Historical Introductions to the Symbolical Books of the Evangelical Lutheran Church

Not every kind of Christian instruction, however, is called catechism by Luther. Whenever he uses the word, he has in mind beginners, children, and unlearned people. In his "German Order of Worship, Deutsche Messe," of 1526, he writes: "Catechism is an instruction whereby heathen who desire to become Christians are taught and shown what they must believe, do, not do, and know in Christianity, hence the name catechumens was given to pupils who were accepted for such instruction and who learned the Creed previous to their baptism." (19, 76.) In his sermon of November 30, 1528: "The Catechism is a sermon for children, which the children and all who desire to be Christians must know. Whoever does not know it cannot be numbered among the Christians. For if he does not know these things, it is evident that God and Christ mean nothing to him." (30, 1, 57.) In his sermon of September 14: "This [catechism] is preaching for children, or, the Bible of the laity, which serves the plain people. Whoever, then, does not know these things, and is unable to recite them and understand them, cannot be considered a Christian. It is for this reason, too, that it bears the name catechism, i. e., instruction and Christian teaching, since all Christians at the very least should know this much. Afterward they ought to learn more of the Scriptures. Hence, let all children govern themselves accordingly, and see that they learn it." (27.) May 18 Luther began his sermon thus: "The preaching of the Catechism was begun that it might serve as an instruction for children and the unlearned. … For every Christian must necessarily know the Catechism. Whoever does not know it cannot be numbered among the Christians." (2.) In the short Preface to the Large Catechism: "This sermon is designed and undertaken that it might be an instruction for children and the simpleminded. Hence, of old it was called in Greek catechism, i. e., instruction for children, what every Christian must needs know, so that he who does not know this could not be numbered with the Christians nor be admitted to any Sacrament." (CONC. TRIGL., 575, 1; 535, 11.)

83. Chief Parts of Catechism

In Luther's opinion the elementary doctrines which form the subject- matter of the Catechism are comprised in the three traditional parts: Decalog, Creed, and Lord's Prayer. These he considered to be the gist of the doctrine every one must learn if he would be regarded and treated as a Christian. "Those who are unwilling to learn it," says Luther, "should be told that they deny Christ and are no Christians; neither should they be admitted to the Sacraments, accepted as sponsors at Baptism, nor exercise any part of Christian liberty." (CONC. TRIGL. 535, 11.) Of course, Luther considered these three parts only a minimum, which, however, Christians who partake of the Lord's Supper should strive to exceed, but still sufficient for children and plain people. (575, 5.) Even in his later years, Luther speaks of the first three parts as the Catechism proper.

However, probably in consequence of the controversy with the Enthusiasts, which began in 1524, Luther soon added as supplements the parts treating of Baptism, the Lord's Supper, and Confession. In the Large Catechism, where Baptism and the Lord's Supper appear as appendices, Luther emphasizes the fact that the first three parts form the kernel of the Catechism, but that instruction in Baptism and the Lord's Supper must also be imparted. "These" (first three), says he, "are the most necessary parts, which one should first learn to repeat word for word. … Now, when these three parts are apprehended, it behooves a person also to know what to say concerning our Sacraments, which Christ Himself instituted, Baptism and the holy body and blood of Christ, namely, the text which Matthew and Mark record at the close of their gospels, when Christ said farewell to His disciples and sent them forth." (579, 20.) Luther regarded a correct knowledge of Baptism and the Lord's Supper not only as useful, but as necessary. Beginning his explanation of the Fourth Chief Part, he remarks: "We have now finished the three chief parts of the common Christian doctrine. Besides these we have yet to speak of our two Sacraments instituted by Christ, of which also every Christian ought to have at least an ordinary, brief instruction, because without them there can be no Christian; although, alas! hitherto no instruction concerning them has been given." (733, 1.) Thus Luther materially enlarged the Catechism. True, several prayer- and confession-books, which appeared in the late Middle Ages, also treat of the Sacraments. As for the people, however, it was considered sufficient for laymen to be able to recite the names of the seven Roman sacraments. Hence Luther, in the passage cited from the Large Catechism, declares that in Popery practically nothing of Baptism and the Lord's Supper was taught, certainly nothing worth while or wholesome.

