“The Ninety-five Theses” or, to give their full title “Disputation on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” (“Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum” in the Latin Luther actually wrote them in) was a list of 95 propositions, each one an academic disputation. It was written in 1517 by Martin Luther, then a professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany. Legend has it that he literally nailed them to the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, although there is some dispute among historians as to whether this actually happened. (The date is also suspected by some to be incorrect and there is a similar controversy about that.)
The Theses are framed as propositions for academic debate – they do not necessarily represent Luther’s own opinions (although again, legend claims they do). They aired contemporary theological misgivings about the theory and practice of indulgences and their relation to repentance, penance and papal authority: this was triggered by the scandal of certain Catholic clergy, who were supposedly selling plenary indulgences in Germany, which were certificates supposed to reduce the temporal punishment in purgatory for sins committed by the saved purchasers or their loved ones, and this much at least did represent Luther’s opinion. He would condemn the sale of indulgence wholeheartedly in subsequent years.
The Theses are retrospectively considered to have launched the Protestant Reformation and the birth of Protestantism, despite various quasi- or proto-Protestant groups having existed previously.
