many the administration of
the Church had long caused discontent. Through Martin Luther
this feeling found powerful utterance, and in him the demand
for reforms became irresistibly urgent.

Luther, the son of a poor miner, was born at Eisleben,
Saxony, November 10, 1483. He became an Augustinian monk,
in 1507 was consecrated a priest, and the next year was made
professor of philosophy in the University of Wittenberg. In
1511 he visited Rome, and on his return to Wittenberg was
made doctor of theology. He had already become known through
the power and independence of his preaching. Although he
went to Rome "an insane papist," as he said, and while he
was still intensely devoted to the Church and its leaders,
he made known his belief in what became the fundamental
doctrines of Protestantism, exclusive authority of the
Bible--implying the right of private judgment--and
justification by faith.

The immediate occasion of Luther's first great protest was
the sale of indulgences by the Dominican monk John Tetzel.
From early times the church authorities had granted
indulgences or remissions of penances imposed on persons
guilty of mortal sins, the condition being true penitence.
At length the Church began to accept money, not in lieu of
penitence, but of the customary penances which usually
accompanied it. Before 1517 Luther had given warnings
against the abuse of indulgences, without blaming the
administration of the Church. But when in that year Tetzel
approached the borders of Saxony selling indulgences in the
name of the Pope, Leo X, who wanted money for the building
of St. Peter's Church in Rome, Luther, with many of the
better minds of Germany, was greatly offended by the
vender's methods. Against the course of Tetzel Luther took a
firm stand, and when the reformer posted his theses
(summarized by Koestlin) on the church door at Wittenberg
the first great movement of the Reformation in the sixteenth
century was inaugurated.

In accordance with the impartial plan of the present work
regarding the treatment of controverted matters, it is here
sought to satisfy the historic sense, which includes the
sense of justice, by giving a presentation of each view of
the story--the Protestant by Koestlin, the Catholic by Jean