84. Parts Inherited from Ancient Church

The text of the first three chief parts, Luther considered a sacred heirloom from the ancient Church. "For," says he in his Large Catechism, "the holy Fathers or apostles have thus embraced in a summary the doctrine life, wisdom, and art of Christians, of which they speak and treat, and with which they are occupied." (579, 19.) Thus Luther, always conservative, did not reject the traditional catechism, both bag and baggage, but carefully distinguished between the good, which he retained, and the worthless, which he discarded. In fact, he no more dreamt of foisting a new doctrine or catechism on the Christian Church than he ever thought of founding a new church. On the contrary, his sole object was to restore the ancient Apostolic Church, and his catechetical endeavors were bent on bringing to light once more, purifying, explaining, and restoring, the old catechism of the fathers.

In his book Wider Hans Worst, 1541, Luther says: "We have remained faithful to the true and ancient Church; aye, we are the true and ancient Church. You Papists, however, have apostatized from us, i. e., from the ancient Church, and have set up a new church in opposition to the ancient Church." In harmony with this view, Luther repeatedly and emphatically asserted that in his Catechism he was merely protecting and guarding an inheritance of the fathers, which he had preserved to the Church by his correct explanation. In his German Order of Worship we read: "I know of no simpler nor better arrangement of this instruction or doctrine than the arrangement which has existed since the beginning of Christendom, viz., the three parts, Ten Commandments, Creed, and the Lord's Prayer." (W. 19, 76.) In the ancient Church the original parts for catechumens and sponsors were the Symbolum and the Paternoster, the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer. To these the Ten Commandments were added as a formal part of doctrine only since the thirteenth century. (30, 1, 434.) The usual sequence of these parts was: Lord's Prayer, Apostles' Creed, and, wherever it was not supplanted by other matter, the Decalog. It was with deliberation then, that Luther substituted his own objective, logical order.

In his Short Form of the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord's Prayer, 1520 Luther speaks as follows of the three traditional parts, which God preserved to the Church in spite of the Papacy: "It did not come to pass without the special providence of God, that, with reference to the common Christian, who cannot read the Scriptures, it was commanded to teach and to know the Ten Commandments, Creed, and Lord's Prayer which three parts indeed thoroughly and completely embrace all that is contained in the Scripture and may ever be preached, all also that a Christian needs to know, and this, too, in a form so brief and simple that no one can complain or offer the excuse that it is too much, and that it is too hard for him to remember what is essential to his salvation. For in order to be saved, a man must know three things: First, he must know what he is to do and leave undone. Secondly, when he realizes that by his own strength he is unable to do it and leave it undone, he must know where he may take, seek, and find that which will enable him to do and to refrain. Thirdly, he must know how he may seek and obtain it. Even as a sick man needs first of all to know what disease he has, what he may or may not do, or leave undone. Thereupon he needs to know where the medicine is which will help him, that he may do and leave undone like a healthy person. Fourthly, he must desire it, seek and get it, or have it brought to him. In like manner the commandments teach a man to know his disease, that he may see and perceive what he can do and not do, leave and not leave, and thus perceive that he is a sinner and a wicked man. Thereupon the Creed holds before his eyes and teaches him where to find the medicine, the grace which will help him become pious, that he may keep the commandments, and shows him God and His mercy as revealed and offered in Christ. Fifthly, the Lord's Prayer teaches him how to ask for, get and obtain it, namely, by proper, humble, and comforting prayer. These three things comprise the entire Scriptures." (W. 7, 204.) It was things such as the chief parts of the Catechism that Luther had in mind when he wrote against the fanatics, 1528: "We confess that even under the Papacy there are many Christian blessings aye, all Christian blessings, and thence they have come to us: the true Holy Scriptures, true Baptism, the true Sacrament of the Altar, true keys for the forgiveness of sins, the true office of the ministry, the true catechism, such as the Lord's Prayer, the Ten Commandments the Articles of Faith, etc." (26, 147.) Luther's meaning is, that in the midst of antichristendom and despite the Pope, the text of the three chief parts was, among other things, preserved to the Church.

