On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses to the door of the Wittenburg Church, igniting the Protestant Reformation. Luther was not trying to start a political or a spiritual revolution but attempting to begin a conversation about the theological problem of indulgences.
The sale of indulgences in the Roman Catholic Church originated, not as a spiritual matter, but as a civil one. In the Middle Ages, the church was the state, so it not only enforced theological, but civil, standards. Indulgences, then, were first instituted for criminals to pay for offenses against the state, increasing revenue and decreasing expenses. Initially, the church did not promise any spiritual benefit from these purchases.
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