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Event

The posting of the Ninety-Five Theses

The reported posting of the theses on the Castle Church door at Wittenberg on 31 October 1517, which historians dispute.

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Dates
31 Oct 1517
Place
Wittenberg
Also known as
Luther and the church door
How each side tells it

According to Philip Melanchthon

  • involved Martin Luther DisputedHistorians do not agree. Leppin and Wengert (2015) write that there are equally good arguments for and against the posting.

According to Martin Luther

Philip Melanchthon wrote in 1546 that Martin Luther posted the Ninety-Five Theses on a church door at Wittenberg. Luther’s own accounts speak of letters to bishops, among them Albert of Brandenburg. Scholars give both sides.

Connections 3

involved

  • Martin Luther posted the theses on the door of the church by the castle, in Melanchthon's account According to Philip Melanchthon Disputed Scholarship & press 1

    Disputed: Historians do not agree. Leppin and Wengert (2015) write that there are equally good arguments for and against the posting.

  • Martin Luther wrote to the bishops with the theses; his own later accounts do not mention a posting According to Martin Luther Scholarship & press 12
  • Albert of Brandenburg received Luther's letter of 31 October with the theses enclosed Scholarship & press 1
Timeline 1 date
  1. 31 Oct 1517 The posting of the Ninety-Five Theses
Proof 2 sources
  1. Sources for and against the Posting of the Ninety-Five Theses, by Volker Leppin and Timothy J. Wengert, Lutheran Quarterly 29 (2015), pp. 373-398 (Eberhard Karls University of Tuebingen repository), 2015. Scholarship & press
    and publicly posted them at the Church which is next to the Wittenberg castle on the eve of the feast of All Saints in the year 1517.
    I begged them to stop the impudence and blasphemy of the quaestors, but the poor little brother was despised.
    I can still lay my hands on [a copy of] that letter; but I never received an answer.
    Neither report mentions that the Theses were posted on the Castle Church door in Wittenberg.
    Most certain and most important is the fact that in his letter to Albrecht, dated 31 October, he included either a hand-written or a printed copy of the Theses
  2. Schlaglicht 1517: der sogenannte Thesenanschlag, by Axel Gotthard (in German), Bundeszentrale fuer politische Bildung (Federal Agency for Civic Education), 18 Jan 2017. Scholarship & press
Page history 2 changes
  1. Spell Rörer correctly in the posting entryAlibekaa26715
  2. Add the story Ninety-Five Theses, with its people, places, works and sources, and a relation for where a work was writtenAlibekf0e490a

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