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 gained renown as a popular orator in preaching indulgences in Saxony, Silesia, and Franconia. In 1516 he was appointed subcommissioner for the preaching of indulgences for the Fabric of St. Peter’s in the archdiocese of Mainz and Brandenburg. T., not averse to rhetorical exaggerations and especially zealous in collecting money, proved inaccurate in his preaching concerning the doctrine on the application of indulgences to the dead. He held, indeed, that in order to obtain an indulgence on behalf of the dead, a monetary offering sufficed, without any repentance for one’s own sins on the part of the donor, and that this indulgence was infallibly applied to a particular soul. T. defended his doctrine against Luther’s by setting forth at Frankfurt 122 antitheses, excessive on certain points but generally sound, composed by Conrad Wimpina, and by clarifying his thought with a dissertation and a second series of 50 theses composed by himself. In the same year, 1518, he withdrew to the convent of Leipzig.