§ 90. The Typical Catechisms of Protestantism.
§ 90. The Typical Catechisms of Protestantism.
In this connection we may anticipate a brief comparison between the most influential manuals of popular religious instruction which owe their origin to the Reformation, and have become institutions, retaining their authority and usefulness to this day.
These are Luther’s Little Catechism (1529), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), the Anglican Catechism (1549, enlarged 1604, revised 1661), and the Westminster Shorter Catechism (1647). The first is the standard catechism of the Lutheran Church; the second, of the German and Dutch Reformed, and a few other Reformed churches (in Bohemia and Hungary); the third, of the Episcopal Church of England and her daughters in the British Colonies and the United States; the fourth, of the Presbyterian churches in Scotland, England, and America. They follow these various churches to all their missionary fields in heathen lands, and have been translated into many languages.
They are essentially agreed in the fundamental doctrines of catholic and evangelical religion. They teach the articles of the Apostles’ Creed, the Ten Commandments, and the Lord’s Prayer; that is, all that is necessary for a man to believe and to do in order to be saved. They thus exhibit the harmony of the chief branches of orthodox Protestant Christendom.
But they also differ, and reflect the peculiar genius and charisma of these churches. The Lutheran Catechism is the simplest, the most genial and childlike; the Heidelberg Catechism, the fullest and the richest for a more mature age; the Anglican Catechism, the shortest and most churchly, though rather meagre; the Westminster Catechism, the clearest, precisest, and most logical. The first three are addressed to the learner as a church-member, who answers the questions from his present or prospective experience. The Westminster Catechism is impersonal, and gives the answers in the form of a theological definition embodying the question. The first two breathe the affectionate heartiness and inwardness which are characteristic of German piety; the other two reflect the sober and practical type of English and Scotch piety. The Lutheran and Anglican Catechisms begin with the Ten Commandments, and regard the law in its preparatory mission as a schoolmaster leading to Christ. The other catechisms begin with an exposition of the articles of faith, and proceed from faith to the law as a rule of Christian life, which the Heidelberg Catechism represents as an act of gratitude for the salvation obtained (following in its order the Epistle to the Romans, from sin to redemption, and from redemption to a holy life of gratitude). Luther adheres to the Roman division of the Decalogue, and abridges it; the others give the better division of the Jews and the Greek Church, with the full text. The Lutheran and Anglican Catechisms assign to the sacraments an independent place alongside of the Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer; while the Heidelberg and Westminster Catechisms incoporate them in the exposition of the articles of faith. The former teach baptismal regeneration, and Luther also the corporeal real presence, and private confession and absolution; the latter teach the Calvinistic theory of the sacraments, and ignore private confession and absolution. The Anglican Thirty-nine Articles, however, likewise teach the Reformed view of the Lord’s Supper. The Westminster Catechism departs from the catholic tradition by throwing the Apostles’ Creed into an appendix, and substituting for the historical order of revelation a new logical scheme; While all the other catechisms make the Creed the basis of their, doctrinal expositions.742
The difference is manifest in the opening questions and answers, which we give here in parallel columns: —
Luther’s Catechism
The First Commandment.
Thou shalt have no other gods.
What does this mean?
We should hear and love God, and trust in Him, above all things
The Second [Third] Commandment.
Thou shalt not take the name of thy God in vain.
What does this mean?
We should so fear and love God as not to curse, swear, conjure, lie, or deceive, by his name; but call upon it in every time of need, pray, praise, and give thanks.
The Third [Fourth] Commandment.
Thou shalt keep the holy Sabbath day.
What does this mean?
We should hear and love God as not to despise preaching and His Word, and willingly hear and learn it.
Heidelberg Catechism.
What is thy only comfort in life and in death?
That I, with body and soul, both in life and in death, am not my own, but belong to my faithful Saviour Jesus Christ, who with his precious blood has fully satisfied for all my sins, and redeemed me from all the power of the devil; and so preserves me that without the will of my Father in heaven not a hair can fall from my head; yea, that all things must work together for my salvation. Wherefore, by his Holy Spirit, He also assures me of eternal life, and makes me heartily willing and ready henceforth to live unto Him.
How many things are necessary for thee to know, that thou in this comfort mayest live abd die happily?
Three things: First, the greatness of my sin and misery. Secondly, how I am redeemed from all my sins and misery. Thirdly, how I am to be thankful to God for such redemption.
Anglican Catechism
What is your name?
N. or M.
Who gave you this name?
My Godfathers and Godmothers 743 In my Baptism; wherein I was made a member of Christ, the child of God, and an inheritor of the kingdom of heaven.
What did your godfathers and godmothers [sponsors] then for you?
They did promise and vow three things in my name. First, that I should renounce the devil and all his works, the pomps and vanity of this wicked world, and all the sinful lusts of the flesh. Secondly, that I should believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith. And thirdly, that I should keep God's holy will and commandments, and walk in them all the days of my life.
Westminster Catechism.
What is the chief end of man?
Man’s chief end is to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever.
What rule hath God given to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him?
The Word of God, which is contained in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy Him.
What do the Scriptures principally teach?
The Scriptures principally teach what man is to believe concerning God and what duty God requires of man.
What is God?
God is a Spirit, infinite, eternal, and unchangeable, in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness, and truth.
"V. D. M. I. AE." = Verbum Dei manet in aetemum.
But he left two illegitimate sons.
Extracts from the Tischreden, Erl. ed., vol. LXI., 379, 380, 385, 387, 389, 393, 394.
De Wette, II. 570.
Ibid., II. 643.
Also spelled Bore or Boren.
She was born Jan. 29, 1499, and was in the convent from 1509.
Erasmus, in a letter of 1525, ascribed to Catharina from hearsay extraordinary beauty: "Lutherus duxit uxorem, puellam mire venustam, ex clara familia Bornae, sed ut narrant indotatam, quae ante annos complures vestalis esse desierat." Michelet (Life of Luther, ch. V.), probably misled by this letter, calls her "a young girl of remarkable beauty."
De Wette, II. 655. On June 2, 1525, he advised Cardinal Archbishop and Elector Albrecht of Mainz, in an open letter, to marry, and to secularize the archbishopric. Ibid., p. 673.
"Lutherus noster duxit Catharinam de Bora. Heri adfui rei et vidi sponsum in thalamo jacentem. [An indecent German custom of the time; see Köstlin, II. 767.] Non potui me continere, adstans huic spectaculo, quin illachrymarem, nescio quo affectu animum percellente … mirabilis Deus a in consiliis et operibus suis."
