All progress was conditioned on breaking her claims, and probably nothing could have done it so thoroughly as this idea of justification by faith only.
The thought made Luther a reformer at once.

He started to purge his order of Pharisaism, and the university of the dross of Aristotle.
Soon he was called upon to protest against one of the most obtrusive of the "good works" recommended by the church, the purchase of indulgences.

Albert of Hohenzollern was elected, through political influence and at an early age, to the archiepiscopal sees of Magdeburg and Mayence, this last carrying with it an electorate and the primacy of Germany.

For confirmation from the pope in the uncanonical occupation of these offices, Albert paid a huge sum, the equivalent of several hundred thousand dollars today.

Mayence was already in debt and the young archbishop knew not where to turn for money.