The 95 Theses
Disputation to Explain the Virtue of Indulgences (31 October 1517)
Martin Luther, friar of the Augustinian Eremites and doctor of theology
A sheet of Latin propositions, numbered, addressed to scholars, and inviting anybody at all to come and prove them wrong.
- Catch rate
- Not found in the wild
- Base research
- 196
- Stat total
- 282
Base stats
Every stat is a checkable fact about the actual book, not a designer's mood. Bars are drawn against the highest value any book reaches.
Why these numbers
The game's own explanation, as a reader sees it in the backpack.
Ninety-five numbered sentences on one sheet. There is not much of it to wear down — and there never has been a year since when nobody was reading it.
It is not a manifesto. It condemns people who speak against indulgences, assumes purgatory, and never once mentions Tetzel by name. Written to open a debate, so it contends politely.
The text is certain to the word, in Latin and in every printing since. What is disputed is what it meant, never what it says.
The fastest book in this dream. Posted for a disputation nobody attended, translated without permission, printed without permission, and across Europe in a fortnight.
Cited for this book
Posted on the door of the castle church at Wittenberg on 31 October 1517 — and mailed the same day to Archbishop Albrecht of Mainz, which is the half of the story nobody tells. The door was the university’s notice-board and posting on it was routine. The hammer appears in the record more than a century later. Nobody came to the disputation. Somebody else translated them into German and printed them without asking, and that is what set Europe alight.
Development
A book develops as it is read — the fragment becomes the work, the work becomes the corpus.
Moves learned
By levelling up. A book that develops keeps what it knew and learns the rest on its new schedule.
| Lv | Move | Type | Cat. | Pwr | Acc | PP |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | The Whole Life of Believers | Soteriology | Argument | 76 | 100% | 15 |
| 1 | Random Verse | Bible | Argument | 10 | 100% | 30 |
| 44 | Chapter… | Bible | Scripture | — | — | 12 |
| 46 | Avarice and Gain | Ethics | Argument | 80 | 100% | 15 |
| 48 | The True Treasure | Soteriology | Argument | 90 | 100% | 10 |
| 50 | As on Angels’ Wings | History | Argument | 82 | 100% | 15 |