Works of Martin Luther Part 18

[275] This "little song" is the _Prelude on the Babylonian Captivity of the Church_. See below, pp. 170 ff.

A PRELUDE ON THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH

1520

INTRODUCTION

In the _Open Letter to the Christian n.o.bility_ Luther overthrew the three walls behind which Rome sat entrenched in her spiritual-temporal power; in the _Babylonian Captivity of the Church_ he enters and takes her central stronghold and sanctuary--the sacramental system by which she accompanied and controlled her members from the cradle to the grave; only then could he set forth, in language of almost lyrical rapture, the _Liberty of a Christian Man_.

The first of these three great reformatory treatises of the year 1520, as they have been called, closed with the words: "I know another little song about Rome, and if their ears itch to hear it I will sing it for them, and pitch it in a high key. Dost thou take my meaning, beloved Rome?" (See above, p. 164.) That some ears were itching to hear his little song was brought home to Luther especially by two writings, the one appearing in the summer of 1520, the other published in the previous autumn, but not reaching Wittenberg until some months later.

The former came from the pen of Augustin Alveld, that "celebrated Romanist of Leipzig," against whom Luther had culminated in _The Papacy at Rome_, promising further disclosures if Alveld "came again."

(See Vol. I, p. 393.) He came again, this time with a _Tractatus de communione sub utraque specie_,--date of dedication, June 23, 1520.

"The Leipzig a.s.s has set up a fresh braying against me, full of blasphemies"; thus Luther describes it in a letter to Spalatin, July 22, 1520. (Enders, _Luther's Briewechsel_, II, no. 328.)

The other work was the anonymous tract of a "certain Italian friar of Cremona," who has only recently been identified as Isidore Isolani, a Dominican hailing from Milan, who taught theology in various Italian cities, wrote a number of controversial works and died in 1528. (See Fr. Lauchert, _Die italienischen literarischen Gegner Luthers_, Freiburg, 1912.) The t.i.tle of his tract is, _Revocatio Martini Lutheri Augustiniani ad sanctam Sedem_; its date, Cremona, November 20, 1520, according to Enders, which is a mistake for November 22,1519. Its beginning and close, which have epistolary character, are printed in Enders, II, no. 366, and one paragraph from each is translated in Smith, _Luther's Correspondence_, I, no. 199.

These two treatises may be regarded as the immediate occasion for the writing of the _Babylonian Captivity_, which is, however, in no sense a direct reply to either of them. "I will not reply to Alveld," Luther writes on August 5 to Spalatin, "but he will be the occasion of my publishing something by which the vipers will be more irritated than ever." (Enders, II, no. 335; Smith, I, no. 283.) Indeed, he had promised some such work more than half a year before, in a letter to Spalatin of December 18, 1519: "There is no reason why you or any one else should expect from me a treatise on the other sacraments [besides baptism, the Lord's supper, and penance] until I am taught by what text I can prove that they are sacraments. I regard none of the others as a sacrament, for there is no sacrament save where there is a direct divine promise, exercising our faith. We can have no intercourse with G.o.d except by the word of Him promising, and by the faith of man receiving the promise. _At another time you shall hear more about their fables of the seven sacraments._" (Enders, II, no. 254; Smith, I, no. 206.)

Thus the _Prelude_ grows under his hand and a.s.sumes the form of an elaborate examination of the whole sacramental system of the Church.

He makes short work of his two opponents, and after a few pages of delicious irony, of which Erasmus was suspected in some quarters of being the author, he turns his back on them and addresses himself to a positive and constructive treatment of his larger theme, lenient toward all non-essentials, but inexorable with respect to everything truly essential, that is, scriptural. The _Captivity_ thus represents the culmination of Luther's reformatory thinking on the theological side, as the _n.o.bility_ does on the national, and the _Liberty_ on the religious side. It sums up and carries forward all of his previous writings on the sacraments, just as, nine years later, the _Catechisms_ gathered up and moulded into cla.s.sic form his writings on catechetical subjects. Pa.s.sage after pa.s.sage, often whole pages, from the _Resolutiones disp._, the _Treatise on Baptism_, the _Conitendi Ratio_, the _Treatise on the New Testament_, the _Treatise on the Blessed Sacrament_, are transferred bodily to this new and definitive work, and find in it the goal toward which they had been consciously or unconsciously tending. The reader is referred to a fine comparative study in Kostlin's _Theology of Luther_ (English trans.), I, 388-409.

The t.i.tle is a reminiscence from the _Resolutiones super prop, xiii._, of 1519,--"absit ista plus quam babylonica captivitas!" The sense in which the work is called a "prelude" is explained on page 176; the theologian in Luther could not deny the musician, he goes into battle singing and comes back with the stanza of a hymn upon his lips.

