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"This work, which features Martin Luther's portrait, first appeared in Latin and was directed against Catholic sacramental teaching. Of the seven sacraments, Luther considered only baptism and communion, and to some degree, confession, sacraments of Christ. In the case of communion, he rejected the notions that it was a sacrifice to God and that the elements are transformed (transubstantiation)."
Martin Luther, Von dem babylonischen Gefängnis der Kirche (On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church). Wittenberg, 1520,
A: Lutherstadt Wittenberg, Sachsen-Anhalt, Germany
![Martin Luther. An den Christlichenn Adel deutscher Nation: von des Christlichen standes besserung. Durch yhn selbs gemehret vnd corrigirt. Wittenberg, 1520. [Benzing 685; W.A. 6.398C]](http://historyofinformation.com/images/Screen_Shot_2020-09-25_at_1.05.09_PM_big.png "Martin Luther. An den Christlichenn Adel deutscher Nation: von des Christlichen standes besserung. Durch yhn selbs gemehret vnd corrigirt. Wittenberg, 1520. [Benzing 685; W.A. 6.398C]")
In August 1520 Martin Luther published An den Christlichen Adel Deutscher Nation; von des Christlichen Standes Besserung (To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation). This and two other tracts he published in 1520—On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church, and On the Freedom of a Christian—became manifestos of the Reformation.
" 'To the Christian Nobility' was published in the middle of August 1520 and by the eighteenth of the month four thousand copies were sold; seventeen further editions were published in the sixteenth century. It was shortly followed by the two other revolutionary tracts: 'Concerning Christian Liberty' (on justification by faith alone) and 'On the Babylonian Captivity of the Church' (criticizing the sacramental system of the Church)" (Carter & Muir, Printing and the Mind of Man [1967] no. 49).
