Mid-May 1519.
Translated from Latin.
Against new and old errors, Martin Luther will defend these following theses at the University of Leipzig.
Every man sins daily, but he also repents daily, as Christ teaches, "Repent," except for a certain new righteous man who does not need repentance, as the heavenly vine dresser also cleanses the fruit-bearing branches daily.
2. to deny that man also sins in good, and that a venial sin is such, not by its nature, but only by God's mercy, or that sin remains in a child even after baptism, is to trample Paul and Christ underfoot at the same time.
(3) Whoever says that a good work or repentance is a sign of the abhorrence of sins before the love of righteousness, and that there is no sin in it, we count him among the Pelagian heretics, but we prove that he is also nonsensical against his holy Aristotle.
God changes the eternal punishment into a temporal one, namely, that the cross must be carried, which neither canons nor priests have any power to interpret or take away, although they may presume to do so, seduced by harmful flatterers.
5 Every priest must absolve a penitent of punishment and guilt, or he sins; likewise, a high dignitary (prelatus) sins when he withholds secret things without the most just cause,
how much this is also opposed by the custom of the church, that is, the flatterer.
Perhaps the souls in purgatory do enough for the sins; but that God requires from a dying person more than a willing death is asserted with the most trivial presumption, because it cannot be proven in any way.
7. who shows that he knows not what faith is, nor what repentance is, nor what free will is, who chattereth that free will is the master of his actions, whether good or evil, or who dreameth that a man be not justified by faith alone in the word, or that faith be not taken away by any gross sin (crimine). 1)
It is, of course, contrary to truth and reason that those who die unwillingly are deficient in love and therefore suffer the horror of purgatory, if truth and reason are the same as the opinion of bad theologians (theologistarum).
We know that bad theologians claim that the souls in purgatory are certain of their blessedness and that grace is not increased in them, but we are surprised at the highly learned people that they cannot give any reason for this belief that would be probable even to a simple-minded person.
10. that the merit of Christ is the treasure
1) This 7th thesis is missing in the first publication of the theses at the beginning of February. (Weim. Ausg.)
*The original print of this manuscript is externally very similar to that of Eck's Thirteen Theses (No. 32): one sheet in folio, printed on one side only, and comes from the office of Johann Grünenberg in Wittenberg. Then there are two quarto editions, each of 4 leaves, one printed by Johann Grünenberg in Wittenberg, the other by Martin Landsberg in Leipzig. The title is: Disputatio st sxeusatio I?. Martini lurtUsr ackversus srilninationss D. lottannis Lekii. This writing is found in the Latin Wittenberg edition (1545) Dorn. I, toi. 240; in the Jena one Dorn. I, 239, in both without the passages where Carlstadt is mentioned; in the Erlangen edition, opp. var. arZ., vol. Ill, p. 12; in the Weimar edition, vol. II, 158; in Löscher, in his Reformation Acta, vol. Ill, 563 the preface, p. 212 the theses. The thirteen theses alone are found in two old printings described in the Weimar edition, Vol. II, 157; in Luther's Wittenberg Theses collections of 1538 (with incorrect year) and 1558, and in German in the Leipziger Gesammtausgabe, Vol. XVII, p. 243. Our translation is according to the Weimar edition.
720 V- a. Ill, 17; 296 f. 34. Luther's thirteen theses against Eck. W. XVIII, 86S; 930f. 721
The fact that it is a treasure of indulgences is certain, but no one pretends that it is a treasure of indulgences except a shameful flatterer, the extravagant who depart from the truth, and some fictitious acts or customs of the Church.
11) To say that indulgences are a good thing for a Christian is nonsensical, because they are really the affliction of a good work, and a Christian must reject indulgences for the sake of abuse, because the Lord says: For my sake I cancel your transgression [Isa. 43:25], not for the sake of money.
(12) That the pope may impose all the punishments that are due
1) In the explanations of these theses, "us" has been added by Luther. - The doctrine of the merit of the saints is, of course, still papist.
The fact that indulgences can be granted to those who have not committed gross sins is certainly dreamed by unlearned sophists and corrupt flatterers, but they cannot demonstrate it in the least.
That the Roman Church is higher than all others is proved by the very cold decrees of the Roman popes that have arisen in the last 400 years; against these, however, are the proven histories of 1100 years, the text of divine Scripture, and the decision of the Council of Nicaea, which is of all the holiest.
Anno 1519.
2) What Luther intended to mean by this expression, he explains in his letter to Spalatin in May 1519. Walch, old edition, Vol. XV. 988 § 9.