Indulgences
At this same time, in Rome, Pope Leo X needed money to build up St. Peter's Basilica. Fortunately, for him, was that there was the option of selling indulgences. Indulgences were a document that was said to be able to clear all away your sins back like when you were just baptised. This was extremely helpful to people (back then) because they believed that all people were sinners. There must have been a time when you have sinned. Therefore, if you don't clear away all your sins, when you die, you would go to hell.
So Pope Leo decided to assign a monk named 'John Tetzel' the sale of the indulgences. He was to sell it all around in Saxony. He made a great salesman, he was very talented and promised that your sins would all be cleared if you buy indulgences. He also promised that if you buy indulgences, you could also free one of your relatives (friends etc.) from purgatory.
95 Theses
But Luther was very angry about this. He did not believe that indulgences would really be able to free away all your sins. So Luther pinned 95 statements (in latin) on October 31st, 1517 on the door of the cathedral about the practices of selling indulgences.
But back then, normal people didn't know Latin. Only the nobles did. And they were very frustrated about this. The fortunate thing was that it was later translated into German. Hundreds of copies were printed (the printers were not like the printers we have now) and was delivered all over Saxony. The pope also recieved this letter, and he was very angry about this. He commanded one of his servants to deal with this situation.
When Luther was invited from the Pope to the order's next meeting, he was very frightened about what he had done. A lot of lives had died before him because of him. But surprisingly, a lot of people agreed with him. But some other people thought that it was just other fight between the Dominicans and the Augustinians.
Pictures from: http://www.religionfacts.com/christianity/people/luther/bio.htm
