linguistic:voice_change, quality:corruption, linguistic:paraphrasing, structural:summarization
Religious views and Reformation

Jakob was a lifelong Roman Catholic. In 1513 he granted the Archbishop of Magdeburg and bishop of Halberstadt, Albert of Brandenburg, a loan of 20,000 guilders to persuade the Roman Curia to approve his additional election as Archbishop of Mainz, for this choice violated the canonical prohibition to hold more than one bishopric. Albert also did not meet the requirements for taking over a diocese, since the 24-year-old had not yet reached the appropriate age and did not have a university degree and therefore needed a study leave for which the curia charged a high " processing fee ". In 1514 Albert suggested to Pope Leo X that a special indulgence be announced in his three dioceses as well as in his native diocese of Brandenburg and that half of the income should be used for the construction of the new St. Peter's Basilica and half for his repayments to Jakob Fugger. An according papal bull was issued on March 31, 1515. The indulgence was entrusted to Albert in 1517 for publication in Saxony and Brandenburg. It cost him an additional sum of ten thousand ducats, and Albert employed Johann Tetzel for the actual preaching of the indulgence. Later, Martin Luther, then professor of theology in Wittenberg, addressed a letter of protest to Albert concerning the conduct of Tetzel. Largely in reaction to Tetzel's actions, Luther wrote his famous Ninety-five Theses, which led to the Reformation. After the Diet of Augsburg in 1518, Luther had to answer for his theses in the Fugger House before Cardinal Thomas Cajetan, who had been commissioned by the Pope. When Luther refused to retract his theses, he had to flee the city at night.

The citizens of Augsburg now demanded the unhindered spread of the Evangelical faith, which brought Jakob Fugger, who preferred to remain Catholic and thus remain loyal to the Emperor, especially since he operated his mines in Habsburg lands and had very high outstanding debts with the Emperor, into contrast to the majority of his fellow citizens. The Fugger family largely financed the House of Habsburg, who would play a prominent role in the Counter-Reformation. Fugger insisted that only Catholic inhabitants should "find care and cure" in his Fuggerei. As the Reformation progressed, the complex found itself located in an increasingly Protestant city of Augsburg.

Only a few years after Jakob Fugger's death the Augsburg Confession by Philip Melanchthon was formulated at the Diet of Augsburg in 1530. The Confessio Augustana represents the confessional and founding document of the Lutheran Church. The descendants of Jakob Fugger have remained Catholic to this day.