Albert of Brandenburg
Archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg and commissary for the St Peter’s indulgence in his provinces. Luther sent him the ninety-five theses on 31 October 1517.
The instruction issued in his name gives Albert’s titles: archbishop of Magdeburg and of Mainz, primate and arch-chancellor of the empire in Germany, prince-elector, administrator of Halberstadt and margrave of Brandenburg. It names him as the pope’s commissary for the indulgence granted for the building of St Peter’s (Instructio summaria preamble (Kidd no. 6, pp. 13–14)).
Martin Luther wrote to him on 31 October 1517, asked him to withdraw the instruction and enclosed his theses (Luther, Letters, to Albert of Mainz, 31 October 1517). In 1545 Luther claimed that Albert had received half the money from the indulgence and the pope the other half, which he said he had not known at the time, and he laid the blame for the whole dispute on Albert (Luther, Preface to the Latin Writings (1545) on the years 1517 and 1519). See Luther’s Ninety-five Theses.
In the timeline
- 31 October 1517, firm dateLuther’s Ninety-five Theses
On 31 October 1517 Martin Luther sends the archbishop of Mainz ninety-five theses questioning what indulgences can do. Whether he also posted them on the Castle Church at Wittenberg that day is disputed. The controversy that follows becomes the Reformation.