Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection

The Richard C. Kessler Reformation Collection was established in 1987, when Richard and Martha Kessler donated their private collection of Reformation imprints and manuscripts to Emory University. These materials were combined with Reformation holdings at the Pitts Theology Library, and an effort was launched to enlarge and sustain this collection in the years to come. An advisory committee of Lutheran laypersons and clergy and of Candler School of Theology faculty and administrators oversees the nurture of the collection and its programs. The Reformation Notes newsletter provides semiannual updates on the growth of the collection, and the Reformation Day at Emory program of music and lectures each October celebrates the collection and its contributions to music, history, and theology. In the sixteenth century the social and theological movements of central Europe, known collectively as the Reformation, critically shaped religion, law, education and other institutions in the West, and their long shadow has extended even to the present. The purpose of the Kessler Collection is to document these changes by collecting print and manuscript materials down to 1570 by Martin Luther (1483-1546) and those whom he influenced or engaged in debate. In this way historians and theologians will be able to hear the full range of voices that were raised in this dynamic period. The holdings of the collection now exceed 4,000 items, a mark approximated by only two other libraries in North America; no American library approaches the Kessler Collection's 1,000+ publications by Luther himself.

Indulgencia Plenaria

A Papal plenary indulgence, issued in the name of Pope Leo X to raise fund for work on the construction of a church and Carmelite convent (Santa Maria) on the island of Gorgona off the Tuscan coast. It was the sale of indulgences that had prompted Martin Luther to post his 95 Theses, which is generally seen as the beginning of the Protestant Reformation. Giacomo Mazzocchi, the printer of this indulgence used the same types in 1520 for the printing of Pope Leo's bull "Exsurge Domine," which called on Luther to retract 41 of his 95 theses or face excommunication.