put their own monstrous doings off on me, and to glorify 
their own shame by bringing shame to me. But you will deign, 
blessed Father, to hear the true case from me, though I am but 
an uncouth child. 

It is not long ago that the preaching of the Jubilee 
indulgences was begun in our country, and matters went so far 
that the preachers of indulgences, thinking that the 
protection of your name made anything permissible, ventured 
openly to teach the most impious and heretical doctrines, 
which threatened to make the power of the Church a scandal and 
a laughing-stock, as if the decretals De abusionibus 
quaestorum did not apply to them. 

Not content with spreading this poison of theirs by word of 
mouth, they published tracts and scattered them among the 
people. In these books -- to say nothing of the insatiable and 
unheard of avarice of which almost every letter in them vilely 
smells -- they laid down those same impious and heretical 
doctrines, and laid them down in such wise that confessors 
were bound by their oath to be faithful and insistent in 
urging them upon the people. I speak the truth, and none of 
them can hide himself from the heat thereof. The tracts are 
extant and they cannot disown them. These teachings were so 
successfully carried on, and the people, with their false 
hopes, were sucked so dry that, as the Prophet says, "they 
plucked their flesh from off their bones"; but they themselves 
meanwhile were fed most pleasantly on the fat of the land. 

There was just one means which they used to quiet opposition, 
to wit, the protection of your name, the threat of burning at 
the stake, and the disgrace of the name "heretic." It is 
incredible how ready they are to threaten, even, at times, 
when they perceive that it is only their own mere silly 
opinions which are contradicted. As though this were to quiet 
opposition, and not rather to arouse schisms and seditions by 
sheer tyranny! 

None the less, however, stories about the avarice of the 
priests were bruited in the taverns, and evil was spoken of 
the power of the keys and of the Supreme Pontiff, and as 
evidence of this, I could cite the common talk of this whole 
land. I truly confess that I was on fire with zeal for Christ, 
as I thought, or with the heat of youth, if you prefer to have 
it so; and yet I saw that it was not in place for me to make 
any decrees or to do anything in these matters. Therefore I 
privately admonished some of the prelates of the Church. By 
some of them I was kindly received, to others I seemed 
ridiculous, to still others something worse; for the terror of 
your name and the threat of Church censures prevailed. At 
last, since I could do nothing else, it seemed good that I 
should offer at least a gentle resistance to them, i.e., 
question and discuss their teachings. Therefore I published a 
set of theses, inviting only the more learned to dispute with 
me if they wished; as should be evident, even to my 
adversaries, from the Preface to the Disputation. 

Lo, this is the fire with which they complain that all the 
world is now ablaze! Perhaps it is because they are indignant 
that I, who by your own apostolic authority am a Master of 
Theology, have the right to conduct public disputations, 
according to the custom of all the Universities and of the 
whole Church, not only about indulgences, but also about God's 
power and remission and mercy, which are incomparably greater 
subjects. I am not much moved, however, by the fact that they 
envy me the privilege granted me by the power of your 
Holiness, since I am unwillingly compelled to yield to them in 
things of far greater moment, viz., when they mix the dreams 
of Aristotle with theological matters, and conduct nonsensical 
disputations about the majesty of God, beyond and against the 
privilege granted them. 

It is a miracle to me by what fate it has come about that this 
single Disputation of mine should, more than any other, of 
mine or of any of the teachers, have gone out into very nearly 
the whole land. It was made public at our University and for 
our University only, and it was made public in such wise that 
I cannot believe it has become known to all men. For it is a 
set of theses, not doctrines or dogmas, and they are put, 
according to custom, in an obscure and enigmatic way. 
Otherwise, if I had been able to foresee what was coming, I 
should have taken care, for my part, that they would be easier 
to understand. 

