---
title: 'Zenos on the Material Principle of the Reformation'
type: post
author: 'R. Andrew Myers'
date: 2025-10-28
url: https://confessional.org/blog/2025-zenos-on-the-material-principle-of-the-reformation
---

# Zenos on the Material Principle of the Reformation

“When the sale of indulgences by Johann Tetzel was undertaken in Saxony \[Martin Luther’s\] sense of duty was stirred to the quick, and on that memorable October 31, 1517, he nailed his Ninety-five Theses as a declaration and a challenge. The Theses were ninety-five, but the theme is one. Men cannot be made just before God by works of any kind, but by faith alone. This was called the material principle of the Reformation.” — [**Andrew C. Zenos**](/authors/andrew-constantinides-zenos), “The Reformers as Men of Thought and Action” in *The Protestant Reformation and Its Influence, 1517-1917: Addresses Delivered in Connection with the One Hundred and Twenty-Ninth General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America at Dallas, Texas, on May 19 and 20, 1917* (1917)