Johann Tetzel

Johann Tetzel sold indulgences with a jingle, and provoked the Reformation by being good at it. He was a Dominican from Saxony, a trained preacher, and by the standards of the trade a remarkable salesman. The campaign he ran was more sordid than the theology suggests. Albert of Brandenburg had borrowed from the Fuggers to buy the archbishopric of Mainz while under-age and already holding two other sees; Leo X approved the irregularity and authorised an indulgence campaign in Albert's territories, with half the proceeds going to St Peter's and half, secretly, to the bankers. Tetzel was appointed to preach it, arriving with a chest, a cross and a papal banner. The couplet attributed to him - that as soon as the coin in the coffer rings, the soul from purgatory springs - is what Luther attacked, and what the church itself never claimed was doctrine. The Ninety-five Theses of October 1517 were addressed to the abuse rather than to the man, in Latin, as an invitation to an academic debate. He replied in kind with theses of his own, drafted with help from the theologian Konrad Wimpina, and the students of Wittenberg burned them. He was investigated by a papal legate in 1518, who told him the affair was his fault, and he withdrew to a Leipzig convent in disgrace. Luther wrote to him at the end that he should not distress himself, because the child had a different father - which is either generosity or the coldest possible accuracy about who was responsible.

MyHistorian
A causal knowledge graph of history