ABSTRACT
Overtly evangelic writings were pouring from the Wittenberg printing presses, like the Treatise on Good Works and the appeal To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation to curb papal power and begin reforming the church. Most serious of all was the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, 1520, likening the Church under the pope to the children of Israel exiled in Babylon, and going right to the heart of the Catholic faith on the sacraments. Martin Luther defined a sacrament as a divine institution offering grace, forgiveness and salvation. Therefore confirmation, marriage, ordination and extreme unction are not sacraments at all. Godly and useful though they can be, they contain no promise of salvation. Luther was less controversial on baptism, but kept up the attack on penance, especially confession. The crucial turning point was Romans 1:17: ‘For in the Gospel a righteousness from God is revealed, a righteousness that is by faith’.
