Reformation by accident? Martin Luther’s Ninety-Five Theses of 1517

Recalling in 1545 his twenty-eight-year career as a reformer, Martin Luther (1483–1546) wrote: “I got into these turmoils by accident and not by will or intention; I call upon God himself as witness.” ¹ Those “turmoils” were controversies with the pope and his theologians over the Ninety-Five Theses that he had composed for debate at the German university of Wittenberg in 1517. ² According to tradition, on 31 October of that year Luther posted the theses on the front door of the castle church to catch the attention of a crowd that was expected the next day, the festival of All Saints. They were hoping to shorten their stay in purgatory by winning indulgences for viewing the large collection of relics amassed by Luther’s ruler, Elector ³ Frederick of Saxony. Since the Ninety-Five Theses questioned both the power of indulgences and the authority of popes to grant them, it was easy to conclude that Luther knew full well he was arousing a controversy which could be taken as an attack on the Roman church. Countless images have pictured Luther as a rebellious monk nailing the Ninety-Five Theses to the church door in a public act of defiance that ignited a ‘Protestant’ Reformation.