Why did Luther successfully challenge the sale of indulgences?
… many views towards the Church: “The assurance of salvation by letters of pardon is vain, even though the commissary, nay, even though the pope himself, were to stake his soul upon it”. Luther argued that the Church’s teachings concerning specific religious matters were fundamentally incorrect and he was unwilling to stand by and continue to watch the Church take advantage of the German public. He immediately began to attract support from all classes within Germany ranging from “the lowly peasant, who wrongly imagined that he would no longer be required to pay tithes (the tax on agriculture produce, paid to the Church), to the prince, who foresaw the possibility of seizing Church lands”. This represented the prospect of financial gain to people from all different classes, and it is argued that these social and financial benefits, which where aimed directly for the interest of the German people, clearly contributed to …
