
On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church
'On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church' Summary
The book was circulating in print not quite a week when the papal bull against Luther arrived in Wittenberg in October 1520.The bull and the book were being prepared simultaneously.
Luther accuses the Roman church and the papacy of keeping the church in captivity, equating Rome with the biblical Babylon that exiled the Israelites from their homeland, holding them captive in Babylon. According to Luther, the pope was holding the church in captivity through the use of the sacramental system and Rome's theology.
In 1521 Martin Luther was requested to either confess or recant his books, including his treatise The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. The book was a critique of the medieval Roman church's system of sacraments. The treatise is a summary of Luther's thinking on the sacraments and it is still the confessional Lutheran relationship to the number of sacraments.
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
German, LatinPublished In
1520Authors

Martin Luther
Holy Roman Empire
Martin Luther was a German professor of theology, priest, author, composer, Augustinian monk, and a seminal figure in the Reformation. Luther was ordained to the priesthood in 1507. He came to reject...
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