See his letters of invitation in De Wette, III. 1, 2, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13.
Ibid., III. 103, 104. Tischreden, IV. 308. Köstlin, I. 772.
In his letter to Franciscus Sylvius (1526): "De conjugio Lutheri certum est, de partu maturo sponsae vanus erat rumor, nunc tamen gravida esse dicitur. Si vera est vulgi fabula Antichristum nasciturum ex monacho et monacha quemadmodum isti jactitant, quot Antichristorum millia jam olim habet mundus ? At ego sperabam fore, ut Lutherum uxor redderet magis cicurem. Verum ille praeter omnem expectationem emisit librum in me summa quidem cura elaboratum, sed adeo virulentum, ut hactenus in neminem scripserit hostilius."
The letter was published in the original Greek by W. Meyer, in the reports of the München Academy of Sciences, Nov. 4, 1876, pp. 601-604. The text is changed in the Corp. Reform., I. 753. Mel. calls Luther a very reckless man (ajnh;r wJ" mavlista eujcerhv"), but hopes that he will become more solemn (semnovtero").
De Wette, III. 3.
Ibid., III. 125.
From his little farm.
Saumärkterin. They lived near the pigmarket.
Feb. 7, 1546, In De Wette, V. 787.
Nobbe, Stammbaum der Familie des Dr. M. Luther, Grimma, 1846.
The Nativity hymn,—
"Vom Himmel hoch da komm ich her ,"
was written for his children in 1535. He abridged it in 1543:—
"Vom Himmel kam der Engel Schaar ."
De Wette, IV. 41 sq. Comp. Luther’s Brief an sein Söhnlein Hänsigen. With woodcuts and original drawings by Ludwig Richter, Leipz. 1883. Fronde calls it "the prettiest letter ever addressed by a father to a child."Luther, p. 53.
Philip, son of Melanchthon.
Jodocus, son of Jonas.
Great-aunt, Magdalen.
Erl. ed., vol. LXV. 237, in Latin and German. Lena died Sept. 20, 1542. See her picture by Cranach in Köstlin’s small biography, p. 545.
"Wer nicht liebt Weib, Wein und Gesang,
Der bleibt ein Narr sein Leben lang."
The lines appeared first in the present form in the Wandsbecker Bote for 1775, No. 75, p. 300, and then in 1777 in the Musenalmanach of J. H. Voss (the poet, and translator of Homer), who was supposed to be the author, and to have foisted them upon Luther. Herder gave them a place among his Volkslieder, 1778, I. 12. Seidemann, in Schnorr’s "Archiv," vol. VIII. (1879), p. 440, has shown that the sentiment is substantially pre-Lutheran, and quotes from Luther’s Table Talk, Ser. IV., a sentence somewhat analogous, but involving a reproach to the Germans for drunkenness: "Wie wollt ihr jetzt anders einen Deutschen vorthun denn Ebrietate, praesertim talem qui non diligit Musicamet Mulieres?" See Köstlin, II. 678 sq. Another similar sentence has since been found by L. Schulze in the "Reformatorium viae clericorum " of 1494: "Absque Venere et mero rite laetabitur nemo."
He liked the beer of Eimbeck and Naumburg. In one of his last letters (Feb. 7. 1546) to his wife from Eisleben, where he was treated like a prince by the counts of Mansfeld, he gives her this piece of information: "We live here very well, and the town-council gives me for each meal half a pint of ’Rheinfall’ (Rhine wine), which is very good. Sometimes I drink it with my friends. The wine of the country here is also good, and Naumburger beer is very good, though I fancy its pitch fills my chest with phlegm. The Devil has spoilt all the beer in the world with pitch, and the wine with brimstone. But here the wine is pure, such as the country gives." De Wette, V. 788.
He preached some strong sermons against intemperance, and commends the Italians and Turks for sobriety. See Colloquia, ed. Bindseil, I. 195 sqq.
He wrote to Justice Menius, Aug. 24, 1535 (De Wette, IV. 624), that he was often deceived, "per fictas Nonnas et generosas meretrices."
See St. Louis ed. of Walch, vol. XXII., much improved by Hoppe, 1887.
Köstlin, small biography, N. Y. ed. p. 554, Ger. ed. p. 592. But In his large work, vol. II. 519, he makes this just qualification: "Derbe, plumpe, unserm Ohre anstössige Worte kommen in Luther’s Reden wie in seinen Schriften, ja einigemale sogar in seinen Predigten vor. Seine Art war in der That keine feine; sie steht aber auch so noch bedeutend über dem Ton, der damals durchschnittlich in weltlichen und geistlichen Kreisen, bei Bürgern, hohen Herren und Kirchenfürsten herrschte, und jene ungünstigen Eindrücke müssen der edeln Kraft, dem Salz und Mark gegenüber, die seine Gespräche und Schriften durchdringen, auch für uns weit zurücktreten."
See above, p. 334 sq.
See a curious tract of Andrew D. White, A History of the Doctrine of Comets, in the "Papers of the American Historical Association," N. Y., 1887, vol. II. 16.
On Luther’s Vermögensumstände, see Seidemann, Luther’s Grundbesitz, 1860. Köstlin, II. 498 sqq., and his references, p. 678.
See the description of Mosellanus, p. 180, and Cranach’s engraving from the year 1520, in Köstlin, p. 120 (Scribner’s ed.).
In spite of this fact attested by St. Paul, 1 Cor. 9:5, in the year 57, Dr. Spalding (in his Hist. of the Prot. Reformation, I. 177, 8th ed. 1875) asserts that Peter’s wife was "probably dead before he became an apostle."
Archbishop Spalding, in his History of the Reformation (I. 176), following the example of unscrupulous Romish controversialists, thus echoes the joke of Erasmus: "Matrimony was, in almost all cases, the dénouement of the drama which signalized the zeal for reformation." He refers for proof to Moore’s Travels of an Irish Gentleman in Search of a Religion, ch. XLVI., "where the great Irish poet enters into the subject at length, giving his authorities as he proceeds, and playing off his caustic wit on the hymeneal propensities of the Reformers." In looking at that chapter (for the first time), I find that it abounds in misstatements and abuse of the Reformers, whom the Irish poet calls not only "fanatics" and "bigots," but "the coarsest hypocrites" and "slaves of the most vulgar superstition " (p. 246, Philad. ed. 1833). The same poet gives us the startling piece of information (p. 248) that the Protestants were subdivided on the eucharistic question alone into countless factions such as "Panarii, Accidentarii, Corporarii, Arrabonarii, Tropistae, Metamorphistae, Iscariotistae, Schwenkenfeldians, etc., etc., etc.," and that "an author of Bellarmine’s time counted no less than two hundred different opinions on the words, ’This Is my body’ " ! Moore was evidently better at home in the history of Lord Byron than in the history of the church.
