Summary of Martin Luther's "A Prelude Concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church"

In what was arguably the most important writing of his prolific career, Martin Luther laid the foundation for Protestant worship and thought in his 1520 treatise "A Prelude Concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church." In this treatise, the second of three major writings that came from his pen in the second half of 1520, Luther takes direct aim at Pope Leo X, referring to Leo as the leader of the kingdom of the Antichrist. (Smith, 3-31) Luther raised three major points in the treatise, specifically: his call for a reduction in the number of sacraments, his demand that both the cup and the bread be provided to the laity during the mass, and his dismissal of the idea of transubstantiation.

The Babylonian Captivity, also referred to as The Pagan Servitude of the Church," was published by Luther in October 1520. On June 15, 1520, Leo had issued a papal bull that condemned 41 points from Luther's various teachings. The bull further gave Luther 60 days to recant his alleged heresies or face possible excommunication. While it is unclear if Luther had seen the actual bull at the time of his writing Babylonian Captivity, he was clearly aware of it and mentions it in the closing of his treatise. The statements made by Luther in the Babylonian Captivity - as well as Luther's refusal to recant any previously stated positions, such as those opposing the sale of indulgences -- likely were at the very forefront of Leo's mind when he officially excommunicated Luther on Jan. 3, 1521. In 1520, Luther was living in Wittenberg, under the specific protection of Frederick III, the elector of Saxony. In an August 1520 treatise - also after the issuing of Leo's bull - Luther wrote his "Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation," in which he urged the German princes, such as Frederick, to take the reform of the church into their own hands (Dillenberger, P. 403). Luther's later 1520 work, "On the Freedom of a Christian Man," outlined Luther's position on justification and good works. (Dillenberger, P. 42)

After opening Babylonian Captivity by reiterating his previously stated objections to church practices in regard to the sale of indulgences, Luther stakes out a new major difference he has with Rome's teachings in relation to the sacraments. He states that "I must deny that there are seven sacraments, and hold for the present to but three - baptism, penance and the bread." (Smith, 1-18). Luther runs through each of the seven sacraments recognized by the Roman church - communion, baptism, penance, confirmation, marriage, ordination and extreme unction - and illustrates why the first three are indeed sacraments and why the final four, though permissible as rituals of the church, are most certainly not sacraments.

Luther argues that sacraments must contain both the Word - that is a Scripture that points to Christ - and the sign. He states "that in every promise of God two things are presented to us - the word and the sign - so that we are to understand the word to be the testament, but the sign to be the sacrament." (Smith 2-58). Unless both of these things are present, there can be no sacrament. Further, he points out that the sacraments must come from the authority of Christ himself. Baptism, communion and penance are all actions that Christ himself both participated in and encouraged among his followers. Luther's argument on this is most clear in regard to the sacrament of extreme unction. He points out that the anointing of the sick, while a worthy practice of the church, comes to us not from Christ, but from the author of the epistle of James, which Luther notes was most likely not the apostle James.

"But even if the Apostle James did write it," Luther writes, "I yet should say, no Apostle has the right on his own authority to institute a sacrament, that is, to give a divine promise with a sign attached; for this belongs to Christ alone." (Smith 8-2)

Luther states clearly that communion, though described first by Paul in 1 Corinthians, is clearly a gift which Paul says he received from Jesus, with the Lord himself instructing his followers to "do this." Baptism and penance are also instructions received from Jesus himself. Luther does acknowledge at the end of "Babylonian Captivity" that perhaps there are truly only two sacraments, baptism and communion, as penance has no sign, such as the water of baptism and the bread and cup of communion. While in later writings he would indeed reduce the number of sacraments to just two, in the Babylonian Captivity he retains penance as a sacrament. In his commentary on penance, Luther does not directly offer a remedy for the lack of a sign in penance, though he does stress that through penance the believer is called upon to remember his baptism. By inference, Luther appears to be accepting of the remembrance of the sign of baptism, the water, to also serve as the sign for penance.

The longest portion of Babylonian Captivity is Luther's commentary on communion. It is interesting to note that the English translations of the Babylonian Captivity used in preparing this report - Luther originally wrote the treatise in Latin, which his opponents then quickly translated into German - appears to freely interchange the terms Sacrament of the Altar, Sacrament of Bread, Eucharist, Communion and Lord's Supper. Each of these terms conveys a slightly different meaning and it would be beneficial to gain additional insight from Luther's original selection of words. Unfortunately, it is beyond the scope of this paper to examine the original Latin to glean meaning from what terminology Luther used when describing communion.

