But most hailed it as a "trumpet-blast" calling the nation to arms.

Four thousand copies were sold in a few days, and a second edition was called for within a month.

Voicing ideas that had been long, though vaguely, current, it convinced almost all of the need of a reformation.
According to their sympathies men declared that the devil or the Holy Ghost spoke through Luther.
[Sidenote: The Babylonian Captivity, 1520] Though less popular both in form and subject, _The Babylonian Captivity of the Church_ was not less important than the _Address to the German Nobility_.

It was a mortal blow at the sacramental system of the church.

In judging it we must again summon the aid of our historical imagination.