234 THE PROTESTANT REFORMATION
Pope Julius II is shown in this
19th-century painting in the process
of instructing Bramante, Michelangelo,
and Raphael to start work on the
Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica.purgatory springs,” Tetzel warned,
and many of Luther’s parishioners
duly paid for the indulgences in
the hope of purchasing salvation.
Luther had become firmly
convinced, from his studies of the
Bible, and especially the Book of
Romans in the New Testament,
that salvation was a free gift
from God to those who have faith,
not something to be bought. He
recorded his objections to the
sale of indulgences in 95 theses,
or statements, which he sent to
his bishop, the Prince of Mainz,
and reportedly pinned to the door
of the church in Wittenberg.
A copy of the theses found its way
to a printer, and the publication
became an overnight bestseller.
Far more was at stake than
the collection of funds for a pope’s
building project and an archbishop’s
pocket: Luther’s protest raised
the issue of authority within the
Catholic Church. In 1520, Pope
Leo X responded by publishing a
document explaining how Luther
had misrepresented the teaching of
the Church, and declaring him and
his followers to be heretics. Luther
was invited to retract his views,
but he refused, and even burned
his copy of the Pope’s document.Authority of the Scriptures
Luther’s meaning was clear: even
though the Pope may have been the
leader of the Church, he was not
the final authority when it came to
matters of faith. The final authority
was God’s word itself, as recorded
in the Bible, otherwise known as
the Scriptures. Luther held that it
was not necessary for Christians
to rely upon the traditions and
teachings of the Church to come
to a true knowledge of God and
salvation. Instead, Christians could
bypass these human traditions,
which were often inaccurate
anyway, and discover truth directly
from the Bible. This would later
be expressed by the Latin phrase
sola Scriptura, “Scripture alone”:
the Reformers were convinced that
people do not need middle men
to interpret the meaning of theScriptures for them. Anyone could
read the Bible and come to a clear
understanding of God’s way of
salvation, which, for Luther, did
not involve indulgences, popes,
or many of the other practices of
the Catholic Church.
Luther’s rejection of tradition
in favor of returning to original
biblical sources fell on fertile soil
in the early 16th century. The
Humanist movement (not to be
confused with modern, secular
humanism) was already seeking to
recover the classical learning that
had been forgotten during the Dark
Ages. Christian Humanists such
as Desiderius Erasmus (1466–1536)
encouraged their students to study
the original languages of the Bible
(Hebrew for the Old Testament and
Greek for the New) and the writings
of the very first Christians, the
Church Fathers. The Reformation
encouraged everyone to join in by
reading the Bible for themselves.Those who preach
indulgences are in error
when they say that a person
is absolved and saved from
every penalty by the
pope’s indulgences.
Martin Luther