Now what shall I do? I cannot recant them; and yet I see that 
marvelous enmity is inflamed against me because of their 
dissemination. It is unwillingly that I incur the public and 
perilous and various judgment of men, especially since I am 
unlearned, dull of brain, empty of scholarship; and that too 
in this brilliant age of ours, which by its achievements in 
letters and learning can force even Cicero into the corner, 
though he was no base follower of the public light. But 
necessity compels me to be the goose that squawks among the 
swans. 

And so, to soften my enemies and to fulfil the desires of 
many, I herewith send forth these trifling explanations of my 
Disputation; I send them forth in order, too, that I may be 
more safe under the defense of your name and the shadow of 
your protection. In them all may see, who will, how purely and 
simply I have sought after and cherished the power of the 
Church and reverence for the keys; and, at the same time, how 
unjustly and falsely my adversaries have befouled me with so 
many names. For if I had been such a one as they wish to make 
me out, and if I had not, on the contrary, done everything 
correctly, according to my academic privilege, the Most 
Illustrious Prince Frederick, Duke of Saxony, Imperial 
Elector, etc., would never have tolerated such a pest in his 
University, for he most dearly loves the Catholic and 
Apostolic truth, nor could I have been tolerated by the keen 
and learned men of our University. But what has been done, I 
do because those most courteous men do not fear openly to 
involve both the Prince and the University in the same 
disgrace with myself. 

Wherefore, most blessed Father, I cast myself at the feet of 
your Holiness, with all that I have and all that I am. 
Quicken, kill, call, recall, approve, reprove, as you will. In 
your voice I shall recognize the voice of Christ directing you 
and speaking in you. If I have deserved death, I shall not 
refuse to die. For the earth is the Lord's and the fulness 
thereof. He is blessed forever. Amen. 

May He have you too forever in His keeping. Amen. 

ANNO MDXVIII. 

Letter to John Staupitz Accompanying the "Resolutions" to the XCV Theses
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1518
Published in: Works of Martin Luther
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915),
Volume 1, pp. 39-43.


LETTER TO JOHN STAUPITZ 

ACCOMPANYING THE "RESOLUTIONS" TO THE XCV THESES 

1518 

To his Reverend and Dear Father 
JOHN STAUPITZ, 

Professor of Sacred Theology, 
Vicar of the Augustinian Order, 
Brother Martin Luther, 
his pupil, 
sendeth greeting. 

I remember, dear Father, that once, among those pleasant and 
wholesome talks of thine, with which the Lord Jesus ofttimes 
gives me wondrous consolation, the word poenitential was 
mentioned. We were moved with pity for many consciences, and 
for those tormentors who teach, with rules innumerable and 
unbearable, what they call a modus confitendi. Then we heard 
thee say as with a voice from heaven, that there is no true 
penitence which does not begin with love of righteousness and 
of God, and that this love, which others think to be the end 
and the completion of penitence, is rather its beginning. 

This word of thine stuck in me like a sharp arrow of the 
mighty, and from that time forth I began to compare it with 
the texts of Scripture which teach penitence. Lo, there began 
a joyous game! The words frollicked with me everywhere! They 
laughed and gamboled around this saying. Before that there was 
scarcely a word in all the Scriptures more bitter to me than 
"penitence," though I was busy making pretences to God and 
trying to produce a forced, feigned love; but now there is no 
word which has for me a sweeter or more pleasing sound than 
"penitence." For God's commands are sweet, when we find that 
they are to be read not in books alone, but in the wounds of 
our sweet Saviour. 

After this it came about that, by the grace of the learned men 
who dutifully teach us Greek and Hebrew, I learned that this 
word is in Greek metanoia and is derived from meta and noun, 
i.e., post and mentem, so that poenitentia or metanoia is a 
"coming to one's senses," and is a knowledge of one's own 
evil, gained after punishment has been accepted and error 
acknowledged; and this cannot possibly happen without a change 
in our heart and our love. All this answers so aptly to the 
theology of Paul, that nothing, at least in my judgment, can 
so aptly illustrate St. Paul. 