The Old Catholic Bishop Reinkens and Bishop Herzog, Drs. Döllinger, Friederich, Reusch, and Langen, remained single after their excommunication in 1870. But Père Loyson-Hyacinthe, who occupies a similar position of Tridentine or rather Gallican Romanism versus Vatican Romanism, followed the example of the Reformers, and married an American widow, whom he had converted to the Roman Church by his eloquent sermons in Notre Dame, before she converted him to herself. They were joined together by Dean Stanley in Westminster Abbey. It is reported that Pope Pius IX., on being informed of the fact, and asked to excommunicate the ex-monk, wittily replied, "It is not necessary, since he has taken the punishment into his own arms." A Pope’s view of the blessed estate of matrimony!
We may mention the saintly Archbishop Leighton, Dr. Samuel Hopkins, the missionary Zeisberger, Dr. William Augustus Mühlenberg (the founder of St. Luke’s Hospital In New York and of St. Johnland, and the singer of "I would not live alway"), the model pastor Ludwig Harms of Hermannsburg, the historian Neander and his sister, and the nurses or deaconesses of Kaiserswerth and similar institutions.
C. Schmidt, Philipp Melanchthon, pp. 47 sqq., 617, 710 sqq.
Stähelin, Johannes Calvin, vol. I. 272 sqq.
R. Christoffel, Huldreich Zwingli, pp. 336-339, 413. The slanderous exaggerations of Janssen have been refuted by Ebrard, Usteri, and Schweizer.
Hagenbach (Oekolampad, p. 108, note) gives this date, and refers to the Reformations-Almanach, 1821.
Herzog, Leben Joh. Oekolampadius, vol. II. 70 sqq.; Hagenbach, Joh. Oekolampad und Oswald Myconius, p. 107. Hagenbach says that the names of his children were the pillars of his home: godliness, truth, and peace.
In a letter to Adrianus Arivulus: "Nuper Oecolampadius duxit uxorem, puellam non inelegantem. Vult opinor affligere carnem. Quidam appellant Lutheranam tragaediam, mihi videtur esse comaedia. Semper enim in nuptias exeunt tumultus." He afterwards apologized to Oecolampadius, and disclaimed any intention to satirize him. See his letter to Oecolampadius in Drummond’s Erasmus, II. 319. Archbishop Spalding (l.c. I. 176) thus repeats the joke: "The gospel light seems to have first beamed upon Oecolampadius from the eye of a beautiful young lady, whom, in violation of his solemn vows plighted to Heaven, he espoused, probably, as Erasmus wittily remarked, to mortify himself." He says nothing of the apology of Erasmus to his friend and associate.
Strype’s Memorials of Cranmer (Bk. I., chs. 1, 4, 19; Bk. III., chs. 8 and 38); Hook’s Lives of the Archbishops of Canterbury (vols. VI. and VII.); Hardwick’s History of the Reformation, ed. W. Stubbs (1873), p. 179; and art. Cranmer in Leslie Stephen’s "Dictionary of National Biogr.," vol. XIII.
Dr. M’Crie’s Life of John Knox, Philad. ed., pp. 269 and 477 (Append. Note HHH); and Dav. Laing’s Preface to the 6th vol. of his ed. of Works of John Knox, pp. LXV. sqq.
Ranke states this fact.
Among distinguished sons of clergymen may be named Linné, the botanist; Berzelius, the chemist; Pufendorf, the lawyer; Schelling, the philosopher; Buxtorff, the Orientalist; Euler, the mathematician; Agassiz, the scientist; Edward and Ottfried Müller, the classical philologists; John von Müller, Spittler, Heeren, Mommsen, Bancroft, among historians; Henry Clay, Senator Evarts, and two Presidents of the United States, Arthur and Cleveland, among statesmen; Charles Wesley, Gellert, Wieland, Lessing, the brothers Schlegel, Jean Paul, Emanuel Geibel, Emerson (also the female writers Meta Heusser, Elizabeth Prentiss, Mrs. Stowe), among poets; John Wesley, Monod, Krummacher, Spurgeon, H. W. Beecher, R. S. Storrs, among preachers; Jonathan Edwards, Schleiermacher, Hengstenberg, Nitzsch, Julius Müller, Dorner, Dean Stanley, among divines; Swedenborg, the seer; with a large number of prominent and useful clergymen, lawyers, and physicians, in all Protestant countries.
From the tenth book of his Wahrheit und Dichtung. Herder directed his attention to the "Vicar," while they studied at Strassburg, and read it to him aloud in German translation. In the same book Goethe describes in fascinating style his visits to the parsonage of Sesenheim.
i e., all spirit, nothing but spirit, (without the article, as in the margin of the Revised Version), according to the Greek: pneu'ma(emphatically put first) oJQeov", in opposition to all materialistic conceptions and local limitations. Compare the parallel expressions: " God is love" (1 John 4:8), " God is light" (1 John 1:5), where neither the definite nor the indefinite article is admissible.
logikh; latreiva, Rom. 12:1; comp. the "spiritual sacrifices" (pneumatikai; qusivai), 1 Pet. 2:5
Missae de sanctis, missae votivae missae pro defunctis. Melanchthon, in the Apology of the Augsburg Confession, art. XXIV., says: "The fact that we hold only public or common mass is no offense against the Catholic Church. For in the Greek churches even to-day private masses are not held; but there is only a public mass, and that on the Lord’s Day and festivals." Masses for the dead, which date from Pope Gregory I., imply, of course, the doctrine of purgatory, and were among the crying abuses of the church.
"Wenn ichs vermöchte," he says in his tract on the German Mass, January, 1526, "und die griechische und ebräische Sprache wäre uns so gemein als die lateinischen und hätte so vielfeiner Musica und Gesangs als die lateinische hat, so sollte man einen Sonntag um den andern in alten vier Sprachen, deutsch, lateinisch, griechisch und ebräisch, Messe halten, singen, und lesen." Such a polyglot service was never even attempted except at the Propaganda in Rome. Melanchthon (Apol. Conf. Aug., art. XXIV.) defends the use of a Latin along with German hymns in public worship.
