Errors of the pope

Luther held on some Catholic errors, even after his conversion. He fully recognized the pope’s supreme authority. And he also held on to penance, purgatory, images and relics. He began to break with the Roman Catholic Church after the after the actions of indulgence seller Tetzel. In the autumn of 1517, the monk Tetzel travelled through Germany and everywhere he came he sold indulgences. Most of the money went to Pope Leo X. He used the money to complete the St. Peter’s Basilica. A part of the money went to Albrecht of Brandenburg, archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg. He used it to buy this archbishoprics, and he hardly needed it because it had cost him a lot of money to buy this archbishoprics. And the people believed that actually received a remission of sin by buying a letter of indulgence. Tetzel also told them that they could save their relatives by buying an indulgence for them. Luther heard about the actions of Tetzel. He also noticed that people thought that they don’t need sorrow because they had bought an indulgence. After this Luther was sad, angry and outraged. Luther decided to expose these evil practices in the church. He nailed, on the 31 of October 1517, 95 theses about indulgences on the door of the All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg. The idea behind this action was that Luther wanted to start a theological debate about indulgences. It was very common in those days to discuss under guidance of a professor about theses. Within four weeks, Luther’s theses, written in Latin, were translated in German and spread all over Germany. Everyone felt that some serious errors were being discussed. Luther appointed very clearly this errors of the church. Luther’s hope that the pope would support him was a vain hope. The pope didn’t concern with Luther’s theses. He even called him a ‘drunken German’. He decided to take action, after several books started to be published for and against Luther. He accused Luther to heresy and demanded him that he should give an account of himself before the ecclesiastical court in Rome. However, the Saxon elector, Frederic the Wise, forbade him to go. During several conversations, attempts were made to move Luther to revoke his theses. Luther refused to do it when they could prove from the Bible that he was wrong. Luther also said that papacy was only a human institution. And that only the Scripture had the final word (this is called Sola Scriptura). This was the limit for the pope. On 15 June 1520 a papal letter was issued and that he will be excommunicated if he don’t revoke his 41 heresies. Luther’s answer was very clear. On 10 December 1520, he burned, publicly, the papal letter. On 3 January 1521, Luther was excommunicated by the pope.