Johann Tetzel

Johann Tetzel (c. 1465–1519) was a German Dominican friar and preacher who promoted indulgences. His preaching helped provoke Martin Luther’s Ninety-five Theses in 1517.

Dominican Order: A Catholic religious order founded by Dominic in the early thirteenth century, known for preaching and study. Tetzel was a Dominican friar, formed within an order whose vocation centered on preaching.
Purgatory: In Catholic teaching, a state of purification after death for those ultimately destined for heaven. Indulgences were understood to remit temporal punishment associated with sin, including punishment linked to purgatory.
Martin Luther: A German theologian whose challenges to Catholic teaching initiated the Protestant Reformation. Luther’s objections to indulgence preaching led directly to his 1517 theses.
Confession: A sacrament in which a penitent confesses sins and receives absolution from a priest. An indulgence did not itself grant absolution, despite popular confusion about its effects.
Indulgence: A remission of temporal punishment for sins, granted by the Catholic Church under prescribed conditions. Indulgences were the subject of Tetzel’s public preaching and fundraising.
Treasury of Merit: In Catholic theology, the spiritual treasury of Christ’s and the saints’ merits from which the Church grants indulgences. This doctrine supplied the theological rationale for granting indulgences.
Ninety-five Theses: Martin Luther’s 1517 propositions challenging indulgence practices and inviting theological debate. Luther’s theses responded to the campaign Tetzel promoted.
Absolution: The formal remission of sins pronounced by a priest in the sacrament of penance. The distinction between absolution and remission of temporal punishment was central to Luther’s criticism.
Albrecht of Brandenburg: A German churchman who became archbishop of Mainz and Magdeburg and elector of Brandenburg. Albrecht authorized the indulgence campaign Tetzel preached in German territories.
Indulgence controversy: The early sixteenth-century dispute over indulgence preaching, authority, and the remission of punishment for sin. Tetzel’s campaign became a prominent flashpoint in this wider dispute.

Linked from 6 pages