of Saxony, denied him permission to sell indulgences. People who still purchased them from outside Saxony came to Martin Luther, a professor at the University of Wittenberg for their attestation. However Luther refused compelling Tetzel to denounce him as a heretic.
             Martin Luther (1483-1546), a German came from a poor mining family. Showing a lot of promise he had been sent to the University of Erfert. He then joined the monastic order of St. Augustine and started teaching at the University of Wittenberg till 1546. He continued studying there as well for a doctorate in Theology. In 1510, Luther had visited Rome and personally witnessed the corruption of the papal court, which convinced him of the need of reforms. Tetzel's actions induced him to post his famous Ninety-five Theses on the door of the Castle Church, Wittenberg, on October 31, 1517, the eve of All Saint's Day.
             Luther deplored the entanglement of God's free gift of grace in a complex system of indulgences. He attacked it, insisting the pope had no authority over purgatory. Thus began a long war between the pope's followers and Luther. Intending to stop all this, the pope summoned Luther to Rome. Luther refused and appealed for protection from the German government as a citizen. He then wrote to Duke George stating that, "A common reformation should be undertaken of the spiritual and temporal states." The word 'reformation' was used for the first time.
             Johann Eck, the Vice Chancellor of the University of Ingolstadt had written a pamphlet against Luther's theses and offered a public debate. Luther was recklessly candid there by challenging the pope's authority, almost getting himself declared a heretic. The pope however still wished for reconciliation, but Luther's followers became too aggressive making their own and the pope's position quite difficult. They went as far as to say, "The pope is a bandit ...