Johann Tetzel
Dominican friar who preached the indulgence for St Peter’s in the lands of Albert of Mainz in 1517. Luther and Melanchthon both named his preaching as the occasion of the theses.
Philip Melanchthon calls Tetzel a friar of the Dominican order whose preaching of indulgences moved Martin Luther to publish his theses (Melanchthon, Life of Luther part 1). In the sample sermons he wrote for parish priests, the dead cry out to their children for the small alms that would free them, and the letter of indulgence is compared to a safe-conduct for the soul (Tetzel, Sample Sermons second and third sermons (Kidd no. 8, pp. 18–19)). Luther said in 1517 that he had not himself heard the preachers but only what the people took from them (Luther, Letters, to Albert of Mainz, 31 October 1517).
Looking back in 1545, Luther called Tetzel the originator of the affair. He added that a papal envoy had rebuked Tetzel so harshly that he wasted away, and that he himself had written him a letter of comfort before he died (Luther, Preface to the Latin Writings (1545) on Karl von Miltitz and Tetzel). 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.