Many theological concerns motivated Luther to write his 95 Theses, with one of the sparks being the sale of indulgences. Luther was not the first to complain about indulgences, which the Church claimed, when bought, would shorten your own or your dead relatives’ suffering in purgatory. By paying for an indulgence (although in theory, it was by committing to doing certain good works or acts of contrition), you could partake of the treasury of merits (the merits of Christ and the saints) that the Church possessed, using this merit to shorten the time spent suffering in purgatory before you could stand before God as holy. The mid-1510s saw new indulgences being instituted in order to pay Church expenses, including the reconstruction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. The friar Johann Tetzel began selling indulgences in Germany in 1517 as part of this fundraising effort, pushing the unhappy Luther to compose his 95 Theses partly in reply to this practice, which he saw as corrupt and depriving the lay people of their money. On October 31st, 1517, Luther sent his theses to the Archbishop Albrecht and a few private individuals in order to start an academic debate about the theological issues contained within them. Several of his friends published and circulated these, apparently without his permission.