The 95 Theses

Disputation to Explain the Virtue of Indulgences (31 October 1517)

Martin Luther, friar of the Augustinian Eremites and doctor of theology

A sheet of Latin propositions, numbered, addressed to scholars, and inviting anybody at all to come and prove them wrong.

Catch rate: Not found in the wild
Base research: 196
Stat total: 282

Base stats

Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.

Stamina50

Contend70

Defend68

Popularity94

Total282

Why these numbers

The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.

Stamina 50

Ninety-five numbered sentences on one sheet. There is not much of it to wear down — and there never has been a year since when nobody was reading it.

Contend 70

It is not a manifesto. It condemns people who speak against indulgences, assumes purgatory, and never once mentions Tetzel by name. Written to open a debate, so it contends politely.

Defend 68

The text is certain to the word, in Latin and in every printing since. What is disputed is what it meant, never what it says.

Popularity 94

Very quick. Posted for a debate nobody attended, then translated and printed without permission, and across Europe in two weeks.

Cited for this book

Luther posted these on the church door at Wittenberg on 31 October 1517, and mailed them to Archbishop Albrecht the same day. The door was the university notice board, so posting there was routine. The story of the hammer appears a century later. Others translated the theses into German and printed them, and that is what spread them across Europe.

Development

A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.

The 95 Theses→
Lv 48

The Resolutions

Moves learned

By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.

Lv	Move	Type	Cat.	Pwr	Acc	PP
1	The Whole Life of Believers	Soteriology	Argument	76	100%	15
1	Random Verse	Bible	Argument	10	100%	30
26	Affirm	—	Status	—	—	1
36	Chapter…	Bible	Scripture	—	—	12
38	Avarice and Gain	Ethics	Argument	80	100%	15
40	The True Treasure	Soteriology	Argument	90	100%	10
42	As on Angels’ Wings	History	Argument	82	100%	15
50	Speak Latin	History	Status	—	100%	5

The quotes behind its moves

How to read these. In Scholar’s Dream, books argue with each other. Each thing a book can do in a debate is a move, and most moves carry a real quotation — the words the book puts on the table when it uses that move.

Strong against lists the opposing books and arguments a move was written to answer. Used against one of them, it hits much harder than usual: ×2 means twice the normal force, ×4 four times. It is the game’s way of saying: this is the sentence that answers that argument. Open an entry to read why.

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: ‘Repent ye’ … intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.”
Ninety-Five Theses 1, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

The Whole Life of Believers

SoteriologyArgument · power 76 · 100% accurate

In the gameThesis 1, and it is a translation argument. The Vulgate said DO PENANCE; the Greek says REPENT. One word, and either repentance is a sacrament you complete or it is a life you live.

Strong against

×2The Indulgence Stallan argument · why?

One word in the Latin, and the whole trade is standing on it.

“For in him we live, and move, and have our being. As some of your own poets have said.”
Acts 17:28 (WEB) — Paul at the Areopagus, quoting the Athenians’ own poets back to them.

Affirm

Status

In the gamePick the part of the opponent’s case that is true and affirm it. That point can no longer be used against you, and the opponent’s Defend falls sharply. It deals no damage. Affirm something false and you have only agreed with an error.

“It is certain, that, when the money rattles in the chest, avarice and gain may be increased, but the suffrage of the Church depends on the will of God alone.”
Ninety-Five Theses 28, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.public domain

Avarice and Gain

EthicsArgument · power 80 · 100% accurate

In the gameGrants the mechanism and follows the money anyway. Whatever the rattle does for the dead, here is what it certainly does for the living.

Strong against

×2.5The Indulgence Stallan argument · why?

Grants him the theology and follows the money, which is the one direction he cannot argue in.

×0.5The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

The money argument. He would rather you spent the whole day on it.

“The true treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.”
Ninety-Five Theses 62, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.public domain

The True Treasure

SoteriologyArgument · power 90 · 100% accurate

In the gameThesis 62: the true treasure of the church is the gospel of God’s glory and grace. It cannot be sold, because it never belonged to anyone to sell.

Strong against

×4The Indulgence Stallan argument · why?

It does not argue about the mechanism at all. It points at a different treasury, and there is nothing in the chest to answer with.

×3The Casuistan argument · why?

The indulgence-seller and the casuist run the same stall. Point at the real treasury and there is nothing in the drawer to answer with.

×2.5The Canons of Trenta book · why?

The gospel is the treasure, and the whole apparatus of merit is a way of talking about a different one.

×0.5Before Lutheran argument · why?

He agrees about the stall. He thinks that is the small question and he is not wrong about that.

×0.5The Cardinal’s Demandan argument · why?

He is not selling anything. Aim at the decretal, not at the chest.

×0.5The Leipzig Casean argument · why?

Indulgences. He has not mentioned indulgences since the first afternoon and he is not going to.

“No one accepted the challenge, and no discussion took place. … The Theses were copied, translated, printed, and spread as on angels’ wings throughout Germany and Europe in a few weeks.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)public domain

As on Angels’ Wings

HistoryArgument · power 82 · 100% accurate

In the gameThe theses were posted for a debate that never happened. Then somebody translated them, somebody else printed them without asking, and in a fortnight the argument was in every town in Germany.

Read it: The Whole Life, Penitence

The passages the Scriptorium holds on screen, word for word from a public-domain translation. Written in Latin.

“Our Lord and Master Jesus Christ in saying: ‘Repent ye’ … intended that the whole life of believers should be penitence.”
Ninety-Five Theses 1, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)

“It is certain, that, when the money rattles in the chest, avarice and gain may be increased, but the suffrage of the Church depends on the will of God alone.”
Ninety-Five Theses 28, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.

“The true treasure of the Church is the holy gospel of the glory and the grace of God.”
Ninety-Five Theses 62, in Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain.

“No one accepted the challenge, and no discussion took place. … The Theses were copied, translated, printed, and spread as on angels’ wings throughout Germany and Europe in a few weeks.”
Schaff, History of the Christian Church VII §32 (1888), public domain. (trimmed quote)

Notes

Posted on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 — and mailed the same day to the Archbishop of Mainz, which is the half of the story nobody tells. The door was the university notice-board; posting on it was routine.

It is not a manifesto. It assumes purgatory, never names Tetzel, and thesis 1 is the whole argument — everything louder in the document hangs off that one sentence.

The hammer appears in the record more than a century later. What actually happened is thesis 62 and thesis 28 in German, in print, all over the country in two weeks, without the author’s leave.