What was printed on the edict that Martin Luther nailed to the door of the Catholic church?
Martin Luther nailed up what has come to be known as his 95 theses. These were prinicples which he wanted to bring up for debate. It was customary in the academic world of the 16th century that when professors (which Luther was) wanted to discuss a particular issue they would post their position in a public place. In Wittenburg, Germany the public place was the door of the castle church. Basically the 95 theses were a ’position paper’. Instead of writing and having an article published in a particular academic journal the doctors of that time would debate and argue their various points and positions. Luther was taking a position against the selling of papal indulgences for the forgiveness of sins. Forgive me if you know this, I would rather give more information than you need than not enough. The practice in the late 15th and early 16th century was for the church to sell forgiveness. The idea being that the only way that you could be forgiven was through some type of penance or good wo
