JOHANN TETZEL (1547)

Dominican friar whose preaching on indulgences, then an abusive use of the sacrament of penance, sparked Martin Luther´s revolt.

After entering the Dominican order at Leipzig he was appointed inquisitor for Poland (1509) and later for Saxony.

His experiences as a preacher of indulgences, especially between 1503 and 1510 led to his appointment as commissary by Albert, archbishop of Mainz who deeply in debt to pay for a large accumulation of benefices had to contribute a considerable sum toward the rebuilding of St. Peter´s in Rome.
Albert obtained permission from Pope Leo X to conduct the sale od special plenary indulgence of which Albert was to claim half to pay the fees of his benefices.
In effect Tetzel became a salesman whose product was to cause a scandal in Germany that envolved into the greatest crisis (the Reformation) in the history of the Western Church.

Tetzel preached for the indulgence in the German dioceses of Meissen (1516), Magdeburg and Halberstadt (1517) but he was forbidden to do so in Wittenberg by the elector Frederick III the Wise of Saxony.
Tetzel´s preaching at Jüterbog, near Wittenberg, in the spring of 1517 provoked Luther´s Ninety-five Theses at Wittenberg on Oct. 31 1517 attacking the system of indulgences.
In reply, an uncompromising 50 theses under Tetzel´s name (but composed by Konrad Wimpina) were published in Mar 1518.
At the end of 1518 Tetzel withdrew to Leipzig priory where he died.

Thetzel was not a profound theologian and was severely criticized for his unorthodox teaching on indulgences for the dead.
His view that gifts secured this indulgence, together with the financial transactions surrounding the preaching of it, was symptomatic of the abuses that provoked the Reformation.