Then I went on and saw that metanoia can be derived, though 
not without violence, not only from post and mentem, but also 
from trans and mentem, so that metanoia signifies a changing 
of the mind and heart, because it seemed to indicate not only 
a change of the heart, but also a manner of changing it, i.e., 
the grace of God. For that "passing over of the mind," which 
is true repentance, is of very frequent mention in the 
Scriptures. Christ has displayed the true significance of that 
old word "Passover"; and long before the Passover, Abraham was 
a type of it, when he was called a "pilgrim,"] i.e., a 
"Hebrew," that is to say, one who "passed over" into 
Mesopotamia, as the Doctor of Bourgos learnedly explains. With 
this accords, too, the title of the Psalm in which Jeduthun, 
i.e., "the pilgrim," is introduced as the singer. 

Depending on these things, I ventured to think those men false 
teachers who ascribed so much to works of penitence that they 
left us scarcely anything of penitence itself except trivial 
satisfactions and laborious confession, because, forsooth, 
they had derived their idea from the Latin words poenitentiam 
agere, which indicate an action, rather than a change of 
heart, and are in no way an equivalent for the Greek metanoia. 

While this thought was boiling in my mind, suddenly new 
trumpets of indulgences and bugles of remissions began to peal 
and to bray all about us; but they were not intended to arouse 
us to keen eagerness for battle. In a word, the doctrine of 
true penitence was passed by, and they presumed to praise not 
even that poorest part of penitence which is called 
"satisfaction," but the remission of that poorest part of 
penitence; and they praised it so highly that such praise was 
never heard before. Then, too, they taught impious and false 
and heretical doctrines with such authority (I wished to say 
"with such assurance") that he who even muttered anything to 
the contrary under his breath, would straightway be consigned 
to the fames as a heretic, and condemned to eternal 
malediction. 

Unable to meet their rage half-way, I determined to enter a 
modest dissent, and to call their teaching into question, 
relying on the opinion of all the doctors and of the whole 
Church, that to render satisfaction is better than to secure 
the remission of satisfaction, i.e., to buy indulgences. Nor 
is there anybody who ever taught otherwise. Therefore, I 
published my Disputation; in other words, I brought upon my 
head all the curses, high, middle and low, which these lovers 
of money (I should say "of souls") are able to send or to have 
sent upon me. For these most courteous men, armed, as they 
are, with very dense acumen, since they cannot deny what I 
have said, now pretend that in my Disputation I have spoken 
against the power of the Supreme Pontiff. 

That is the reason, Reverend Father, why I now regretfully 
come out in public. For I have ever been a lover of my corner, 
and prefer to look upon the beauteous passing show of the 
great minds of our age, rather than to be looked upon and 
laughed at. But I see that the bean must appear among the 
cabbages, and the black must be put with the white, for the 
sake of seemliness and loveliness. 

I ask, therefore, that thou wilt take this foolish work of 
mine and forward it, if possible, to the most Excellent 
Pontiff, Leo X, where it may plead my cause against the 
designs of those who hate me. Not that I wish thee to share my 
danger! Nay, I wish this to be done at my peril only. Christ 
will see whether what I have said is His or my own; and 
without His permission there is not a word in the Supreme 
Pontiff's tongue, nor is the heart of the king in his own 
hand. He is the Judge whose verdict I await from the Roman 
See. 

As for those threatening friends of mine, I have no answer for 
them but that word of Reuchlin's -- "He who is poor fears 
nothing; he has nothing to lose." Fortune I neither have nor 
desire; if I have had reputation and honor, he who destroys 
them is always at work; there remains only one poor body, weak 
and wearied with constant hardships, and if by force or wile 
they do away with that (as a service to God), they will but 
make me poorer by perhaps an hour or two of life. Enough for 
me is the most sweet Saviour and Redeemer, my Lord Jesus 
Christ, to Whom I shall always sing my song; if any one is 
unwilling to sing with me, what is that to me? Let him howl, 
if he likes, by himself. 

The Lord Jesus keep thee eternally, my gracious Father! 

