Martin Luther, Von der babylonischen Gefangenschaft der Kirche, Augsburg 1520 (Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Res/4 Th.u. 103,VIII,21)

“De captivitate babylonica ecclesiae” (“On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church”) is one of Luther’s main theological works. The title alludes to events of the sixth century BC when Babylonian conquerors deported parts of the Judean population into exile in Babylonia. Together with “Von der Freiheit eines Christenmenschen” and the “Adelsschrift” this work is considered one of the three most important reformatory pamphlets. All three of them were published in the second half of the year 1520.

In “De captivitate babylonica”, Luther denied for the first time the existence of the Seven Sacraments of which he only accepts Penance, Baptism and Holy Communion. He refused confirmation, marriage, ordination and the last rites. According to Luther, sacraments are nothing but divinely ordained signs. At the end of the text, he even reduces the valid sacraments to Baptism and Holy Communion.

Luther’s line of reasoning expresses his fundamental criticism of the official Catholic Church. Thereby, he attacks the responsibilities of the priests and the authority of the pope as their head in their very core.

The pamphlet was a great success and was published in several editions that followed one another in short intervals. In the erroneous assumption he would do Luther a public disfavour, one of his enemies, Thomas Murner (1475–1537) brought out a German translation in 1520. Humanist circles as well as clergymen who had so far sympathised with Luther at least in part deserted him. His theses had become too radical for them.

Shown here is an exemplar in German printed in 1520 in Augsburg at the workshop of Jörg Nadler (d. c.1525).

To the digitised copy