The canon missae ("Te igitur," etc.), embraces five or six prayers bearing upon the consecration and the offering of Christ’s body. It begins with an intercession for the Pope and all orthodox Catholics. Janssen says (III. 64): "In der Messe liess Luther den Canon, den Kern und das Wesen der katholischen Messe, fort," and unfairly adds: "Das Volk jedoch sollte dieses nicht wissen." As if Luther were the man to deceive the people!
Deutsche Messe und Ordnung des Gottesdiensts, with musical notes for the parts to be sung.
Part II. art. III. Comp. his "Apology of the Conf.," art. XXIV., De missa.
The Augsburg Confession, Part II. art. IV., says: "Confession is not abolished in our churches. For it is not usual to communicate the body of our Lord, except to those who have been previously examined and absolved. ... Men are taught that they should highly regard absolution, inasmuch as it is God’s voice, and pronounced by God’s commsand."
His sermons fill 16 vols. in the Erl. ed. of his Works.
They were taken down in short-hand, and first published by his companion Aurifaber. In the Erl. ed., XVI. 209 sqq.
"Tritt frisch auf; Mach’s Maul auf; Hör’ bald auf." Literally: Get up freshly; Open your mouth widely; Be done quickly. Comp. E. Jonas, Die Kanzelberedtsamkeit Luthers, Berlin, 1852; Beste, Die bedeutendsten Kanzelredner der älteren luth. Kirche, 1856 (pp. 30-36); G. Garnier, Sur la predication de Luther, Montauban, 1876; Thomas S. Hastings, Luther as a Preacher, In the "Luther Symposiac" by the Professors of the Union Theological Seminary, New York, 1883.
"Propter necessitatem Verbi Dei" and "propter infirmos."
On Luther’s views of Sunday, see his explanation of the third (fourth) commandment in his catechisms, and Köstlin, Luthers Theologie, II. 82 sqq.
On the history of Sunday observance, see Hessey, Sunday; its Origin, History, etc. (Oxford, 1860); Gilfillan, The Sabbath (Edinb. 1861); and the author’s essay on the Christian Sabbath in "Christ and Christianity" (New York and London, 1885, pp. 213-291).
On Greek and Latin hymnology and the literature, see Schaff, Church History, III. 575 sqq., and IV. 402 sqq. and 416 sqq.
Comp. Ozanam, Les poetes Franciscains en Italie au 13mesiècle. Paris, 1852.
Bouterweck, Caedmon’s des Angelsachsen biblische Dichtungen, Elberfeld, 1849-54. Bosanquet, The Fall of Man, or Paradise Lost of Caedmon, translated in verse from the Anglo-Saxon, London, 1860.
E. Sievers, Der Heliand und die angelsächsische Genesis. Halle, 1875.
Flacius first edited Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch (Evangeliorum liber), Bas. 1571. Recent editions by Graff, under the title Krist, Königsberg, 1831; and Kelle, Otfrid’s Evang.-buch, Regensb. 1856 and 1859, 2 vols. Specimens in Wackernagel’s D. Kirchenlied (the large work), vol. ii. 3-21. A translation into modern German by G. Rapp, Gotha, 1858.
Comp. Hammerich, Aelteste christliche Epik der Angelsachsen, Deutschen und Nordländer. Translated from the Danish by Michelsen, 1874.
Wackernagel, II. 22, published the whole hymn from a manuscript in Munich.
Wackernagel, II. 43 sq., gives several forms. They were afterwards much enlarged. In a Munich manuscript of the fifteenth century, a Latin verse is coupled with the German:—
"Christus surrexit,
mala nostra texit,
et quos hic dilexit
hos ad coelum vexit
Kyrie leyson ."
See specimens in Koch, I. 194 sq., and in Wackernagel, II. 333 sqq.
Several forms in Wackernagel, II.
Wackernagel (II. 409 sqq.) gives forty-three of his hymns from several manuscripts in the libraries at Munich and Vienna.
Wackernagel, II. 302 sqq.; Koch, I. 191.
Meister and Bäumker, in the Katholische deutsche Kirchenlied in seinen Singweisen, give a collection of these catholic tunes, partly from unpublished manuscript sources. They acknowledge, however, the great merit of the Protestant hymnologists who have done the pioneer work in mediaeval church poetry and music, especially Winterfeld and Wackernagel.
Wackernagel, in his Biblogr., p. 454 sqq., gives extracts from an edition printed at Nürnberg, 1521.
II p. xiii.; compare Nos. 222, 226, 728, 870, 876.
Wackernagel, II. 799 sqq., gives this hymn in several forms. It was sung on the feast of the Nativity of Mary, and at other times.
I allude, of course, to the mystic conclusion of the second part of Goethe’s Faust:—
"Das Ewig-Weibliche zieht uns hinan."
According to Koch (I. 470), Luther is certainly the author of the tunes to "Ein feste Burg," and to "Jesaja dem Propheten das geschah," and probably of six more; the tunes to the other Luther-hymns are of older or of uncertain origin.
Wackernagel, III. 1-31, gives fifty-four Luther-poems, including the variations, and some which cannot be called hymns, as the praise of "Frau Musica," and "Wider Herzog Heinrich von Braunschweig."
Carlyle’s translation,—
"A safe stronghold our God is still,"
is upon the whole the best because of its rugged vigor and martial ring. Heine called this hymn the Marseillaise of the Reformation; but it differs as widely from the Marseillaise as the German Reformation differs from the godless French Revolution.
The hymn appears in Joseph Klug’s Gesangbuch of 1529 (and in a hymn-book of Augsburg, 1529), and to that year it is assigned by Wackernagel (III. 20), Koch, and also by Köstlin in the first ed. of his large biography of M. Luther (1875, vol. II. 127), as a protest against the Diet of Speier held in that year. But since the discovery of an older print apparently from February, 1528, Köstlin has changed his view in favor of 1527, the year of the pestilence and Luther’s severest spiritual and physical trials. He says (I.c. II. 182, second and third ed.): "Aus jener schwersten Zeit, welche Luther bis Ende des Jahres 1527 durchzu-machen hatte, ist wohl das gewaltigste seiner Lieder, das ’Ein feste Burg ist unser Gott,’ hervorgegangen." Schneider (1856) first fixed upon Nov. 1, 1527, as the birthday of this hymn from internal reasons, and Knaake (1881) added new ones. The deepest griefs and highest faith often meet. Justinus Kemer sings:—
"Poesie ist tiefes Schmerzen,
Und es kommt das schönste Lied
Nur aus einem Menschenherzen,
Das ein tiefes Leid durchglüht."