The _Captivity_ marks Luther's final and irreparable break with the Church of Rome, and it is not without a peculiar significance that in the same letter to Spalatin, of October 3d, in which he mentions the arrival in Leipzig of Eck armed with the papal bull, he announces the publication of his book on the _Babylonian Captivity of the Church_ for the following Sat.u.r.day--October 6th. (Enders, II, no. 350; Smith, I, no. 303.)

While the _n.o.bility_, addressed to the German nation as such, was written in the language of the people, the _Captivity_, as becomes a theological treatise, is composed in Latin, just as later the Liberty, affecting the religious life of the individual, whether layman or theologian, is sent out in both German and Latin.

A translation into German appeared in the following year--the work of the Franciscan, Thomas Murner (on whom see Theod. v. Liebenau, _Der Franziskaner Thomas Murner_, Freiburg, 1913). Luther calls the Franciscan his "venomous foe" and accuses him of making the translation in order to bring him into disrepute. This charge Luther makes in his answer to Henry VIII's _a.s.sertio septem sacramentorum adversus Mart. Lutherum_ (1521), the royal theologian's reply to the _Babylonian Captivity_, for which he won from the pope the proud t.i.tle of "Defender of the Faith."

The translation which follows is based on the Latin text as given in Clemen's "student-edition"--_Luthers Werke in Auswahl_ (Bonn, 1912-3), I, 426-512, which reproduces, though by no means slavishly, the text of the _Weimar Edition_ (Vol. VI), which, together with the _Erlangen Edition_ (_opera var. arg., V_), has been compared. The German _St.

Louis Edition_ (Vol. XIX) has been consulted, and especially the admirable German rendering of Kawerau in the Berlin Edition (Vol. II) as well as the careful literal translation of Lemme, _Die drei grossen Reormationsschriten Luthers vom Jahre 1520_, 2. ed. (Gotha, 1884).

Like the last mentioned, Wace and Buchheim's English translation (London, 1896) is incomplete, and besides is not always accurate; the _Captivity_ is not contained in Cole's _Select Works_. The catalogue of the British Museum notes no early English translation.

Kostlin-Kawerau's (1903) and Berger's (1895) lives should be consulted; the former for the historical setting and full a.n.a.lysis, the latter for a fine appreciation of this as of the other two reformatory treatises of this year. For the theological development, beside Kostlin's work mentioned above, and Tschackert, _Entstehung der luth. und re. Kirchenlehre_ (1910), compare the exhaustive article Sakramente, by Kattenbusch, in _Prot. Realencyklopadie_, 3. ed., XVII, 349-81. The treatise is here Englished in its entirety, including those portions of the section on marriage which are frequently omitted. The homeless paragraph on page 260, whose proper location is not found even in the _Weimar Edition_ nor in Clemen, we have placed in a foot-note, following the example of Kawerau.

ALBERT T. W. STEINHAEUSER.

Allentown. PA.

THE BABYLONIAN CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH

1520

JESUS

Martin Luther, Augustinian,

to his friend,

Herman Tulich[1],

Greeting

w.i.l.l.y nilly, I am compelled to become every day more learned, with so many and such able masters vying with one another to improve my mind.

Some two years ago I wrote a little book on indulgences[2], which I now deeply regret having published; for at the time I was still sunk in a mighty superst.i.tious veneration for the Roman tyranny and held that indulgences should not be altogether rejected, seeing they were approved by the common consent of men. Nor was this to be wondered at, for I was then engaged single-handed in my Sisyphean task. Since then, however, through the kindness of Sylvester and the friars[3], who so strenuously defended indulgences, I have come to see that they are nothing but an imposture of the Roman sycophants by which they play havoc with men's faith and fortunes. Would to G.o.d I might prevail upon the book-sellers and upon all my readers to burn up the whole of my writings on indulgences and to subst.i.tute for them this proposition: INDULGENCES ARE A KNAVISH TRICK OF THE ROMAN SYCOPHANTS.

Next, Eck and Emser, with their fellows, undertook to instruct me concerning the primacy of the pope. Here too, not to prove ungrateful to such learned folk, I acknowledge how greatly I have profited by their labors. For, while denying the divine authority of the papacy, I had yet admitted its human authority[4]. But after hearing and reading the subtle subtleties of these c.o.xcombs with which they adroitly prop their idol--for in these matters my mind is not altogether unteachable--I now know of a certainty that the papacy is the kingdom of Babylon[5] and the power of Nimrod the mighty hunter[6]. Once more, therefore, that all may all out to my friends' advantage, I beg both booksellers and readers to burn what I have published on that subject and to hold to this proposition: THE PAPACY IS THE MIGHTY HUNTING OF THE ROMAN BISHOP. This follows from the arguments of Eck, Emser and the Leipzig lecturer[7] on the Holy Scriptures.

