III. First Mofements as a Reformer (Oct. 31, 1517- May 4, 1521). — On the 31st of October, 1517, at midday, Luther affixed to the castle church at Wittenberg nine- ty-live theses, wliich lie proposed to defend at the uni- versity, completely denying the position on which Tet- zel rested the merits of indulgences. lie declared, in substance, that the command of Jesus to repent implies that the whole life is to be a repentance, not to be con- founded with the confession and satisfaction made to a priest. Repentance, indeed, demands with that which is internal an external mortification of the flesh. The power of the papal indulgence can go no furtlier than the penances imposed by the pope himself. The papal indulgence, consequently, can produce no reconciliation with God, nor, in fact, take away the guilt of the small- est daily sin. The pope can only announce and confirm the forgiveness imparted by God. This, indeed, is not to be despised, yet it can be found without the pope's indulgence where there is true compunction and faith. The true treasure of the Church is not a treasure of in- dulgences intrusted to the pope, but is the Gospel of the grace of God. He distinctly held the obtaining of grace to be a thing of immediate relation between the so«l and God. In these theses Luther believed that he expressed throughout the mind of the pope, who he supposed was ignorant of the abuses that had been prac- ticed in his name. It seems at first remarkable that Luther gives so little prominence to faith in the theses, and in tlie sermons on indulgence and grace which ap- peared simultaneously with the theses, and were meant for tlie people, Nov. 1517. But a carefiU study will show that his conception of repentance is that larger Biblical one in which it embraces both penitence and faith. Re- pentance is sometimes used as synonymous with peni- tence, and we then speak of repenting and believing, re- pentance and faith. Sometimes repentance covers both, and then God is said to command men everywhere to repent. Thus, in the l"2th art. of the Augsburg Confes- sion, it is said : '• Repentance properly consists of these two parts : The first is contrition, or the terrors of a con- science smitten with acknowledged sin. The other part is faith, which is conceived from the Gospel or absolu- tion, and believes that for Christ's sake sins are remit- ted." " This first act of Luther's evangelical life," says Gieseler, " has been hastily ascribed by at least three em- inent writers of very different character — Bossuet, Hume, and Voltaire — to the narrow monastic motive, the jeal- ousy of a rival order. It is asserted that the Augustinian friars had usually been invested in Saxony with this prof- itable commission, and that it only became offensive to Luther when transferred to t he Dominicans. There is no ground for this assertion. The Dominicans had been for nearly three centuries the peculiar favorites of the holy see, and objects of all its partialities ; and it is particidar- ly remarkable that, after the middle of the fifteenth cen- tury, during a period scandalously fruitful in the abuse in question, we very rarely meet with the name of any Augustinian as employed in that service. Moreover, it is almost equally important to add that none of the contemporary adversaries of Luther ever advanced this charge against him, even at the moment in which the controversy was carried on with the most unscrupulous wratli." The influence of the theses was instantly felt far and wide. '• The theses," says Luther himself, " ran clear through all Germany in fourteen days, for all the world was complaining about the indulgences ; and be-
cause all the bishops and doctors were silent, and nobody was willing to bell the cat, Luther became a renowned doctor, because at last somebody had come who took hold of the thing." Luther, in his frank, artless confi- dence that the pope would be his most enthusiastic pa- tron, was soon undeceivetl, but his higher trust was strengthened by the course of events. "If," said he, "the work be of God, who can overthrow it?" (Com- pare here the article Leo X in this volume, especially p. 3G3 sq. A careful reprint of the theses, after the orig- inal, is given in Ranke's Reformation's Gesc/iichte.)
In 1518 the Augustinian Order held a convention at Heidelberg. All of Luther's friends counselled him against going thither, as his life was threatened. Lu- ther, faithful to the vow to his order, went, on foot, to the convention. In Heidelberg he disputed on theses in theology and philosophy ; on free-will and the fall ; grace, faith, justification, and good works. He took ground against Aristotle, An immense audience, not only of students, but of citizens and courtiers, attended the disputation. Among the auditors were Bucer, Bren- tius, and others, destined to play a memorable part in the scenes of the coming Reformation. Meanwhile the principles maintained in the ninety-five theses had pro- voked the assaults of a number of stanch adherents to the practice of the indulgence traffic ; but Luther stout- ly defended himself against all of them in his " Reso- lutiones," that is, solution of pomts in dispute concern- ing the virtue of indulgences; and, stiU hoping for re- dress from Rome, sent these to Leo X. His appeal was first of all to hoh' Scripture, and, next to this, to Au- gustine, as the profoundest expositor of Scripture among the fathers.