Johann Tetzel

Timeline

1. 1482–1516Leipzig · SaxonyTetzel entered Leipzig University around 1482, received his bachelor's in 1487, then joined the Dominicans, at one point serving as prior of the Glogów monastery in Poland and being appointed inquisitor for the Polish and Saxon provinces. From 1503 he preached Jubilee indulgences for the Teutonic Knights in Livonia and elsewhere, becoming a famous itinerant preacher within the Empire.
2. 1516–1517Jüterbog · BrandenburgArchbishop Albrecht of Mainz, to repay Fugger loans and share the costs of rebuilding St. Peter's, obtained Pope Leo X's approval to sell a plenary indulgence. Tetzel was appointed commissioner to preach it outside the Saxon elector's territory. News that Wittenberg residents were going to Jüterbog to buy indulgences reached Luther and became the direct catalyst for the Ninety-Five Theses.
3. 1517–1519Leipzig · SaxonyAfter Luther's theses were published, Tetzel issued a rebuttal (Vorlegung) in April 1518 and published fifty more theses that May, shifting the debate from indulgences to church authority. As public support quickly evaporated he withdrew to the Leipzig convent; in January 1519 he was sharply rebuked by the papal envoy Miltitz, though Luther wrote to declare the controversy was not aimed at him personally. Tetzel died on August 11, 1519, and was buried before the altar of the Dominican church.