Ninety-five Theses

The Ninety-five Theses are a list of propositions for academic debate written by Martin Luther in 1517, challenging the sale of indulgences and the power of the papacy to remit punishment for sin. Luther sent them to Archbishop Albert of Mainz on 31 October 1517; the story that he nailed them to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg comes from later accounts. Printed and spread rapidly across Germany, they began the controversy that grew into the Protestant Reformation.