Now they are putting me to school again and teaching me about communion in both kinds and other weighty subjects. And I must all to with might and main, so as not to hear these my pedagogues without profit. A certain Italian friar of Cremona[8] has written a "Revocation of Martin Luther to the Holy See"--that is, a revocation in which not I revoke anything (as the words declare) but he revokes me. That is the kind of Latin the Italians are now beginning to write[9]. Another friar, a German of Leipzig, that same lecturer, you know, on the whole canon of the Scriptures, has written a book against me concerning the sacrament in both kinds, and is planning, I understand, still greater and more marvelous things. The Italian was canny enough not to set down his name, fearing perhaps the fate of Cajetan and Sylvester[10]. But the Leipzig man, as becomes a fierce and valiant German, boasts on his ample t.i.tle-page of his name, his career, his saintliness, his scholarship, his office, glory, honor, ay, almost of his very clogs[11]. Here I shall doubtless gain no little information, since indeed his dedicatory epistle is addressed to the Son of G.o.d Himself. On so familiar a footing are these saints with Christ Who reigns in heaven! Moreover, methinks I hear three magpies chattering in this book; the first in good Latin, the second in better Greek, the third in purest Hebrew[12]. What think you, my Herman, is there for me to do but to p.r.i.c.k up my ears? The thing emanates from Leipzig, from the Observance of the Holy Cross[13].

Fool that I was, I had hitherto thought it would be well if a general council decided that the sacrament be administered to the laity in both kinds[14]. The more than learned friar would set me right, and declares that neither Christ nor the apostles commanded or commended the administration of both kinds to the laity; it was, therefore, left to the judgment of the Church what to do or not to do in this matter, and the Church must be obeyed. These are his words.

You will perhaps ask, what madness has entered into the man, or against whom he is writing, since I have not condemned the use of one kind, but have left the decision about the use of both kinds to the judgment of the Church--the very thing he attempts to a.s.sert and which he turns against me. My answer is, that this sort of argument is common to all those who write against Luther; they a.s.sert the very things they a.s.sail, for they set up a man of straw whom they may attack. Thus Sylvester and Eck and Emser, thus the theologians of Cologne and Louvain[15]; and if this friar had not been of the same kidney he would never have written against Luther.

Yet in one respect this man has been happier than his fellows. For in undertaking to prove that the use of both kinds is neither commanded nor commended, but left to the will of the Church, he brings forward pa.s.sages of Scripture to prove that by the command of Christ one kind only was appointed for the laity. So that it is true, according to this new interpreter of the Scriptures, that one kind was not commanded, and at the same time was commanded, by Christ! This novel sort of argument is, as you know, the particular forte of the Leipzig dialecticians. Did not Emser in his earlier book[16] profess to write of me in a friendly spirit, and then, after I had convicted him of filthy envy and foul lying, did he not openly acknowledge in his later book[17], written to refute my arguments, that he had written in both a friendly and an unfriendly spirit? A sweet fellow, forsooth, as you know.

But hearken to our distinguished distinguisher of "kinds," for whom the will of the Church and a command of Christ, and a command of Christ and no command of Christ, are all one and the same! How ingeniously he proves that only one kind is to be given to the laity, by the command of Christ, that is, by the will of the Church. He puts it in capital letters, thus: THE INFALLIBLE FOUNDATION. Thereupon he treats John vi with incredible wisdom, in which pa.s.sage Christ speaks of the bread from heaven and the bread of life, which is He Himself.

The learned fellow not only refers these words to the sacrament of the altar, but because Christ says, "I am the living bread," [John 6:35, 41, 51] and not, "I am the living cup," he actually concludes that we have in this pa.s.sage the inst.i.tution of the sacrament in only one kind for the laity. But there follow the words,--"My flesh is meat indeed, and my blood is drink indeed," [John 6:55] and, "Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood" [John 6:53]; and when it dawned upon the good friar that these words speak undeniably or both kinds and against one kind--presto! how happily and learnedly he slips out of the quandary by a.s.serting that in these words Christ means to say only that whoever receives the one kind receives under it both flesh and blood. This he puts or the "infallible foundation" of a structure well worthy of the holy and heavenly Observance.

Now prithee, herefrom learn with me that Christ, in John vi, enjoins the sacrament in one kind, yet in such wise that His commanding it means leaving it to the will of the Church; and further, that Christ is speaking in this chapter only of the laity and not of the priests.

For to the latter the living bread from heaven does not pertain, but presumably the deadly bread from h.e.l.l! And how is it with the deacons and subdeacons, who are neither laymen nor priests?[18] According to this brilliant writer, they ought to use neither the one kind nor both kinds! You see, dear Tulich, this novel and observant method of treating Scripture.

