[240] L. Op. (L.) xvii, p. 490. [Sidenote: THE "BABYLONISH CAPTIVITY OF THE CHURCH." VOWS.] Luther's voice, however, was not confined to Wittemberg; and if he failed to procure missionaries to carry his instructions to distant lands, God provided him with a missionary of a new description. The art of printing supplied the place of evangelists. The press was destined to make a breach in the Roman fortress. Luther had prepared a mine, the explosion of which shook the Roman edifice to its very foundations. This was his famous treatise on the _Babylonish Captivity of the Church_, which appeared 6th October, 1520.[241] Never had man displayed such courage in such critical circumstances. [241] L. Op. Lat. xi. 63, and Leip. xvii, p. 511. In this writing he first enumerates, with a kind of ironical pride, all the advantages for which he is indebted to his enemies. "Whether I will or not," says he, "I daily become more learned, spurred on as I am by so many celebrated masters. Two years ago I attacked indulgences, but with so much fear and indecision, that I am now ashamed of it. But, after all, the mode of attack is not to be wondered at, for I had nobody who would help me to roll the stone." He returns thanks to Prierio, Eck, Emser, and his other opponents, and continues--"I denied that the papacy was of God, but I granted that it had the authority of man. Now, after reading all the subtleties by which these sparks prop up their idol, I know that the papacy is only the kingdom of Babylon, and the tyranny of the great hunter Nimrod. I therefore beg all my friends, and all booksellers, to burn the books which I wrote on this subject, and to substitute for them the single proposition--'_The papacy is a general chace, by command of the Roman pontiff, for the purpose of running down and destroying souls_.'"[242] [242] "Papatus est robusta venatio Romani Episcopi." The papacy is a vigorous hunt by the Roman bishop.