Foreword.
1. Martin Luther to all faithful, pious pastors and preachers grace, mercy and peace in Jesus Christ our Lord. To put this catechism, or Christian doctrine, in such a small, bad, simple form, I was forced and urged by the miserable, miserable hardship, which I recently experienced, since I was also a visitator. Help, dear God! How many a pity I have seen that the common man knows nothing at all of Christian doctrine, especially in the villages, and unfortunately many pastors are almost clumsy and unfit to teach; and yet all should be called Christians, be baptized, and enjoy the holy sacraments; can neither know the Lord's Prayer, nor the faith, nor the Ten Commandments; live like dear cattle and unreasonable swine; and now the Gospel has come, yet have learned finely to abuse all freedom masterfully.
2 O you bishops! what will you answer Christ more and more, that you will not accept the
Have you let the people go so shamefully, and have you never for a moment proved your office? That all misfortune may flee from you! Forbid the same form, and enforce your laws of men; but in the meantime ask nothing whether they know the Lord's Father, the faith, the Ten Commandments, or any of the words of God. Alas and woe upon your neck forever! Therefore, for God's sake, I ask all of you, my dear lords and brothers, who are pastors or preachers, to accept your office with all your heart and to have mercy on your people, who are commanded to you, and to help us to bring the Catechism to the people, especially to the young people; and who are not better able, to take these tables and forms before them and to teach them to the people from word to word. Namely thus:
3. first of all, that the preacher beware of all things and avoid various or different texts and forms of the ten commandments, Our Father, faith, sacraments, etc. but take one form before him, on which he will remain
and always do the same, one year like the other. For the young and foolish people must be taught with a certain text and form, otherwise they will easily go astray, if one teaches today and for a year as if one wanted to improve it, and all effort and work will be lost. This was well seen by the dear fathers, who used the Lord's Prayer, faith, and the Ten Commandments all in one way; therefore we should also teach such pieces to the young and simple-minded people in such a way that we do not shift one syllable, or hold or recite one year differently from the other.
4 Therefore, choose whatever form you want and stick to it forever. But when you preach to the learned and intelligent, you may prove your art and make these pieces as colorful and as masterly as you can. But with the young people stay in a certain eternal form and way and teach them for the very first these pieces, namely, the Ten Commandments, Faith, Our Father etc., according to the text, from word to word, so that they can repeat it to you and learn it by heart.
(5) Those who do not want to learn that they deny Christ and are not Christians shall not be admitted to the sacrament, shall not be baptized, shall not use any part of the Christian liberty, but shall be badly sent home to the pope and his officials, and to the devil himself. In addition, the parents and landlords shall deny them food and drink and inform them that the prince wants to drive such crude people out of the country etc. For although no one can be forced to believe, nor should he be forced to believe, yet the mob should be kept and driven so that they know what is right and wrong, with whom they want to live, feed themselves and live; for whoever wants to live in a city should know and keep the city law that he wants to enjoy, God grant that he believes, or is in his heart a rogue or a knave.
6th Secondly: If they know the text well, then teach them afterwards also the understanding, so that they know what it is said, and take before you again this tablets way, or else a short some way, which you
And stay with them, and do not move them one syllable at a time, as the text now says, and take thy time to do it; for it is not necessary that thou take all the pieces at once, but one by one. If they understand the first commandment well beforehand, then take the other before you, and so on; otherwise they will be overwhelmed, so that they will not remember any of them well.
7 Thirdly: When you have taught them such a short catechism, then take the great catechism before you and give them also a richer and wider understanding: there strike out every commandment, request, and item with its various works, benefits, pieties, dangers, and harms; as you will find all this abundantly in so many books made of it. In particular, you must do the commandment and the thing that causes the most trouble among your people; for the seventh commandment, against stealing, you must do strongly among craftsmen, merchants, and even among farmers and servants, for among such people all kinds of unfaithfulness and thievery abound. The fourth commandment must be enforced on children and common men, so that they may be quiet, faithful, obedient and peaceful, and always introduce many examples from the Scriptures of how God has punished and blessed such people.
8. In particular, urge the authorities and parents there to govern well and to bring children to school, showing them how they are obliged to do so, and if they do not do so, what an accursed sin they are committing; for they overthrow and destroy both God's kingdom and the world's kingdom, as the worst enemies of both God and man, and may well say what terrible harm they do, if they do not help to draw children to pastors, preachers, scribes etc., that God will punish them terribly for it; for it is necessary to preach here; the parents and authorities are sinning in this now, so that it cannot be said that the devil also has a cruel thing in mind.
Lastly: Because the tyranny of the pope is gone, they no longer want to go to the sacrament and despise it. Here, however, it is necessary to proceed, but with this instruction: We are not to force anyone to the faith or to the sacrament, nor any law, nor time, nor
But preach in such a way that they force themselves without our law and, as it were, force us priests to administer the sacrament. Which is done by saying to them, "He who does not seek or desire the sacrament, at least once or four times a year, is to be feared as despising the sacrament and is not a Christian; just as he is not a Christian who does not believe or hear the gospel. For Christ did not say, Let such things be, or despise such things; but, Do such things, as often as ye drink them etc. He truly wants to do it and not to leave it and despise it. Do this, he says.
010 But he that regardeth not the sacrament greatly, it is a sign that he hath no sin, no flesh, no devil, no world, no death, no danger, no hell; that is, he believeth none of them, though he be up to his ears in them, and is double of the devil. Again, he has no need of grace, life, paradise, kingdom of heaven, Christ, God, or any good thing; for if he thought that he had so much evil and needed so much good, he would not leave the sacrament, in which such evil is helped and so much good is given: nor could he be forced to the sacrament by any law, but he would run himself.
and come running, forcing yourself and driving you to give him the Sacrament.
(11) Therefore, you must not make a law here, as the pope does; only eliminate from this sacrament the benefits and harms, hardships and pieties, dangers and salvation, and they will come without your coercion. But if they do not come, let them go and tell them that they are of the devil, who neither respect nor feel their great need and God's gracious help. But if you do not do this, or make a law and poison out of it, it is your fault that they despise the sacrament. How can they not be lazy if you are asleep and silent? Therefore, priest and preacher, our ministry has now become a different thing than it was under the pope, it has now become serious and wholesome; therefore it now has much more trouble and work, danger and challenge, plus little reward and thanks in the world. But Christ himself will be our reward, if we work faithfully. May the Father of all mercies help us, to whom be praise and thanksgiving forever and ever, through Christ our Lord, amen.*)
*) The preface, which follows in the Leipzig collection, is here in the Tractate von der deutschen Messe.