A Historiography of Luther’s “On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church”

Seminary Room N110

Among the most significant of Luther’s treatises is the one entitled: On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. In this treatise on the sacraments, Luther presents an unmistakably strong criticism of the Church and argues that the church had been “captive” by its leaders and their teachings. The purpose of this paper is to attempt to answer the question: How long had the church been captive according to Martin Luther? In order to establish a historiography of On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, including primary and secondary sources, both the context and the content are carefully analyzed, paying special attention to chronological references and to the sources he used to support his arguments on the issue of the captivity, which forms the primary methodology for this study. Careful and ample consideration are given to any and all chronological allusions, mapping Luther’s use of the church fathers, the scholastics and other sources and evaluating each usage, whether positively or negatively.