The third stanza of this resurrection hymn is very striking:—
"Es war ein wunderlicher Krieg,
Da Tod und Leben rungen:
Das Leben das behielt den Sieg,
Es hat den Tod verschlungen.
Die Schrift hat verkündet das,
Wie da ein Tod den andern frass,
Ein Spott aus dem Tod ist worden.
Hallelujah!
(That was a wondrous war, I trow,
When Life and Death together fought;
But Life hath triumphed o’er his foe.
Death is mocked and set at naught.
.’Tis even as the Scripture saith,
Christ through death hath conquered Death.)
The second line, which was very offensive to the Papists, is changed in most modern hymnbooks into,—
"Und steure alter Feinde Mord."
See the whole in Wackernagel, III. 3, 4. Thomas Fuller says of the ashes of Wiclif, that the brook Swift, into which they were cast (1428), "conveyed them into the Avon, the Avon into Severn, Severn into the narrow seas, they into the main ocean; and thus the ashes of Wiclif are the emblems of his doctrine, which now is dispersed all the world over."
"Die wittenbergisch Nachtigall,
Die man jetzt höret überall."
See Koch, I. 246 sqq., and Wackernagel’s Bibliographie, p. 66 sqq.
It is characteristic of the voluminous Ultramontane work of Janssen, that it has not a word to say about the hymnological enrichment of public worship and Christian piety by Luther and his followers.
In his Kirchenlieder-Lexicon, 1878.
Sacred Hymns from the German, London, 1841, new ed. with German text, 1865.
Psalms and Hymns, partly original, partly selected, for the use of the Church of England, Cambridge, 1851. Many of the pieces are from the German. He contributed most of the translations to Ernest Bunsen’s Hymns for Public Worship and Private Devotion, London, 1848.
Luther’s Spiritual Songs, London, 1854; and Lyra Domestica, translations from Spitta’s Psaltery and Harp, London, 1860; second series, 1864.
Lyra Germanica, first and second series, Lond. and N. Y., 1855 and 1858, in several editions. Also the beautiful Chorale Book for England, London, 1863, which contains many hymns from the Lyra Germanica, partly remodelled, with seventy-two others translated by the same lady, together with the old tunes edited by Bennet and Goldschmidt. Several translations of Miss C. W., especially from Paul Gerhardt, have passed into hymn-books. Comp. Theo. Kübler, Historical Notices to the Lyra Germanica (dedicated to Miss C. W.), London, 1865.
Hymns from the Land of Luther, translated from the German by H. L. L., Edinburgh and New York, in 4, parts, 1854; fifth ed., Edinb. 1884 (15th thousand), enlarged by the Alpine Lyrics of Mrs. Meta Heusser. The translations of Miss Borthwick reproduce the spirit rather than the letter of the original. Several of them have become more widely known through hymnbooks and private collections: as Franck’s eucharistic hymn, "Schmücke dich, Oliebe Seele.""Soul, arise, dispel thy sadness;" Gerhardt’s "Ich bin ein Gast auf Erden.""A pilgrim and a stranger, I journey here below;" Tersteegen’s "Gott rufet noch.""God calling yet;" Schmolck’s "Mein Jesu, wie Du willst, So lass mich allzeit wollen" "My Jesus, as Thou wilt;" Zinzendorf’s "Jesu, geh voran.""Jesus, still lead on;" Spitta’s "Was macht ihr, dass ihr weinet.""What mean ye by this wailing" and his "Angel of Patience" (Es zieht ein stiller Engel."" A gentle angel walketh throughout this world of woe"); Lange’s "Was kein Auge hat gesehen."" What no human eye hath seen; "Mrs. Heusser’s "Noch ein wenig Schweiss und Thränen," " A few more conflicts, toils and tears;" "O Jesu Christ, mein Leben."" O Christ, my Life, my Saviour;" besides other religious lyrics which are not intended for hymns. Miss Borthwick has since published Lyra Christiana, a Treasury of Sacred Poetry, edited by H. L. L., Edinb. 1888, which contains a few German poems, but is mostly selected from English sources.
Presbyterian minister in New York City, died 1859. He Is the best translator of Gerhardt’s "O Haupt voll Blut und Wunden" ("O sacred Head, now wounded"), and several other famous hymns, German and Latin. His translations were first published in Schaff’s "Kirchenfreund"or 1849-’51 (with the originals), then in the "Mercersburg Review" for 1869, pp. 304 sqq., 414 sqq., and have since passed into many American hymn-books.
Horae Germanicae, Auburn and New York, 1845, 2d ed. 1856. Mills was professor of biblical criticism in the Presbyterian Theol. Seminary at Auburn, N. Y., and died 1867.
Paul Gerhardt’s Spiritual Songs, London, 1867.
e.g., for Schaff’s Christ in Song, New York, 1868, and London, 1870. In my German Hymn-book (Philad. 1859, revised and enlarged ed., 1874), I have noted the English translations as far as I knew them.
In Spain, once the richest and proudest monarchy of Europe, sixty per cent of the adult population could not read in 1877, according to the official census. Compare this with the educational statistics of Prussia, which in the sixteenth century was a poor, semi-barbarous principality. The contrast between North America and South America in point of popular education is still more striking.
Letter to Spalatin, March 30, 1529 (De Wette, III. 433): "Jura papistica legere incipimus et inspicere."
Comp. A. Kohler, Luther und die Juristen, Gotha, 1873; Köstlin, M. Luth., II. 476 sqq., 580 sq. In his Table Talk (Erl. ed., LXII., 214 sqq.), Luther has much to say against the lawyers, and thinks that few of them will be saved. "Ein frommer Jurist," he says, "ist ein seltsames Thier."
Apol. Conf. Aug., Art. XIV. (Müller’s ed. of the Lutheran symbols, p. 205): "Nos summa voluntate cupere conservare politiam ecclesiasticam et gradus in ecclesia, factos etiam humana auctoritate." He subscribed the Smalcald Articles (1537), with a clause in favor of a limited papal supervision.
See the Appendix to the Smalcald Articles, which have symbolical authority, on the Power and Primacy of the Pope (Müller’s ed., p. 341): "Quum jure divino non sint diversi gradus episcopi et pastoris manifestum est ordinationem a pastore in sua ecclesia factam jure divino ratam esse. Itaque cum episcopi ordinarii fiunt hostes ecclesia aut nolunt impartire ordinationem, ecclesiae retinent ius suum."
