Commentary: Luther and Tetzel's Preaching of Indulgences, 1516-1518

COMMENTARY Luther and Tetzel's Preaching of Indulgences, 1516—1518 In its issue of February 16, 1958, the Register of Denver, Col. printed the following item: "John Tetzel in 1516 was preaching indulgences, when Luther accused him of selling indulgences. His teaching on indulgences for the living was orthodox but his views on indulgences for the dead were censured by Cardinal Cajetan and others and in popular disrepute Tetzel retired broken." Such garbled information has been multiplied by the hundreds in the past and will be multiplied by the thousands in the future. Up to 1895 all Catholic historians stated that Tetzel's preaching on indulgences was orthodox also in regard to indulgences for the dead, when the Catholic historian Nicholas Paulus began to state the contrary opinion. In 1886 the Protestant theologian August Wilhelm Dieckhoff, Professor at the Protestant university of Rostock in Germany, declared publicly that historical studies had led him to the conviction that Tetzel had preached the "orthodox Catholic teaching on indulgences and Protestants have been grossly misled about this man." This frank statement naturally roused the ill feelings of the members of the aggressive Evangelical Alliance (Evangelischer Bund) and the Protestant theologian Gustav Kawerau, at this time professor at the neighboring Protestant university of Kiel, likewise in Germany, came to the rescue. He admitted that the current story about Tetzel among Protestants is a myth ; he stated that his teaching on indulgences for the living was correct, yet in regard to indulgences for the dead Tetzel followed an opinion which would immediate deliverance from Purgatory attribute to the alms spent in behalf of a certain soul. Kawerau further says that Tetzel did not preach, what was current among Protestants "as soon as the coin in the casket rings, the soul to Heaven springs," yet he believes that Tetzel substantially preached in that sense. This opinion of Kawerau would not have created any sensation in Catholic circles, if it unexpectedly would not have been adopted by the Catholic historian Nicholas Paulus, who tried to uphold this opinion 82 Luther and Tetzel83 in two books published in 1895 and 1899. This Kawerau-Paulus version of Tetzel's preaching found its way into Pastor's History of the Popes and into the Catholic Encyclopedia despite numerous refutations on the part of Catholic historians. And the Catholic Encyclopedia has been the feeder for innumerous articles like the one published by the Register on Februar}/ 16th, 1958. The Kawerau-Paulus story would make us believe that Luther was not ruffled in the least about the indulgence preaching in 1516; he was only roused in 1517, when Tetzel preached in the little village of Jüterbog near Wittenberg, the Duke of Saxony having not allowed him to preach in Wittenberg. It was then that Luther was roused and some time later on October 31, 1517, nailed the ninety-five theses against indulgences on the church door at Wittenberg (Catholic Encyclopedia, s. v. Tetzel, vol. XIV, 539). In 1891 a chronicle was published written by John Oldecop, born in 1493, which covers the years 1500 to 1573 (edited in Stuttgart 1891 by K. Euling). This Oldecop was a student at Wittenberg in 1515 and 1516 and a great admirer of his teacher Luther; in 1527 he was ordained a priest and became an opponent of Luther. Oldecop states that in June of 1516 he heard a stirring sermon preached by Tetzel in the parish church of Wittenberg. This contemporary statement upsets the contention of Kawerau-Paulus that Tetzel never preached in Wittenberg. Oldecop further states that in the evening of that day Luther preached against indulgences in the church of the Augustinians in Wittenberg. Since Luther does not mention these facts, Paulus says this statement of Oldecop is wrong. But Luther did not keep a diary and so he did many things in 1516 which he never mentions later. Curiously Paulus admits that Oldecop had attended Tetzel's sermon but refrains to state that this was done in Wittenberg. By the time Tetzel preached in Jüterbog, Oldecop was living in Hildesheim. From Oldecop's book we know that Luther preached against indulgences in the monastic church of the Augustinians in Wittenberg...