also a scholar, holding a Doctor of Theology degree from the University of Wittenberg. After a life of contemplation of his relationship with his God, Luther finally reached a point in which his trust in the teachings of the Roman Catholic Church did not match his perceptions of this relationship. While in his writings Luther noted many concerns, the central focus of his preemptive challenge to the Church dealt with the sale of indulgences, particularly by a Dominican priest by the name of Johann Tetzel. In 1517, Tetzel, under authority granted by Rome, was charged with raising money through the sale of indulgences for the continued construction of St. Peter’s Basilica. An indulgence was a credential that, for the bearer diminished the prospect of temporal punishment for sins, for some arbitrary period of time, while not completely removing all consequences of such sins in the afterlife. Tetzel’s marketing approach might not have been quite so nuanced, leading the buyer to perhaps expect full remission of sins. Luther’s precipitous act was to nail a list of 95 Theses, that is, questions and assertions regarding both claims and nuance, on the door of Wittenberg Cathedral on All Saints Day in the year 1517. The document comprised a point-by-point appraisal of the concepts of sin and its consequences resulting in a wholesale condemnation of the policy defined and implemented by the Church through its collective interpretation of the Christian Bible.

Consider the 8^th of his 95 Theses; roughly translated it tells us “The penitential canons apply only to men who are still alive, and, according to the canons themselves, none applies to the dead.” This is a rather radical re-definition of the boundaries of the theological infrastructure of the Roman Catholic Church of the XVI^th Century. It asserts that the directions of the Church, as applied to the actions of man, extend only to the boundary between life and death, not beyond. Beyond death was strictly the purview of God, not worldly constructs such as the Church. For the Church of that era, this was not merely intellectual dogma; this was the economic livelihood of the papal organization itself. Being specifically aimed at the sale of indulgences, those “get out of purgatory free” cards so popular with the ecclesiastical community of the time, Luther’s challenge, if not thwarted, would result in the loss of significant financial prowess, and hence power, of the Church within this worldly domain. Adding emphasis to the point, the Church of Rome truly needed any financial assistance it could get. Pope Leo X, from the House of Medici in Florence, was something of a suspect steward of the Church’s treasury. Within two years of his ascendance to the Throne of St. Peter in 1513, his profligate spending had almost totally depleted the ample treasury of the Church that had been accumulated under the tutelage of his predecessor, Pope Julius II. Consequently, indulgences, or at least their sale, were among the few equity resources remaining. Hence Luther’s machinations were of the highest importance to the Church.

The 20^th of the 95 Theses is equally profound, “Therefore, the Pope, in speaking of the plenary remission of all penalties, does not mean ‘all’ in the strict sense, but only those imposed by him.” Not only are the boundaries of the policy infrastructure revised, but also the administrative authority of the primary policy arbiter of the infrastructure is restricted. In fact, as prefaced in the 6^th Thesis, “The Pope himself cannot remit guilt, but only declare and confirm that it has been remitted by God…” As we will see in more detail later in this book, the success of this challenge constitutes a change in the policies of the Roman Catholic Church as well as in the very boundaries of influence and control of the Church itself. This is policy definition or redefinition of the first order. Such an analysis and proposal would today certainly be a worthy subject of the Harvard Business Review. Given the limitations on printed material, the cathedral doors of the Castle Church of Wittenberg on All Saints Day was a more appropriate method of that era. In any case, it certainly made for good marketing of his ideas.

Because of his policy machinations, Luther put himself into direct conflict with Pope Leo X, earning the considerable enmity of the papal establishment in the process. Of course, as sometimes

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