See his letters to Jonas, Lauterbach, Link, Probst, and others, in De Wette, vol. V. To Lauterbach he wrote, Nov. 10, 1541 (V. 407), "Ego paene de Germania desperavi, postquam recepit inter parietes veros illos Turkas seu veros illos diabolos, avaritiam, usuram, tyrannidem, discordiam et totam illam Lernam perfidiae, malitiae, et nequitiae, in nobilitate, in aulis, in curiis, in oppidis, in villis, super haec autem contemtum verbi et ingratitudinem inauditam." To Jonas he wrote, March 7, 1543 (V. 548), that the German nobility and princes were worse than the Turks, and bent upon enslaving Germany, and exhausting the people. To the same he gives, June 18, 1543 (V. 570), an account of the immorality of Wittenberg, and the indifference of the magistrate, and concludes, "Es ist ein verdriesslich Ding um die Welt." He thought that the end of the wicked world was near (Letter to Probst, Dec. 5, 1544, vol. V. 703).
Friedberg, Kirchenrecht, p. 57, correctly says, "Die Reformation hat schliesslich wohl Pfarrsprengel geschaffen, aber keine Gemeinden." This is true even now of the Lutheran churches in Northern Germany; but in Westphalia, on the Rhine, and in America, the congregational life is more or less developed, partly through contact with Reformed churches.
Yet not in the strict and deeper sense in which the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are articles of (saving) faith; hence the preposition eij", in, is omitted before ecclesiam, and the following articles, at least in the Latin forms (the Greek Nicene Creed has eij").
The term "catholic" (kaqolikov", from kata;and o{lo", whole, entire, complete) does not occur in the New Testament (for the inscrip-tions of the Epistles of James, Peter, John, and Jude, ejpistolai; kaqolikaiv, or simply kaqolikaiv, are no part of the apostolic text, but added by transcribers), and is first used as an epithet of the Church by Ignatius of Antioch, the enthusiast for episcopacy and martyrdom (Ad Smyrn., c. 8), and in the Martyrium of Polycarp (in Eusebius, II. E., IV. 14). It was applied also to faith, tradition, people, and became equivalent with Christian, in distinction from Jews, idolaters, heretics, and schismatics.
De Doctr. Christ., III. 32 (in Schaff’s "Nicene and Post-Nicene Library;" Works of St. Augustin, vol. II. 509).
De Bapt. contra Donat., IV. 5. For a fuller exposition of his doctrine of the church, see his Donatist writings, and Reuter’s Augustin. Studien (1887).
De Fide et Symbolo, c. 10 (in Schaff’s ed., III. 331).
Tractatus de Ecclesia, c. I., "congregatio omnium praedestinatorum ... Illa est sponsa Christl ... Jerusalem mater nostra, templum Domini, regnum coelorum et civitas regni magni." Then he quotes the distinction made by Augustin, to whom he refers throughout the book more frequent-ly than to all other fathers combined. This important tract was recently published for the first time from three MSS. in Vienna and Prague by the "Wyclif Society," and edited by Dr. Johann Loserth (professor of history in the University of Czernowitz), London (Trübner & Co.), 1886, 600 pp. But the same view of the church is taught in other books of Wiclif, and correctly stated by Dr. Lechler in his Joh. von Wiclif, Leipz., 1873, vol. I. 541 sqq.
The close affinity has recently been shown by Joh. Loserth, Hus und Wiclif; zur Genesis der hussitischen Lehre (Prag and Leipz., l884), and is especially apparent from a comparison of Wiclif’s and Hus’s treatises De Ecclesia. Wiclif’s book exerted little influence in England, but became known in Bohemia in 1407 or before, and the reproduction of it by Hus created a great sensation. The arrangement, the ideas, and arguments of the two books are the same, and often the very language. Comp. Loserth’s Introduction to Wiclif’s De Ecclesia.
Luther first used the term "invisible." Zwingli first added the term "visible" in his Expositio christianae. fidei (1531): "Credimus et unam sanctam esse catholicam, h.e. universalem ecclesiam. Eam autem esse aut visibilem aut invisibilem." Zwingli was the only one among the Reformers who included the elect heathen in the invisible church. The clearest symbolical statement of the Protestant doctrine of the invisible and visible church is given in the Westminster Confession, ch. xxv. (Schaff’s Creeds of Christendom, III. 657).
Rothe (Anfänge der christl. Kirche, I. p. 101) says that the idea of a moral and spiritual union and communion of all believers in Christ, or of the communion of saints, is in the highest sense real (ist nach unsrer innigsten Ueberzeugung eine im höchsten Sinne reale), but cannot be called a church. He resolves and dissolves the church ultimately into the kingdom of God, which he identifies with the ideal state.
Under the date of Oct. 3, 1519, he informed Staupitz that he had received from Prague letters of two priests, "una cum libello Joannis Hus." De Wette, I. 341. An edition of the Tractatus de Ecclesia was published at Mainz and Hagenau in 1520.
This identification may be questioned. The holy catholic church corresponds rather to the church visible, the communion of saints to the church invisible. The communion of saints means that inward and spiritual fellowship of true believers on earth and in heaven which is based on their union with Christ. It is their fellowship with God the Father, the Son, and the Spirit (Comp. 1 John 1:3; 1 Cor. 1:9; Phil. 2:1), and with each other, a fellowship not broken by death, but extending to the saints above. A most precious idea.
"The saints in heaven and on earth
But one communion make;
All join In Christ, their living Head,
And of his grace partake."
The article of the communio sanctorum (as well as the epithet catholica) is a later insertion, and not found in the creeds before the fifth century. See Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, I. 22 and II. 52. The oldest commentators understood it of the communion with the saints in heaven. According to the Catechism of the Council of Trent, it means "a community of spiritual blessings," especially the sacraments enjoyed in the Catholic Church. A more comprehensive and satisfactory exposition is given by Pearson on the Creed, Art. IX., and in the Westminster Confession, Ch. XXVI.
The German proverb, ."Das ist um katholisch zu werden" (This is to turn Catholic), describes a condition of things that drives one to desperation or madness.
In his second Commentary on the Galatians (Erl. ed., III. 38): "Recte igitur fatemur in symbolo, nos credere ecclesiam sanctam. Est enim invisibilis, habitans in Spiritu, in loco inaccessibili, ideo non potest videri ejus sanctitas."