85. Service Rendered Catechism by Luther

The fact that the text of the three chief parts existed long before Luther does not detract from the service which he rendered the Catechism. Luther's work, moreover, consisted in this, 1. that he brought about a general revival of the instruction in the Catechism of the ancient Church; 2. that he completed it by adding the parts treating of Baptism, Confession, and the Lord's Supper; 3. that he purged its material from all manner of papal ballast; 4. that he eliminated the Romish interpretation and adulteration in the interest of work-righteousness; 5. that he refilled the ancient forms with their genuine Evangelical and Scriptural meaning. Before Luther's time the study of the Catechism had everywhere fallen into decay. There were but few who knew its text, and when able to recite it, they did not understand it. The soul of all Christian truths, the Gospel of God's free pardon for Christ's sake, had departed. Concerning "the three parts which have remained in Christendom from of old" Luther said that "little of it had been taught and treated correctly." (CONC. TRIGL. 575, 6.)

In his Warning to My Dear Germans, of 1531, he enlarges on the same thought as follows; "Thanks to God, our Gospel has produced much and great good. Formerly no one knew what was Gospel, what Christ, what Baptism, what Confession, what Sacrament, what faith, what spirit, what flesh, what good works, what the Ten Commandments, what the Lord's Prayer, what praying, what suffering, what comfort, what civil government, what matrimony, what parents, what children, what lords, what servant, what mistress what maid, what devil, what angel, what world, what life, what death, what sin, what right, what forgiveness of sin, what God, what bishop, what pastor, what Church, what a Christian, what the cross. Sum, we knew nothing of what a Christian should know. Everything was obscured and suppressed by the papal asses. For in Christian matters they are asses indeed, aye, great, coarse, unlearned asses. For I also was one of them and know that in this I am speaking the truth. And all pious hearts who were captive under the Pope, even as I, will bear me out that they would fain have known one of these things, yet were not able nor permitted to know it. We knew no better than that the priests and monks alone were everything; on their works we based our hope of salvation and not on Christ. Thanks to God, however, it has now come to pass that man and woman, young and old, know the Catechism, and how to believe, live, pray, suffer, and die; and that is indeed a splendid instruction for consciences, teaching them how to be a Christian and to know Christ." (W. 30, 3, 317.)

Thus Luther extols it as the great achievement of his day that now every one knew the Catechism, whereas formerly Christian doctrine was unknown or at least not understood aright. And this achievement is preeminently a service which Luther rendered. He revived once more the ancient catechetical parts of doctrine, placed them in the proper Biblical light, permeated them with the Evangelical spirit, and explained them in conformity with the understanding of the Gospel which he had gained anew, stressing especially the finis historiae (the divine purpose of the historical facts of Christianity, as recorded in the Second Article), the forgiveness of sins not by works of our own, but by grace, for Christ's sake.

86. Catechetical Instruction before Luther

In the Middle Ages the Lord's Prayer and the Creed were called the chief parts for sponsors (Patenhauptstuecke), since the canons required sponsors to know them, and at Baptism they were obligated to teach these parts to their godchildren. The children, then, were to learn the Creed and the Lord's Prayer from their parents and sponsors. Since the Carolingian Epoch these regulations of the Church were often repeated, as, for example, in the Exhortation to the Christian Laity of the ninth century. From the same century dates the regulation that an explanation of the Creed and the Lord's Prayer should be found in every parish, self-evidently to facilitate preaching and the examination in confession. In confession, which, according to the Lateran Council, 1215, everybody was required to make at least once a year, the priests were to inquire also regarding this instruction and have the chief parts recited. Since the middle of the thirteenth century the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, together with the Benedicite, Gratias, Ave Maria, Psalms, and other matter, were taught also in the Latin schools, where probably Luther, too, learned them. In the Instruction for Visitors, Melanchthon still mentions "der Kinder Handbuechlein, darin das Alphabet, Vaterunser, Glaub' und andere Gebet' innen stehen – Manual for Children, containing the alphabet, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, and other prayers," as the first schoolbook. (W. 26, 237.) After the invention of printing, chart-impressions with pictures illustrating the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments came into the possession also of some laymen. The poorer classes, however, had to content themselves with the charts in the churches, which especially Nicolaus of Cusa endeavored to introduce everywhere. (Herzog's Realenzyklopaedie 10, 138.) They were followed by confessional booklets, prayer-booklets, and also by voluminous books of devotion. Apart from other trash, these contained confessional and communion prayers instructions on Repentance, Confession, and the Sacrament of the Altar; above all, however, a mirror of sins, intended as a guide for self-examination, on the basis of various lists of sins and catalogs of virtues, which supplanting the Decalog were to be memorized. Self-evidently, all this was not intended as a schoolmaster to bring them to Christ and to faith in the free grace of God, but merely to serve the interest of the Romish penances, satisfactions, and work-righteousness. Says Luther in the Smalcald Articles: "Here, too, there was no faith nor Christ, and the virtue of the absolution was not declared to him, but upon his enumeration of sins and his self-abasement depended his consolation. What torture, rascality, and idolatry such confession has produced is more than can be related." (485, 20.) The chief parts of Christian doctrine but little taught and nowhere correctly taught, – such was the chief hurt of the Church under the Papacy.

