Before his letter to the nobility was off press, Luther was writing his
second treatise, “The Babylonian Captivity of the Church.” The first had
been primarily for lay people while the second was for theologians. It
aimed directly at freeing the Christian fellowship in Europe from the
“captivity” of the Roman sacramental system.
The Roman Church taught that it alone could dispense the saving grace
associated with the sacraments, and that the sacramental acts could be
performed only by ordained priests. Anyone who denied that the church
controlled the flow of grace from God was striking Catholicism in its
most vital spot. Without its sacramental system Rome could no longer
bind its subjects. This was the front at which Luther aimed his heaviest
artillery.
He reiterated his views on the priesthood of believers. Priests should
be servants of the people who comprise the church, rather than servants
of a papal hierarchy. They cannot interfere with grace. It is God’s free
gift to the individual believer.
In the course of his treatise Luther also asserted that there are only
two sacraments—baptism and the Lord’s Supper—rather than seven as taught
in Roman Catholicism. A sacrament, he held, had to be instituted by
Christ, contain a divine promise of the forgiveness of sins, and make
use of an earthly element (water, bread, wine). Confirmation,
ordination, marriage, penance, and extreme unction were rejected as
sacraments because they lacked some of the prescribed characteristics.
The mass had been seen as a repetition of Christ’s incarnation and
crucifixion at the hands of a priest before the altar. By this sacrifice
man tried to earn grace. Now it became the Lord’s Supper—a communion of
the believing Christian with his Saviour. Both the bread and the wine
should be received by the communicant, Luther insisted. While Christ is
really present in the elements, the bread does not become flesh nor the
wine blood through a magical act called transubstantiation. Moreover,
Christ is not sacrificed anew whenever the mass is celebrated. His
sacrifice on the cross was for all time. Through that sacrifice a man’s
sins are remitted if he has faith.