Art. VII., "Est autem ecclesia congregatio sanctorum [Germ. ed., Versammlung aller Gläubigen], in qua evangelium recte [rein] docetur, et recte [laut des Evangelii] administrantur sacramenta." Comp. the Apol. Conf., Art. VII. and VIII. The same definition is substantially given in the Anglican Art. XIX. It would exclude the Quakers, who reject the external sacraments, yet are undoubted believers in Christ. The Calvinistic Confessions (e.g., Conf. Belgica, Art. XXIX.) and characteristically to those two marks a third one, the exercise of discipline In punishing sin.
"Ich sage, dass unter dem Papst die rechte Christenheit ist, ja der rechte Ausbund der Christenheit, und viel frommer, grosser Heiligen." (Von der Wiedertaufe, Erl. ed. XXVI. 257 sq.) The Roman Catholic Möhler does not fail to quote this passage in his Symbolik, p. 422 sq. He says of Luther’s conception of the church (p. 424), that it is not false, but only one-sided (nicht falsch, obgleich einseitig). He virtually admits the Protestant distinction between the visible and the invisible church, but holds that the Catholics put the visible church first as the basis of the invisible, while the Protestants reverse the order.
Ibid. p. 258. Critical commentators have long since abandoned this interpretation. Whatever be the wider applicability of this passage, Paul certainly meant a "mystery of lawlessness" (not tyranny) already at work in his time (h[dh ejnergei'tai, 2 Thess. 2:7), long before popery existed, or before there was even a bishop of Rome (unless it be Peter). Moreover, "lawlessness," which is the proper translation of ajnomiva, is not characteristic of popery, but the very opposite. If Paul refers to Rome at all, it is rather as a "restraining" force, to; katevcon, vers. 6, 7 (Comp. Rom. 13:1). The term "Antichrist" occurs only in the Epistles of John, and he speaks of "many Antichrists" in his own day. In a wider sense all is antichristian that is contrary to the spirit and aim of Christ in any church or any age.
In his Judicium de Jure reformandi, 1525 ("Corp. Ref." I. 767): "It is written that the Antichrist will have a great and powerful reign in the last times, as Paul says, Antichrist will be seated and rule in the temple of God, that is, in the church." And again in the "Apology of the Augsburg Confession" (1530), arts. VII. and VIII. (Müller’s ed., p. 152): "Paulus praedicat futurum, ut Antichristus sedeat in templo Dei, hoc est, in ecclesia dominetur et gerat officia."
Com. in Ep. ad Gal. (Erl. ed., 1. 40 sq.): "Paulus vocat ecclesia Galatiae per synecdochen ... Sie et nos hodie vocamus ecclesiam romanam sanctam et omnes episcopatus sanctos, etiamsi sint subversi et episcopi et ministri eorum impii. Deus enim regnat in medio inimicorum suorum; item, Antichristus sedet in templo Dei, et Satan adest in medio filiorum Dei … Manet in romana urbe quamquam Sodoma et Gomorra pejore baptismus, sacramentum, vox et textus evangelii, sacra scriptura, ministeria, nomen Christi, nomen Dei."
De Wette, Briefe, IV. 354.
Lib. IV., c. i., §§ 4 and 7. He speaks most eloquently of the ecclesia visibilis, as our mother in whose womb we are conceived to enter into spiritual life.
Lib. IV., c. ii., § 12: "Antichristum in templo Dei sessurum praedixerunt Daniel et Paulus (Dan. 9:27; 2 Thess. 2:4): illius scelerati et abominandi regni ducem et antesignanum, apud nos facimus Romanum Pontificem. Quod sedes ejus in templo Dei collocatur, ita innuitur, tale fore ejus regnum quod nec Christi nec ecclesiae nomen aboleat. Hinc igitur patet nos minime negare, quin sub ejus quoque tyrannide ecclesiae maneant: sed quas sacrilega impietate profanarit, quas immani dominatione afflixerit, quas malis et exitialibus doctrinis, ceu venenatis potionibus, corruperit, et propemodum enecarit, in quibus semisepultus lateat Christus, obrutum Evangelium, profligata pietas, cultus Dei fere abolitus: in quibus denique omnia sic sint conturbata, ut Babylonis potius quam civitatis Dei sanctae facies illic appareat." Comp. IV., 7, § 25; and Calvin’s commentary on 2 Thess. 2:3.
Ch. XXV. 6: "The Pope of Rome ... is that Antichrist, that man of sin and perdition, that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ and all that is called God." And yet there are American divines who derive from this passage the very opposite conclusion; namely, that the Roman Church is no church at all, and that all her ordinances are invalid. An attempt to sanction this conclusion was made at the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church at Cincinnati in 1885, but failed. The Westminster Confession never calls the Roman Church Antichrist, but only the Pope, who is no more the Roman Church than the Moderator of the General Assembly is the General Assembly, or the President of the United States is the American people, or the Czar of Russia is Russia. The government is only one factor in the life of a nation or a church.
Dante locates them in the Inferno; and Möhler says, "Hell has swallowed them up."
Milton, in his discontent with the Presbyterians and zeal for independency, said, "Presbyter is priest writ large."
The exceptional designation of the Christian prophets as "highpriests" (ajrcierei'", in the Didaché, ch. XIII. 3, is probably figurative. See Schaff, The Oldest Church Manual, p. 206 sq.
See Schaff, l.c. p. 74 sq., and 211.
See the passage in the Appendix to Luther’s Articles of Smalcald, quoted above on p. 517, note 2.
Comp. § 44, p. 207, and Melanchthon in his Apology of the Augsb. Conf., arts. XIII. and XXIV.
Art. XIV.
In the address De instituendis ministris, to the magistrate and people of Prag, and in his tract "Dass eine christliche Versammlung oder Gemeinde Recht und Macht habe, alle Lehrer zu urtheilen und Lehrer zu berufen, ein- und abzusetzen." (Erl. ed., XXII. 140 sqq.; and Walch, X. 1795 sqq.)
"Es sind verkehrt, verblendete Larven, und rechte Kinderbischöfe." The last word of his German tract to the Bohemians. Erl. ed., XXII. 151.
The conversion and attempted reformation of Archbishop Herrmann of Cologne occurred much later, in 1543.
In the preface to his commentary on Deuteronomy, which he dedicated to the bishop of Samland, 1525 (Erl. ed. of Opera Latina, XIII. 6): "Non enim te laudamus, sed insigne illud miraculum gratiae Dei extollimus, quam in te valere, regnare et triumphare videmus et audimus cum gaudio ut ... te unicum et solum inter omnes episcopi orbis elegerit Dominus et liberaverit ex ore Satanae quod dilatavit sicut infernum et devorat omnes. Nihil enim videmus in ceteris episcopis (quanquam esse inter eos sperem aliquot Nicodemos) nisi quod subversis caesare et regibus ac principibus fremunt et insaniunt contra resurgens vel potius oriens evangelion, ut denuo impleant illud Psalmi secundi," etc. Comp. his letter to Spalatin, Feb. 1, 1524, and to Briesmann, July 4, 1524, in De Wette, II. 474 and 525 sqq.