In the course of time, however, even this deficient and false instruction gradually fell into decay. The influence of the Latin schools was not very far-reaching, their number being very small in proportion to the young. Public schools for the people did not exist in the Middle Ages. As a matter of fact not a single synod concerned itself specifically with the instruction of the young. (H. R. 10, 137.) At home, parents and sponsors became increasingly indifferent and incompetent for teaching. True, the reformers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries did attempt to elevate the instruction also in the Catechism. Geiler's sermons on the Lord's Prayer were published. Gerson admonished: "The reformation of the Church must begin with the young," and published sermons on the Decalog as models for the use of the clergy. John Wolf also urged that the young be instructed, and endeavored to substitute the Decalog for the prevalent catalogs of sins. The Humanists John Wimpheling, Erasmus, and John Colet (who wrote the Catechyzon, which Erasmus rendered into Latin hexameters) urged the same thing. Peter Tritonius Athesinus wrote a similar book of instruction for the Latin schools. However, all of these attempts proved ineffectual, and even if successful, they would have accomplished little for truly Christian instruction, such as Luther advocated, since the real essence of Christianity, the doctrine of justification, was unknown to these reformers.

Thus in the course of time the people, and especially the young, grew more and more deficient in the knowledge of even the simplest Christian truths and facts. And bishops and priests, unconcerned about the ancient canons, stolidly looked on while Christendom was sinking deeper and deeper into the quagmire of total religious ignorance and indifference. Without fearing contradiction, Melanchthon declared in his Apology: "Among the adversaries there is no catechization of the children whatever, concerning which even the canons give commands. … Among the adversaries, in many regions [as in Italy and Spain], during the entire year no sermons are delivered, except in Lent." (325, 41.)

87. Medieval Books of Prayer and Instruction

Concerning the aforementioned Catholic books of prayer and edification which, during the Middle Ages, served the people as catechisms, Luther, in his Prayer-Booklet of 1522 (which was intended to supplant the Romish prayer-books), writes as follows: "Among many other harmful doctrines and booklets which have seduced and deceived Christians and given rise to countless superstitions, I do not consider as the least the prayer-booklets, by which so much distress of confessing and enumerating sins, such unchristian folly in the prayers to God and His saints was inculcated upon the unlearned, and which, nevertheless, were highly puffed with indulgences and red titles, and, in addition, bore precious names, one being called Hortulus Animae, the other Paradisus Animae, and so forth. They are in sore need of a thorough and sound reformation, or to be eradicated entirely, a sentence which I also pass on the Passional or Legend books, to which also a great deal has been added by the devil." (W. 10, 1, 375.)

