Romanique Pontificis), expressing a wish that the Emperor, kings, and princes would make a bloody
end to Pope and cardinals and the whole rabble of the Romish Sodom. But this extreme and isolated
passage is set aside by his repeated declarations against carnal warfare, and was provoked by the
astounding assertions of Prierias, the master of the papal palace, that the Pope was the infallible
judge of all controversies, the head of all spiritual, the father of all secular princes, the head of the
Church and of the whole universe (caput totius orbis universi). Against such blasphemy Luther
breaks out in these words: "Mihi vero videtur, si sic pergat furor Romanistarum, nullum reliquum
esse remedium, quam ut imperator, reges et principes vi et armis accincti aggrediantur has pestes
orbis terrarum, remque non jam verbis, sed ferro decernant .... Si fures furca, si latrones gladio, si
haereticos igne plectimus, cur non magis hos magistros perditionis, hos cardinales, hos papas et
totam istam romanae Sodomae colluviem, quae ecclesiam Dei sine fine corrumpit, omnibus armis
impetimus, et manus nostras in sanguine eorum lavamus? tanquam a communi et omnium
periculosissimo incendio nos nostrosque liberaturi." Erl. ed., Opera Latina, II. 107. He means a
national resistance under the guidance of the Emperor and rightful rulers.
§ 45. The Babylonian Captivity of the Church. October, 1520.
De Captivitate Babylonica Ecclesiae Praeludium D. Martini Lutheri. Wittenb. 1520. Erl. ed. Opera
Lat., vol. V. 13–118; German translation (Von der Babylonischen Gefängniss, etc.) by an
unknown author, 1520, reprinted in Walch, XIX. 5–153, and in 0. v. Gerlach, IV. 65–199; the
Lat. original again in the Weimar ed., vol. V. An English translation by Buchheim in First
Principles of the Reformation (London, 1883), pp. 141–245.
In closing the "Address to the Nobility," Luther announces: "I have another song still to sing
concerning Rome. If they wish to hear it, I will sing it to them, and sing with all my might. Do you
understand, my friend Rome, what I mean?"
This new song, or second war-trumpet, was the book on the, "Babylonian Captivity of the
Church," published in the beginning of October, 1520.^241 He calls it a "prelude," as if the real battle
were yet to come. He intended it for scholars and the clergy, and therefore wrote in Latin. It is a
polemical, theological work of far-reaching consequences, cutting one of the roots of Romanism,
and looking towards a new type of Christian life and worship. He attacks the sacramental system
of the Roman Church, by which she accompanies and controls the life of the Christian from the
cradle to the grave, and brings every important act and event under the power of the priest. This
system he represents as a captivity, and Rome as the modern Babylon. Yet he was very far from
undervaluing the importance and benefit of the sacrament; and as far as the doctrine of baptism
and the eucharist is concerned, he agreed better with the Catholic than with the Zwinglian view.
Luther begins by thanking his Romish opponents for promoting his theological education.
"Two years ago," he says, "I wrote about indulgences when I was still involved in superstitious
respect for the tyranny of Rome; but now I have learned, by the kind aid of Prierias and the friars,
that indulgences are nothing but wicked devices of the flatterers of Rome. Afterwards Eck and
Emser instructed me concerning the primacy of the Pope. While I denied the divine right, I still
admitted the human right; but after reading the super-subtle subtilties of those coxcombs in defense
(^241) On Oct. 3, 1520, Luther wrote to Spalatin: "Liber de captivitate Ecclesiae sabbato exibit, et ad te mittetur." (De Wette, I 491.)