Corp. Ref., I. 765. Comp. Seckendorf, Hist. Lutheranismi, vol. II. 29.
See an account of the consecration in Seckendorf, III. 391 sqq.; Köstlin, II. 561 sqq.; Janssen, III. 483-492. Janssen describes the sickening details of the violence, intrigues, and robberies connected with the Protestantizing and secularizing of the three Saxon bishoprics.
Exempel, einen rechten christlichen Bischof zu weihen, 1542. Erl. ed., XXVI. 77-108; Walch, XVII. 122. He begins with the characteristic sentence: "Wir armen Ketzer haben abermal eine grosse Sünde begangen wider die höllische unchristliche Kirche des allerhöllischten Vaters, des Papstes, dass wir einen Bischof im Stift Naumburg ordinirt und eingeweihet haben, ohne allen Chresem [Chrisma, Salböl],auch ohne Butter, Schmalz, Speck, Teer, Schmeer, Weihrauch, Kohlen und was derselben grossen Heiligkeit mehr ist: dazu wider ihren Willen; doch nicht ohne ihr Wissen." Comp. also his letter to Jacob Probst, March 26, 1546 (De Wette, V. 451), where he calls this consecration "audax facinus et plenissimum odio, invidia at indignatione."
" ... gezwungen durch Gottes Gebot, sich von ihm zu sondern, und ihn für keinen Bischof, sondern für einen Wolf, ja für einen Teufel zu halten." Erl. ed., p. 80.
"Die Gemeinde," says Friedberg, l.c., p. 61, "tritt bei dieser Organisation ganz zurück. Sie ist der ’Pöbel,’ der unter der Zucht des Wortes und der Polizei des Kirchenregimentes steht … Eine Mitwirkung an der Handhabung der Kirchenzucht findet sich nur in den Kirchenordnungen, wo reformirte Einflüsse bemerkbar sind."
Von weltlicher Obrigkeit, wie weit man ihr Gehorsam schuldig sei. Erl. ed. XXII. 59-105.
The Westminster Confession, ch. XX. 2, says: "God alone is Lord of the conscience."
L.c.p. 82: "Das weltlich Regiment hat Gesetze, die sich nicht weiter strecken, denn über Leib und Gut, und was äusserlich ist auf Erden. Denn über die Seele kann und will Gott niemand lassen regieren, denn sich selbst alleine. Darumb wo weltlich Gewalt sich vermisset, der Seelen Gesetze zu geben, da greift sie Gott in sein Regiment, und verführet und verderbet nur die Seelen. Das wollen wir so klar machen, dass mans greifen solle, auf dass unsere Junkern, die Fürsten und Bischöfe sehen, was sie für Narren sind, wenn sie die Leut mit ihren Gesetzen und Geboten zwingen wollen, sonst oder so zu glauben."
"Zum Glauben kann und soll man niemand zwingen." As to St. Augustin, he changed his views on this subject, as Luther did afterwards. The anti-Manichaean Augustin was tolerant (he himself had been a Manichaean for nine years), but the anti-Donatist Augustin was intolerant. The former said, "Credere non potest homo nisi volens;" the latter misinterpreted the words: "Compelle intrare ut impleatur domus mea" (Luke 14:23), as a justification of forcible coercion. Comp. above, § 11, p. 54 sq.
"Die grössten Narren oder die ärgsten Buben auf Erden" (p. 89).
"Ketzerei ist ein geistlich Ding, das kann man mit keinem Eisen hauen, mit keinem Feuer verbrennen, mit keinem Wasser ertränken."
In the Erl. ed., vol. LI. p. 419 sq.
See § 12, p. 76, note.
Judicium de jure reformandi (1525), in the "Corp. Reform." I. 763 sqq.
See § 12, p. 59 sqq.
See his letters of Oct. 31, 1525, Nov. 30, 1525, Nov. 22, 1526, Feb. 5, 1527, Oct. 12, 1527.
"Wollen die Alten ja nicht, mögen sie immer zum Teufel hinfahren. Aber wo die Jugend versäumet und unerzogen bleibt, da ist die Schuld der Obrigkeit" (De Wette, III. 136). In the same letter he says that the people live "wie die Säue: da ist keine Furcht Gottes, noch Zucht mehr, weit des Papstes Bann ist abgegangen, und thut jedermann was er nur will."
"Denn obwol S. K. F. Gnaden zu lehren und geistlich regieren nicht befohlen ist, so sind sie doch schuldig, als weltliche Obrigkeit, darob zu halten, dass nicht Zwietracht, Rotten und Aufruhr sich unter den Unterthanen erheben, wie auch der Kaiser Constantinus die Bischöfe gen Nicaea fordert," etc. Corp. Ref., XXVI. fol. 46.
See the note in full, l.c., fol. 85.
Letter of February, 1529, in De Wette, 1II. 424. Comp. also the prefaces to his Catechisms. It is characteristic of the Ultramontane history of Janssen, that, while he dwells largely on the lamentations of Luther over the wretched condition of the churches in Saxony, and derives them from his doctrine of justification by faith alone (vol. III. 67-69), he completely ignores Luther’s Catechisms which were to cure these evils.
To this and other testimonies, may be added that of Köstlin, II. 63: "Der Kleine Katechismus steht in erster Reihe unter den Schriften des Reformators."
Hartmann, Aelteste Katechetische Denkmale, Stuttgart, 1844.
Jonas is probably the author of the Laienbiblia, 1525 (republished by Schneider in 1853), and this was probably the basis of "Cranmer’s Catechism." 1548. See Schaff, Creeds, I. 655, note 2.
Erl. ed., vol. XXII. 1-32. Comp. also his Taufbüchlein verdeutscht, 1523, and reproduced 1526 (?), ibid. XXII. 157 sqq. and 290 sqq.
If German farmers in Pennsylvania are asked, "What is the difference between the Lutherans and the Reformed?" the reply is, "The one pray Vater unser, the other Unser Vater."
Articuli Smalcald. P. III., cap. 8.
742 For a fuller comparison, see Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, I. 543 sqq.
743 The American Episcopal Prayer book reads instead: My Sponsors.