I Don't Think Johann Tetzel was a Heretic

[CollegeKid]

I vaguely remember a discussion I had with my parish priest awhile back about Martin Luther and the indulgence preacher abuses of the mid-1500s. I think he said that what Tetzel was preaching about donating money to the Church and receiving an indulgence was definitely an abuse but not technically heresy. I think his reasoning was that while you can’t simply “buy an indulgence” if you’re not truly sorry for your sins, you can, if you’ve been to confession and actually repented, make a donation to the Church as an act of almsgiving, if you’re doing it with a pure heart because you care about the material welfare of the Church and receive an indulgence for this. To me it sounds like there is a clear distinction between simony and getting an indulgence though almsgiving done out of a good conscience. I’d like to get your guys’ thoughts. Thanks.

 

[Reformed_Rob]

Are there many Catholics who say Tetzel was a heretic?

Just asking, I don’t know and maybe some others don’t know.

 

[CollegeKid]

That’s what I’m confused about- the indulgence abuses are usually treated in a way that to me sounds like the Dominicans were committing heresy but I think they were abuses that were just short of actually being heretical.

 

[Kotton]

No, the Dominicans were not committting heresy. The indulgence was for almsgiving, although some may have not understood the true meaning. Sometime ago I remember reading that Tetzel may not have said the things that he is often credited with, perhaps someone misquoted him. It’s not a matter that I’ve ever researched and I’m not that great on the history. However the mistaken ideas that came from this are why the Church discontinued indulgences for almsgiving, so as to not give the impression of selling.

Kotton

 

[CollegeKid]

yeah, that’s pretty much what I read on on wikipedia-that the Pope discontinued almsgiving for indulgences at the Council of Trent.

 

[Reformed_Rob]

Did Tetzel really melt the skin off his own hand with a candle when he was preaching for the almsgiving? You know, the new Luther movie that came out a couple years ago, that’s what it had him doing. If you’ve seen the movie, then you know what I’m talking about.

He preached something like - “Purgatory is awful, it’s like a fire and you need to give alms for indulgences to get your loved ones out of Purgatory.” And while he was saying that, he put his own hand over a candle and the skin just melted right off. It was pretty powerful, it would have made me want to give alms I’ll tell you that much.

 

[PattiC]

CollegeKid,

IMO, a great deal of what I have read on WIKIpedia has a terribly anti-Christian and most definitely anti-Catholic slant.

I am amazed at how much information is colored these days by those who write it and turn it into mis-information. It is much like how history has been rewritten and how language has been perverted so that certain ideas may be more easily “accepted” by non-discerning minds.

I would look to use many more sources than wikipedia to get a very well rounded perspective on anything.
just my opinion.

Patti

 

[yinekka]

Some time ago I attempted to do some research on Tetzel e.g. did he really do and say the things people said of him but I came up with nothing objective. I guess the truth is out there somewhere, probably in some old, dusty Canonical trial document * in the Vatican archives.

Remember that Wikipedia is not a peer reviewed site, anyone can put anything on it. I read some time ago on Catholic Exchange about a terrible charge against the Church which, investigation discovered, originated in an unsourced Wikipedia article. It took the woman who became interested in the truth almost a year to sort out the tangled web and if you enter the appropriate words on Google the now discredited lie comes up all over the place.*

 

[CollegeKid]

CollegeKid,

IMO, a great deal of what I have read on WIKIpedia has a terribly anti-Christian and most definitely anti-Catholic slant.

I am amazed at how much information is colored these days by those who write it and turn it into mis-information. It is much like how history has been rewritten and how language has been perverted so that certain ideas may be more easily “accepted” by non-discerning minds.

I would look to use many more sources than wikipedia to get a very well rounded perspective on anything.
just my opinion.

Patti

Yes, I know wikipedia can have terrible bias in some of its articles, but from what I could tell this one was alright. Just so you know, I wasn’t trying to skewer the Church for the indulgence abuses, or anything like that.

 

[PattiC]

Not to worry, CollegeKid…

I just have this problem with the voluminous amount of misniformation out there today, masquerading as truth and I have a daughter just a bit older than you who swallows a good bit of it, so I guess I have a bias myself. Don’t want to see anyone taken in by secular nonsense that is so pervasive and yes, extremely persuasive too, in many respects, to those who don’t examine all 12 sides of a cube.

In Jesus through Mary,
patti