Since the 14th century the pope had been spending more than he had been earning. This was due to several factors:

As an example of his problems, in 1484 Pope Innocent VIII had to pawn his tiara for 100,000 ducats (his annual income was 500,000 ducats). By 1513 the pope owed at least 125,000 ducats.

The pope allowed the sale of indulgences to raise money. A problem arose in the German states because one of the archbishops, Albert of Mainz, had got into debt by borrowing too much money from the Fugger bank. He, therefore, kept some of the money from the indulgence account and gave the rest to the pope. This was theft.

The Reformation can be said to have started when, on 31st October 1517, Martin Luther fastened his "Ninety Five Theses upon Indulgences" on the door of the castle church in Wittenberg.

These "Ninety Five Theses" were not designed to be read or even understood by everyday people. They were for theologians to discuss. They were not even an attack on the pope but rather an attack on the idea that someone who bought an indulgence would be helped through purgatory, without a need for penitence or repentance. Luther thought that if the pope realised the corruption of indulgences he would prevent them from being sold.

What in Luther's background would make him launch such an attack on the Church? He was the son of a copper miner and therefore from a peasant background. He led an austere and poor life. He was very religious and God-fearing so he went to school and then university to study theology. His beliefs developed towards a return to "simple truth" based on the Bible. In the Bible he found, in Saint Paul's Epistle to the Romans, one particular line which summed up Christianity: "The just shall live by faith".

In May 1517 he wrote to a friend: " I am quite sure that the Church will never be reformed unless we remove ..... scholastic theology, philosophy and logic as they are studied today, and put something else in their place."

• Introduction to the Reformation
• The Church before the Reformation I : Indulgences, Relics and Pilgrimages
• The Church before the Reformation II : The Wealth and Political Power of the Church
• The Church before the Reformation III :The Clergy
• The Church before the Reformation IV : Inside a Church
• Conflict between Luther and the Church
• The Church reacts to Luther
• The Catholic and the Lutheran Church
• Huldreick Zwingli
• John Calvin
• The English Reformation
• Top of Page