Letter to Archbishop Analysis

Analysis of Martin Luther’s Letter to the Archbishop of Mainz, 1517

In 1517, Martin Luther wrote a letter to the Archbishop of Mainz in protest against the Church’s policy of selling indulgences to the public.   This analysis of that letter will attempt to examine Luther’s thoughts on the following:

The church’s policy of selling indulgences to the public.
The public’s interpretation of what those indulgences signified.
The church’s stance on matters of religious teaching.and doctrine.
Who bore the ultimate responsibility for the public’s interpretation of indulgences
The possibilty of someone arising who may voice grievance against these practices. 1

The letter begins with Luther,   putting himself amongst “the dregs of society” and apologising for sending a letter to one at the “height” of their “sublimity”.   Luther’s letter heaped flattery on the archbishop’s’ head and humility on his own – customary conventions of late medieval letters. Marius, Richard.   The Christian Between God and Death, (Harvard University Press 1999) 139   2

Luther had been considering sending this letter for some time but feels compelled now to do so.
He feels it is his duty to write this letter   He begs the archbishop to “deign to cast an eye upon one speck of dust”, here highlighting the hierarchial (SP) structure of the church and Luther’s lowliness in station to that of the archbishop’s.

Luther’s first item of contention is (WAS) that funds, from the sale of indulgences, are (WERE) being collected under the false premise that the purchaser will be absolved of all sin.
Luther does not accuse the ones selling the indulgences, yet does not state their innocence, only that he has not heard their words himself.   He is very concerned “over the wholly false impressions which the people have conceived” from these same words.   It seems that the people were of the belief that by purchasing these indulgences they would be absolved of sin.

Luther, in his “95 Theses”, states...