Since not only the small, but also the large Catechism of Luther has been incorporated into our symbolic books, I still remember with a few words the dispute that has been aroused because of the copy of the large Catechism, which is now in the books of faith. When the Margrave of Baden, Ernst Friedrich, had the so-called Staffort'sche Buch or "Christian Concerns and Considerable Well-Founded Motives" printed in quarto in 1599 and made known in it the motives why he never signed the Concordienbuch, Among other things, he also stated this as a concern, because Luther's great catechism was not printed in the Concordia Book as it stood in the parts of his writings, but rather had been changed and falsified. This allegation was reasonably contradicted and it was shown that the great Catechism, as it is found in our symbolic books, corresponds exactly with the one that is included in the Jena collection of Luther's writings, and since this collection is to be considered the most correct and purest, the printing of the great Catechism in our Concordia book is also to be considered the same. The authors of Staffort's book had, according to their own confession, held it against the Wittenberg parts, and it could not be denied that there were some deviations; one must know, however, that, as these would be successful and would result in minor details, the Jena collection would therefore rightly be preferred to the Wittenberg one.
The main reason is that this was done by Philippists, who did not mind changing something here and there in Luther's writings. This has been further presented and elaborated by the Saxon and Würtemberg theologians. The former have done so in the "Thorough Refutation of the Calvinic Book Pronounced at Staffort," which came out at Wittenberg in 1602, p. 80 f.; in the "Constant and Thorough Report on the Supposed Christian Misgivings," etc. which came out in 1601, about which Leonhard Hutter also wrote in "Concord. Concors" p. 1452, to read.