TETZEL, JOHANN. - Dominican preacher, b. at Pirna in 1465, d. at Leipzig on 11 Aug. 1519.
Having become a Dominican after completing his theological studies, he became well known as a popular orator in preaching indulgences in Saxony, Silesia, and Franconia. In 1516 he was appointed sub-commissioner for the preaching of indulgences of the Fabric of St Peter in the archdioceses of Mainz and Brandenburg. T., not averse to rhetorical exaggerations and especially eager to collect money, proved inexact in his preaching regarding the doctrine on the application of indulgences to the dead. He maintained, in fact, that to obtain an indulgence for the dead it was sufficient to make an offering of money, without any repentance on the part of the offerer for his own sins, and that this indulgence would infallibly be applied to a specific soul. T. defended his doctrine by opposing to Luther’s views in Frankfurt 122 antitheses, which were in some points excessive but generally sound, composed by Conrad Wimpina, and clarifying his own thought with a dissertation and a second series of 50 theses composed by himself. In the same year, 1518, he retired to the convent at Leipzig.