Editing Johann Tetzel (section)

==Doctrinal positions==
[[File:Jüterbog Nikolaikirche Tetzelkasten.JPG|thumb|upright=1.3|Tetzel's coffer, on display at the [[St. Nikolai church (Jüterbog)|St. Nikolai church]] in [[Jüterbog]]]]

Tetzel overstated Catholic doctrine in regard to indulgences for the dead. He became known for a couplet attributed to him: <!-- UNSOURCED: "As soon as a coin in the coffer rings / the soul from purgatory springs." -->
<blockquote><poem>
As soon as the gold in the casket rings
The rescued soul to heaven springs{{sfn|Ganss|1912|p=540}}
</poem></blockquote>

This oft-quoted saying was by no means representative of the official Catholic teaching on indulgences, but rather, more a reflection of Tetzel's capacity to exaggerate. Yet if Tetzel overstated the matter in regard to indulgences for the dead, his teaching on indulgences for the living was pure Catholic teaching. The German Catholic historian [[Ludwig von Pastor]] explains:
<blockquote>
Above all, a most clear distinction must be made between indulgences for the living and those for the dead.<br>
As regards indulgences for the living, Tetzel always taught pure (Catholic) doctrine. The assertion that he put forward indulgences as being not only a remission of the temporal punishment of sin but as a remission of its guilt, is as unfounded as is that other accusation against him, that he sold the forgiveness of sin for money, without even any mention of contrition and confession, or that, for payment, he absolved from sins which might be committed in the future. His teaching was, in fact, very definite, and quite in harmony with the theology of the (Catholic) Church, as it was then and as it is now, i.e., that indulgences "apply only to the temporal punishment due to sins which have been already repented of and confessed"...

The case was very different from indulgences for the dead. As regards these there is no doubt that Tetzel did, according to what he considered his authoritative instructions, proclaim as Christian doctrine that nothing but an offering of money was required to gain the indulgence for the dead, without there being any question of contrition or confession. He also taught, in accordance with the opinion then held, that an indulgence could be applied to any given soul with unfailing effect. Starting from this assumption, there is no doubt that his doctrine was virtually that of the well known drastic proverb.

The Papal Bull of indulgence gave no sanction whatever to this proposition. It was a vague scholastic opinion, rejected by the [[University of Paris|Sorbonne]] in 1482, and again in 1518, and certainly not a doctrine of the Church, which was thus improperly put forward as dogmatic truth. The first among the theologians of the Roman court, [[Thomas Cajetan|Cardinal Cajetan]], was the enemy of all such extravagances and declared emphatically that, even if theologians and preachers taught such opinions, no faith need be given them. "Preachers", he said, "speak in the name of the Church only so long as they proclaim the doctrine of Christ and His Church; but if, for purposes of their own, they teach that about which they know nothing, and which is only their own imagination, they must not be accepted as mouthpieces of the Church. No one must be surprised if such as these fall into error."{{sfn|Pastor|1908|pp=347–350}}
</blockquote>
[[File: Portrait of Johann Tetzel Taking an Oath.jpg|thumb|Johann Tetzel Taking an Oath (1717)]]