The Hortulus Animae, which is mentioned even before 1500, was widely circulated at the beginning of the sixteenth century. It embraced all forms of edifying literature. Sebastian Brandt and Jacob Wimpheling helped to compile it. The Paradisus Animae had the same contents, but was probably spread in Latin only. The Hortulus Animae contains very complete rosters of sins and catalogs of virtues for "confessing and enumerating sins." Among the virtues are listed the bodily works of mercy (Matt. 25, 35) and the seven spiritual works of mercy: to instruct the ignorant, give counsel to the doubtful, comfort the afflicted, admonish sinners, pardon adversaries suffer wrong, and forgive the enemies. Among the virtues were counted the seven gifts of the Holy Ghost: wisdom, understanding, ability, kindness, counsel, strength, and fear. Furthermore the three divine virtues: faith, hope and charity. The four cardinal virtues: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance. The eight beatitudes according to Matt. 5, 3ff. The twelve counsels: poverty, obedience, chastity, love of enemies, meekness, abundant mercy, simplicity of words, not too much care for temporal things, correct purpose and simplicity of deeds, harmony of doctrine and works, fleeing the cause of sin, brotherly admonition. Finally also the seven sacraments. The list of sins contains the nine foreign sins, the six sins against the Holy Ghost, the four sins that cry to God for vengeance, the five senses the Ten Commandments, and the seven mortal sins: pride, covetousness, unchastity, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. Each of these mortal sins is again analyzed extensively. The Weimar edition of Luther's Works remarks: "If these catalogs were employed for self-examination, confusion, endless torment, or complete externalization of the consciousness of sin was bound to result. We can therefore understand why the Reformer inveighs against this 'enumerating of sins.'" (10, 2, 336.)

The Hortulus Animae also shows how Luther was obliged to purge the Catechism from all manner of "unchristian follies," as he calls them. For the entire book is pervaded by idolatrous adoration of the saints. An acrostic prayer to Mary addresses her as mediatrix, auxiliatrix, reparatrix, illuminatrix, advocatrix. In English the prayer would read as follows: "O Mary, thou mediator between God and men, make of thyself the medium between the righteous God and me, a poor sinner! O Mary, thou helper in all anguish and need, come to my assistance in all sufferrings, and help me resist and strive against the evil spirits and overcome all my temptations and afflictions. O Mary, thou restorer of lost grace to all men, restore unto me my lost time, my sinful and wasted life! O Mary, thou illuminator, who didst give birth to the eternal Light of the whole world, illumine my blindness and ignorance, lest I, poor sinner that I am, enter the darkness of eternal death. O Mary, thou advocate of all miserable men, be thou my advocate at my last end before the stern judgment of God, and obtain for me the grace and the fruit of thy womb, Jesus Christ! Amen." Another prayer calls Mary the "mighty queen of heaven, the holy empress of the angels, the one who stays divine wrath." A prayer to the eleven thousand virgins reads as follows: "O ye, adorned with chastity, crowned with humility, clad with patience, covered with the blossoms of virtue, well polished with moderation – O ye precious pearls and chosen virgin maids, help us in the hour of death!"

With this idolatry and saint-worship silly superstition was combined. In order to be efficacious, a certain prayer prescribed in the Hortulus must be spoken not only with "true contrition and pure confession," but also "before a figure which had appeared to St. Gregory." Whoever offers a certain prayer "before the image of Our Lady in the Sun" "will not depart this life unshriven, and thirty days before his death will see the very adorable Virgin Mary prepared to help him." Another prayer is good "for pestilence" when spoken "before the image of St. Ann;" another prayer to St. Margaret profits "every woman in travail;" still another preserves him who says it from "a sudden death." All of these promises however, are far surpassed by the indulgences assured. The prayer before the apparition of St. Gregory obtains 24,600 years and 24 days of indulgence: another promises "indulgence for as many days as our Lord Jesus Christ received wounds during His passion, viz. 5,475." Whoever prays the Bridget-prayers not only obtains indulgence for himself, but 15 souls of his kin are thereby delivered from purgatory, 15 sinners converted, and 15 righteous "confirmed and established in their good standing." (W. 10, 2, 334.)

Also in the chart booklets for the Latin schools of the Middle Ages the Ave Maria and Salve Regina played an important part. – Such were the books which, before Luther, were to serve the people as catechisms, or books of instruction and prayer. In them, everything, even what was right and good in itself, such as the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Decalog, was made to serve Romish superstition and work-righteousness. Hence one can easily understand why Luther demanded that they be either thoroughly reformed or eradicated.