But learn this, too,--that Christ is speaking in John vi of the sacrament of the altar; although He Himself teaches that His words refer to faith in the Word made flesh, for He says, "This is the work of G.o.d, that ye believe on him whom he hath sent." [John 6:29] But our Leipzig professor of the Scriptures must be permitted to prove anything he pleases from any Scripture pa.s.sage whatsoever. For he is an Anaxagorian, or rather an Aristotelian[19] theologian, for whom nouns and verbs, interchanged, mean the same thing and any thing. So aptly does he cite Scripture proof-texts throughout the whole of his book, that if he set out to prove the presence of Christ in the sacrament, he would not hesitate to commence thus: "Here beginneth the book of the Revelation of St. John the Divine." All his quotations are as apt as this one would be, and the wiseacre imagines he is adorning his drivel with the mult.i.tude of his quotations. The rest I pa.s.s over, lest you should smother in the filth of this vile cloaca.

In conclusion, he brings forward I Corinthians xi, where Paul says he received from the Lord, and delivered to the Corinthians, the use of both the bread and the cup [1 Cor. 11:23]. Here again our distinguisher of kinds, treating the Scriptures with his usual brilliance, teaches that Paul did not deliver, but permitted both kinds. Do you ask where he gets his proof? Out of his own head, as he did in the case of John vi. For it does not behoove this lecturer to give a reason for his a.s.sertions; he belongs to the order of those who teach and prove all things by their visions[20]. Accordingly we are here taught that the Apostle, in this pa.s.sage, addressed not the whole Corinthian congregation, but the laity alone--but then he "permitted"

nothing at all to the clergy, and they are deprived of the sacrament altogether!--and further, that, according to a new kind of grammar, "I have received from the Lord" means "It is permitted by the Lord," and "I have delivered it to you" means "I have permitted it to you." I pray you, mark this well. For by this method, not only the Church, but every pa.s.sing knave will be at liberty, according to this magister, to turn all the commands, inst.i.tutions and ordinances of Christ and the apostles into a mere "permission."

I perceive, therefore, that this man is driven by an angel of Satan, and that he and his partners seek but to make a name or themselves through me, as men who were worthy to cross swords with Luther. But their hopes shall be dashed: I shall ignore them and not mention their names from henceforth even for ever. This one reply shall suffice me for all their books. If they be worthy of it, I pray Christ in His mercy to bring them to a sound mind; if not, I pray that they may never leave off writing such books, and that the enemies of the truth may never deserve to read any other. It is a popular and true saying,

This I know of a truth--whenever with filth I contended, Victor or vanquished, alike, came I defiled from the fray.

And, since I perceive that they have an abundance of leisure and of writing-paper, I shall see to it that they may have ample opportunity for writing. I shall run on before, and while they are celebrating a glorious victory over one of my so-called heresies, I shall be meanwhile devising a new one. For I too am desirous that these gallant leaders in battle should win to themselves many t.i.tles and decorations. Therefore, while they complain that I laud communion in both kinds, and are happily engrossed in this most important and worthy matter, I will go yet one step farther and undertake to show that all those who deny communion in both kinds to the laity are wicked men. And the more conveniently to do this, I will compose a prelude on the captivity of the Roman Church. In due time I shall have a great deal more to say, when the learned papists have disposed of this book.

I take this course, lest any pious reader who may chance upon this book, should be offended at my dealing with such filthy matters, and should justly complain of finding in it nothing to cultivate and instruct his mind or even to furnish good or learned thought. For you know how impatient my friends are because I waste my time on the sordid fictions of these men, which, they say, are amply refuted in the reading; they look for greater things from me, which Satan seeks in this way to hinder. I have at length resolved to follow their counsel and to leave to those hornets the pleasant business of wrangling and hurling invectives.

Of that friar of Cremona I will say nothing. He is an unlearned man and a simpleton, who attempts with a few rhetorical pa.s.sages to recall me to the Holy See, from which I am not as yet aware of having departed, nor has any one proved it to me. He is chiefly concerned in those silly pa.s.sages with showing that I ought to be moved by the vow of my order and by the act that the empire has been transferred to us Germans[21]. He seems thus to have set out to write, not my "revocation," but rather the praises of the French people and the Roman pontiff. Let him attest his loyalty in his little book; it is the best he could do. He does not deserve to be harshly treated, for methinks he was not prompted by malice; nor yet to be learnedly refuted, for all his chatter is sheer ignorance and simplicity[22].

At the outset I must deny that there are seven sacraments, and hold for the present[23] to but three--baptism, penance and the bread[24].

These three have been subjected to a miserable captivity by the Roman curia, and the Church has been deprived of all her liberty. To be sure, if I desired to use the term in its scriptural sense, I should allow but a single sacrament[25], with three sacramental signs; but of this I shall treat more fully at the proper time.

THE SACRAMENT OF THE BREAD