Moving in the Apostolic

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Moving in the Apostolic

believer goes after death to be purged from sins and made ready for heaven). It was an official pardon from the Church, granted for a certain amount of money, which was in turn used to finance the building of St. Peter's. The Catholic Church was in essence selling forgiveness of sin. This was, of course, nonscriptural, but the majority of the people believed what they were taught by the Church. The Scriptures were interpreted by the clergy, who in turn were bound by an oath to follow the teachings of the Church and the pope, who was considered infallible. When Martin Luther, who at the time was an Augustinian monk committed to the Church, heard of Tetzel selling pardons, he posted 95 theses, or statements, to a church door in Wittenburg, Germany, opposing the buying and selling of pardons. Luther was not trying to leave the Church by posting his 95 theses, but was acting as a scholar desiring to debate the subject. In his day, if a scholar wanted to debate on a subject, it was proper to write the arguments out and post them in a public place. In this case, Luther nailed his 95 arguments on a church door on October 31, 1517. He had no idea his 95 theses would cause such an uproar in the Church. His statements were translated from Latin to German and circulated among the common people. Soon Tetzel began having trouble selling indulgences and began to attack Luther, accusing him of being a traitor to the Church. Luther was summoned to Rome to answer these charges. He feared for his life, knowing that many who had attacked or questioned the teachings of the Church had been burned at the stake for heresy. Luther instead went to Augsburg, Germany, to be interviewed by a cardinal named Cajetan, who requested Luther apologize for his 95 theses. However, Luther refused and ended up fleeing Augsburg. On June 15, 1520, Leo X gave Luther 60 days to take back everything he had written or be excommunicated from the Church. By the time Luther received this ultimatum, four months had passed, and his writings were being burned in Rome and many cities in Germany by order of the pope. In some cities,