Wittenberg, Day of the Holy Trinity, MDXVIII. 

Dr. Martin Luther to the Christian Reader
by Dr. Martin Luther, 1545
Published in: Works of Martin Luther
Adolph Spaeth, L.D. Reed, Henry Eyster Jacobs, et Al., Trans. & Eds.
(Philadelphia: A. J. Holman Company, 1915), Vol. 1, pp. 10-11.


DR. MARTIN LUTHER TO THE CHRISTIAN READER


EDITION OF 1545


Above all things I beseech the Christian reader and beg him for
the sake of our Lord Jesus Christ, to read my earliest books very
circumspectly and with much pity, knowing that before now I too
was a monk, and one of the right frantic and raving papists. When
I took up this matter against Indulgences, I was so full and 
drunken, yea, so besotted in papal doctrine that, out of my great 
zeal, I would have been ready to do murder -- at least, I would 
have been glad to see and help that murder should be done -- on 
all who would not be obedient and subject to the pope, even to 
his smallest word.

Such a Saul was I at that time; and I meant it right earnestly;
and there are still many such to-day. In a word, I was not such a
frozen and ice-cold champion of the papacy as Eck and others of
his kind have been and still are. They defend the Roman See more
for the sake of the shameful belly, which is their god, than
because they are really attached to its cause. Indeed I am wholly
of the opinion that like latter-day Epicureans, they only laugh at
the pope. But I verily espoused this cause in deepest earnest and
in all fidelity; the more so because I shrank from the Last Day
with great anxiety and fear and terror, and yet from the depths of
my heart desired to be saved. 

Therefore, Christian reader, thou wilt find in my earliest books
and writings how many points of faith I then, with all humility,
yielded and conceded to the pope, which since then I have held and
condemned for the most horrible blasphemy and abomination, and
which I would have to be so held and so condemned forever. Amen. 

Thou wilt therefore ascribe this my error, or as my opponents
venomously call it, this inconsistency of mine, to the time, and
to my ignorance and inexperience. At the beginning I was quite
alone and without any helpers, and moreover, to tell the truth,
unskilled in all these things, and far too unlearned to discuss
such high and weighty matters. For it was without any intention,
purpose, or will of mine that I fell, quite unexpectedly, into
this wrangling and contention. This I take God, the Searcher of
hearts, to witness. 

I tell these things to the end that, if thou shalt read my books,
thou mayest know and remember that I am one of those who, as St.
Augustine says of himself, have grown by writing and by teaching
others, and not one of those who, starting with nothing, have in a
trice become the most exalted and most learned doctors. We find,
alas! many of these self-grown doctors; who in truth are nothing,
do nothing and accomplish nothing, are moreover untried and
inexperienced, and yet, after a single look at the Scriptures,
think themselves able wholly to exhaust its spirit. 

Farewell, dear reader, in the Lord. Pray that the Word may be
further spread abroad, and may be strong against the miserable
devil. For he is mighty and wicked, and just now is raving
everywhere and raging cruelly, like one who well knows and feels
that his time is short, and that the kingdom of his Vicar, the
Antichrist in Rome, is sore beset. But may the God of all grace
and mercy strengthen and complete in us the work He has begun, to
His honor and to the comfort of His little flock. Amen. 

_________________________________________________________________ 

These texts were converted to ascii format for Project Wittenberg by 
Allen Mulvey and is in the public domain. You may freely 
distribute, copy or print this text. Please direct any comments 
or suggestions to: Rev. Robert E. Smith of the Walther Library at 
Concordia Theological Seminary. 

E-mail: smithre@mail.ctsfw.edu 
Surface Mail: 6600 N. Clinton St., Ft. Wayne, IN 46825 USA 
Phone: (260) 481-2123 Fax: (260) 481-2126 
________________________________________________________________

The Life and Times of Martin Luther by J.H. Merle D'Aubigne - Index Page
Gupta Electronic Edition (C) 2001 - About