Happy Reformation Day! 

Celebrating the recovery of the Scriptures

October 31, 1517, a day that would mark a new change in Christendom and Europe, and perhaps the whole world. For the events that transpired after that were catalysts in the formation on what we now know as the Modern World.

An obscure German Augustinian monk named Martin Luther posted a series of 95 arguments for debate on the church door of Wittenberg (posting challenges for debate was a common scholastic practice during the time of the Middle Ages) on All Hollow’s Eve. The posting of the arguments served as an announcement to everyone that these theses could be challenged by a debate. The arguments were nothing new, but something in it caused a stir among the people.

For the longest time, the people of Germany and the whole continental Europe as well, had suffered the Black Plague and its reverberations (millions have died), not to mention the wars started by the Catholic church against the Muslim Saracens to reclaim the Holy Land (the Crusades) that caused famine to millions of people, wanton spending of rulers to fund the Crusades and their exploits, corruption of the Borgias and the immorality of the Papacy that reached its height with Pope Alexander VI (who sired many women) and the cruelty of the “Holy Office of the Inquisition”. Many were disillusioned and many have questioned the ecclesiastical magisterium. But since “Outside the Catholic church, there is no salvation,” and the church’s declared that the pope is infallible (cannot err), the people remained subservient to the numerous traditions that caused them to further plunge in poverty.

In the early 1500s, the sale of indulgences in Europe became a source of funding for the Catholic clergy to fund themselves and the extravagant construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome (now Vatican). Indulgences (which by the way is still practiced in the Philippines) are characterized by Johann Tetzel’s famous couplet (attributed to him), “As soon as a coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs”. By giving indulgences to the Catholic church, a devotee gets the privilege of freeing his/her relative from purgatory to heaven. Yes, even if the person is a criminal and have not repented. The only requirement was to pay a load of money.

In the cloister of the Augustinian monastery and in the strict discipline of languages, Martin Luther began to set aside the Latin Vulgate (the Catholic Bible then, which was a translation of the translation—tertiary source), and began to study heavily the original Scriptural text, written in Hebrew and Greek. He was later appointed as a professor of Biblical Theology at the then Catholic University of Wittenberg . In his readings of the Bible in the original, he found astounding contradiction between the tradition he practiced and what he found in the primary source.

As he posted the 95 Theses on the door of Wittenberg, Luther had questions of his own. Is it possible for an entire church polity to err? Which is more authoritative, the Scriptures or the Church? But the most pressing need of the time were the indulgences being asked of the poorest of the poor. For their dead loved ones to be saved, people had to give at least something for their loved ones to be released from purgatory to heavenly bliss. This deeply affected Luther.

As such, the Augustinian monk posted some notable theses that would later led him (and us) to more discoveries. Oh, how everything changes when we go back to the primary source!

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 of 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 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 hatread of self continues; for this is the true inward repentance and continues until our entrance into the kingdom of heaven.

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

36. Every truly repentant Christian HAS A RIGHT to full remission of penalty and guilt, even without letters of pardon. (emphasis mine)

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.

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. (emphasis mine)

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

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 smalles graces compared with the grace of God and the piety of the Cross.

82. 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.”

86. 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 [the basilica in Rome] with his own money, rather than with the money of poor believers?”

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

92. Away, then, with all those prophets who say to the people of Christ, “Peace, peace” and there is no peace! [Ezek. 13:10]

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

The commotion of the 95 Theses would have died out like the documents and voices raised by people burned at the stake for heresy almost a century earlier (there was the English John Wycliffe and Bohemian Jan Huss). But this was 1517. The printing press was already invented by the German businessman, Johann Gutenberg in 1450. Not surprisingly Gutenberg also printed the Gutenberg Bible. The people had their hands on Scriptures and the challenge that Luther posed, which were reprinted by the printing press. Many saw the contradictions themselves. This commotion grew into a movement that would have reformed the Catholic church if the church hierarchy allowed it. But it didn’t. 

To be continued…