Chapter XIX: Introduction

The work here presented bears the German title, _Eine kurze Form der zehn Gebote, eine kurze Form des Glaubens, eine kurze Form des Vaterunsers_. It is the most important of Luther's catechetical works prior to the Catechisms of 1529, and deserves the name that has been given it, "the first evangelical catechism."[1]

To be sure, the name "catechism" was not applied to the _Kurze Form_ at the time. In mediaeval usage "catechism" was the name for oral instruction in the elements of Christian truth. This instruction had been based from time immemorial upon the Creed and the Lord's Prayer. The decalogue held a minor place and was overshadowed by the commandments of the church. During the later Middle Ages the influence of the sacrament of penance gave it a higher position. It gradually became a subject of "catechetical" instruction, but only alongside of the other standards for the classification of sins.[2] It was the work of Luther so to expound the Ten Commandments as to give them a permanent place of their own in Christian instruction, side by side with the Creed and the Lord's Prayer.

The first manuals of instruction of this kind were prepared for the use of the priests, to guide them in the questioning of penitents, but with the discovery of the art of printing popular hand-books for the use of the laity became more and more common, and with certain of these manuals Luther was familiar.[3]

From the beginning of his ministry at Wittenberg, Luther had preached from time to time upon the Ten Commandments and the Lord's Prayer. In 1518 his friend Agricola published a series of sermons on the Lord's Prayer which Luther had preached in Lent, 1517.[4] In the same year Luther published his own _Kurze Auslegung der zehn Gebote, ihrer Erfullung und Uebertretung_.[5] The year 1519 saw the publication of the _Kurze Form das Paternoster zu verstehen und zu beten_, and the _Kurze und gute Auslegung des Vaterunsers vor sich und hinter sich_.[7] The _Treatise on Good Works_[8], which is essentially an exposition of the decalogue, was written in the early months of 1520. During the same period the mind of Luther was frequently occupied with the abuses of the confessional, as we learn from the _Confitendi Ratio_,[9] and the _Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soil_.[10] All the material for the first and third parts of the present work was, therefore, in hand and had appeared in print before 1520.

In 1520 the Kurze Form came from the press.[11] It consists of three separately composed expositions of the three chief subjects of catechetical instruction in the Middle Ages. The expositions of the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer are reproductions of the _Kurze Auslegung der zehn Gebote_ and the _Kurze Form das Paternoster zu verstehen und zu beten_. The treatment of the Apostles' Creed is new, as is also the Introduction, in which Luther sets forth the relation of the three parts to one another in the unity of the Christian life.

The work is not scientific and theological, but popular and religious. Its purpose is primarily devotional, not pedagogical. The mediaeval root out of which it grew is not to be denied. The catalogue of transgressions and fulfilments attached to the explanation of the decalogue shows that it is intended to be a manual for penitents, but the spirit in which the Creed and the Lord's Prayer are explained is not mediaeval, and the manner in which the explanations of the decalogue are simplified and rid of the excrescences of the XV Century hand-books shows the new evangelical conception of confession to which Luther had attained. The division of the Creed into three articles instead of the traditional twelve marks an epoch in the development of catechetical instruction. The little book contains passages of rare beauty, clouded at times, we fear, by the new language into which it has here been put, and seldom has the _Wesen des Christentums_ been more simply and tellingly set forth than in the treatment of the Creed.

In 1522 Luther republished the _Kurze Form_ with a few slight changes and a number of additions under the title _Betbuchlein_. The _Betbuchlein_ ran through many editions, and grew in the end to a book of rather large proportions, a complete manual of devotion.

In its original form and as the chief content of the _Betbuchlein_, the _Kurze Form_ exercised a profound influence upon the manuals of Christian doctrine that appeared in ever-increasing number after 1522.[12] Its influence extended to England, where Marshall's _Goodly Primer_ (1534 and 35) offered to English readers a translation of the _Betbuchlein_, in which, however, no acknowledgments were made to the original author.[13]

The _Kurze Form_ is found in _Weimar Ed._, VII, 194 ff.; _Erl. Ed._, XXII, 3 ff.; _Clemen Ed._, II, 38 ff.; _Walch Ed._, X, 182 ff.; _St. Louis Ed._, X, 149 ff.

LITERATURE

F. Cohrs, _Die evang. Katechismusversuche vor L.'s Enchiridion_ (especially I, 1 ff. and IV, 229 ff.), Arts. _Katechismen L.'s and Katechismusunterricht_ in _Realencyk._, X, 130 ff., and XXIII, 743 ff., and _Introd. to Betbuchlein_ in _Weimar Ed._, X; O. Albrecht, _Vorbemerkungen zu den beiden Katechismen von 1529_, in _Weimar Ed._, XXX', 426 ff. (Further literature cited by all the above.) See also Gecken, _Bilderkatechismus d. XV Jh_. and von Zezschwitz, _System d. Katechetik_ (especially II, i).

CHARLES M. JACOBS.

LUTHERAN THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,

Mount Airy, Philadelphia

FOOTNOTES

[1] Cohrs, _Evang. Katechismusversuche_, I, 4.

[2] _von Zezschwitz, Katechetik_, II, 176, 265 ff.

[3] _Weimar Ed._, X', 475.

[4] _Weimar Ed._, IX, 122 ff. The same series was republished by Luther himself, ibid., IV, 74 ff.

[5] _Weimar Ed._, I, 248 ff.

[6] _Weimar Ed._, VI, 9 ff.

[7] _Weimar Ed._, VI, 20 ff.

[8] Vol. I, pp. 187 ff.

[9] Vol. I, pp. 81-101.

[10] _Weimar Ed._, II, 47 ff.

[11] On the exact date, see _Weimar Ed._, VII, 195; _Clemen_, II, 38.

[12] See Cohrs, IV, 326 ff.

[13] For this information I am indebted to the Rev. J. F. Bornhold, of Mount Holly, N. J. The act was discovered almost simultaneously by Pro. M. Reu, of Dubuque, Iowa.

A BRIEF EXPLANATION OF THE TEN COMMANDMENTS, THE CREED, AND THE LORD'S PRAYER

1520