It is in Luther's commentary on communion that the other two key points of the treatise reside. The first is that Luther demanded that both the bread and the cup be freely distributed to the congregants during the mass. At the time of his writing, the cup was reserved exclusively for the priest who was presiding over the mass. As he does throughout Babylonian Captivity, Luther picks apart the arguments used by church leaders against his positions. In the case of the question of sharing the cup during communion, Luther quickly dismisses his critics who would use the "bread of life" comments from Jesus in John chapter 6 from bearing any weight on decisions about communion. Luther points out that John 6 never once makes any reference to the sacrament and the discourse recorded there took place well before the sacrament was instituted by Jesus.

Throughout the treatise, Luther takes on the Scriptural arguments raised by his foes - notably Johann Eck and Jerome Esmer, both German priests and doctors of theology -- and shows that time and again, they are bending Scripture to conform to their position, rather than following Scripture to its natural conclusions, as Luther did. After rejecting the John 6 arguments, Luther points to the Scriptures that actually speak directly to communion, namely 1 Corinthians 11 and the Last Supper passages in Matthew, Mark and Luke, to point to the "universality" of the cup. (Smith, 2-5). "Further, Matthew reports that Christ did not say of the bread, "All of you, eat of it," but of the cup, "Drink of it all of you." Mark likewise does not say, "They all ate from it," but, "They all drank from it."" (Smith 2-5)

Luther argued that to withhold either of the elements from the people, bread or cup, was to invalidate the whole of the sacrament. Further, he states, that if part of the sacrament can be withheld at the whim of the church, then all of it may be withheld at the whim of the church and that earthly men have no right or cause to withhold this gift of God from God's people. "And if any do withhold it from them when they desire it, they act impiously and contrary to the work, example and institution of Christ." (Smith 2-6) He adds that if the church is acknowledging that the people fully receive the grace of God through the Words of the communion sacrament, and the grace found in the Words is greater than the sign, than why should the church have any reason to withhold the sign, i.e. the cup, after already having given the gift of the Word to the people?

Luther's third key point in Babylonian Captivity is also found in the lengthy passage on the Sacrament of the Altar, or communion. Luther refers to the Roman teaching of transubstantiation as "a monstrous word for a monstrous idea." (Smith 2-27). Luther says the church has created a false doctrine of transubstantiation, which, he points out, the church survived nicely without for its first 1,200 years. Why not rightly teach instead, he writes, "that it is real bread and real wine, in which Christ's real flesh and blood are present, not otherwise and not less really than they assume to be the case under their accidents." (Smith 2-23)

Luther argues that there is no basis in Scripture for the concept of transubstantiation and that if Christ had intended for the bread and wine to become his actual body and blood during the act of communion, he would have stated so clearly during the Last Supper with the apostles. Luther instead believes that the body and blood of Christ are indeed present in the elements of communion, but that the elements do not become His body and blood. He describes the relationship between the "substance" and the "accidents" of the elements - that is their deeper reality compared to their outer appearance - by using an analogy about heated metal. The two substances of fire and iron are so mingled in the heated iron that every part is both iron and fire. Why could not Christ's body be thus contained in every part of the substance of the bread? (Smith 2-29)

While changing the number of sacraments from seven to three, providing communion in both kinds to the people and arguing against transubstantiation are Luther's key points in the Babylonian Captivity, there is one other point that merits attention as well. Luther distinguishes between the "opus operatum" and the "opera operata" which takes place during a sacrament. In "opus operatum," which translates from Latin as "the work done" or "a finished work," the idea is that the grace of the Lord is already present in the sacrament and that some error or defect in the church's delivery or in a person's receipt of the sacrament does not cancel out that grace. Luther endorses this understanding. He rejects the idea of "opera operata," translated as "in the act of doing." Luther states that the grace of the Lord is not present only upon performing the sacrament, but as previously stated, the grace is already present in the sacrament.

Luther's writings in the Babylonian Captivity would play a central role in his appearance before the Diet of Worms in April 1521. During that series of hearings, held before Charles V, emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, Luther was challenged by Johann Eck to renounce his call for a reduction in the sacraments and other alleged heresies. Luther refused. At the conclusion of the Diet, Charles V ordered the arrest of the heretic Luther. Frederic III would subsequently "kidnap" Luther and hide Luther away in Wartburg Castle, where Luther would begin his German translation of the Bible and continue his theological writings.

It is clear that Luther's "A Prelude Concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church" and its key points on the number and description of the sacraments, the demand that communion in both kinds be served to the people, and his arguments against the idea of transubstantiation continue to shape Protestant worship and theological understanding to this day.

Works Cited:

Luther, Martin. Martin Luther: Selections From His Writings. John Dillenberger, editor, translator. New York: Anchor Books, 1962. Print.

Smith, Robert E.. "The Babylonian Captivity of the Church; A Prelude." Concordia Theological Seminary. May 1-19, 2010 . Web site.