Martin Luther

Justification by Faith Alone. St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. 1517 Pope Leo X. Archbishop of Mainz. Made him more radical. The truth could only be found in the bible. Holy Roman Empire. Frederick the Elector of Saxony. Go into hiding. Translated the bible. Justification by Faith Alone & people should use the Bible alone for guidance. People’s own language vernacular. No need for priests. Lutheran ministers could marry. All prayers and services could be said through the vernacular. Baptism and Holy Communion. Praying to statues. Ministers wearing special clothes.

By 1505 he had been awarded his Bachelors Degree and Masters Degree. (he was a very serious student.

They sent him to study theology at the University of Wittenberg in 1508 (he became Professor of Theology there.

His study led him to believe that he had to have absolute faith in God to be saved. He felt that if a person had faith, it did not matter if they were rich or poor, powerful or weak, that they could be saved. According to Luther salvation came from faith alone, not by money, pilgrimages or crusades. He called this belief Justification by Faith Alone.

Successive popes wanted to rebuild St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome to show the glory and power of the church. This cost a huge amount of money.

In 1517 Pope Leo X decided to make a special indulgence to raise money for St. Peter’s.

The Archbishop of Mainz owed large amounts of money because he had bought his position (simony) (therefore, selling this new indulgence and keeping half of the money was very good for him (he sent friars and priests all over Germany to preach about the indulgence. One of them was John Tetzel.