THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
1898; idem, Dr. W J. Mann, Ein deutsch-amerikanischer Theologe, Reading, 1903; B. M. Schmucker, The Organization of the Congregation in the Early Lutheran Churches in America, Philadelphia, 1887; Andersen, Den evang. lutherske Kirke's Historic New York, 1888; J. Nicum, Geschichte des Ministeriums von New York, Reading, 1888; F. C. Guenther, F. W Walther, Lebensbild, St. Louis, 1890; S. Henkel, Hist, of the Evangelical Lutheran Tennessee Synod, New Market, 1890; D. L. Roth, Acadie and the Acadians, Philadelphia, 1890; H. E. Jacobs, The Lutheran Movement in England and its Literary Monuments, Philadelphia, 1890; idem, in American Church History Series, vol. iv., New York, 1893, Germ, transl. with important additions by G. Fritschel, Giitersloh, 1896; E. J. Wolf, The Lutherans in America, New York, 1889, the same in German with important additions by J. Nicum, New York, 1891; A. L. Graebner, Geschichte der lutherischen Kirche in America, St. Louis, 1892 (reaching to the year 1S20); J. Nicum, in Proceedings of American Society of Church History, New York, 1892; J. N. Lenker, Lutherans in All Lands, Milwaukee, 1894; J. F. Sachse, The German Pietists of Provincial Pennsylvania, 1694-1708, Philadelphia, 1895; A. Spaeth, H. E. Jacobs, and G. F. Spieker, Documentary History of the Ministerium of Pennsylvania, Containing the Proceedings of the Convention 1748-1821, New York, 1895-1899; J. Deindorfer, Geschichte der evangelisch-lutherischen Synode Iowa, Chicago, 1897; H. E. Jacobs and J. A. W. Haas, The Lutheran Cyclopedia, New York, 1899; Proceedings of the First Free Lutheran Diet, 1878, Proceedings of the Second Free Lutheran Diet, 1879, General Conference of Lutherans, ed. H. E. Jacobs, Philadelphia, 1899; F. Nippold, Handbuch der neuesten Kirchengeschichte, 5 vols., Berlin, 1901; G. H. Gerberding, The Lutheran Pastor, Chicago, 1903; T. Schmauk, A History of the Lutheran Church in Pennsylvania, 1638-1820, vol. i., Philadelphia, 1903.
LUTHER'S TWO CATECHISMS: Even while a Roman Catholic priest, Luther had repeatedlytreated in his sermons the main divisions of the catechism. Some of the sermons which he preached on the Commandments and the Lord's Prayer in 1516 and 1517 have been preserved. More important, however, as a preparation was his work in the confessional, where he learned to know the detrimental influence of the formal lists of sins which were considered useful, and to appreciate in contrast the unparalleled excellence of the ten commandments, of which, as well as of the Apostles' Creed and the Lord's Prayer, he early began to write short expositions: in 1518 Kurze Auslegung der zehn Gebote Gottes, ihrer Erfiillung und Uebertretung, in 1519 Kurze Unterweisung wie man beichten soil, and in the same year several expositions of the Lord's Prayer and one on the Apostles' Creed; then in 1520 he combined these treatises under the title Kurze Form der zehn Gebote, des Glaubens, des Vaterunsers. Here is found the first combined treatment of these three articles, and therefore the most important work of preparation for the catechisms. In 1522 Luther edited the Betbiichlein. All these writings were intended primarily to be used in preparation for confession, but he had the instruction of youth also in his mind.
When, after Luther's return from the Wartburg, Evangelical principles were introduced at Wittenberg, especial attention was paid to the religious instruction of children. In the spring of 1521 Johann Agricola was appointed catechist at the principal church, and gave regular instruction in religion to the children. The custom of preaching regular sermons on the catechism began about this time. After the abolition of compulsory confes-
sion Luther announced in 1523 that every person intending to partake of the Lord's Supper should give notice to the pastor and submit to an examination. To facilitate the preparation for such an examination, he arranged short questions on the Lord's Supper; but soon he conceived the idea of writing a small book that should serve for the instruction of youth, form the basis for sermons on the catechism, and make possible a more comprehensive preparation for the Lord's Supper. The Kinderfragen of the Bohemian Brethren, with which Luther became acquainted at least as early as 1523, may have suggested the idea of such a manual. Nicolaus Hausmann, preacher at Zwickau, to whom Luther announced his intention, confirmed him in it. In a letter to Hausmann (1525) Luther states that Jonas and Agricola had been commissioned to prepare a catechism; but their work does not seem to have progressed rapidly, and when Agricola removed to Eisleben, Luther himself took charge of the matter. Before it was finished, there appeared in 1525 a book in Low German entitled Eyn Bokeschen vor de leyen vnde kinder, which in the same year was translated into High German. It is not known to what extent Luther was concerned in the publication of this book, but there is no doubt that it originated under his influence, since it appeared at a time when he had already conceived the idea of adding the two sacraments to the original three articles discussed in his Kurze Form of 1520. In 1526 Luther seems to have already sanctioned its official use in the Church. As the Buchlein fur Laien forms the basis for the text of the catechisms, so do Luther's catechetical sermons of 1528 for their interpretation in his more comprehensive work, called the larger catechism; for the larger catechism is nothing but an interpretation of the smaller ones on the basis of sermons which he preached in 1528 at Brunswick in the absence of Bugenhagen, and was necessitated chiefly by the ignorance of preachers revealed to him at the visitations of 1528 and 1529.
While Luther was working in 1529 on his larger catechism, the idea of issuing a smaller catechism, as an epitome of the larger, occurred to him, and he published it before the latter in two series in the form of tables, according to a wide-spread custom of the time. The tabulce have not been preserved, but their contents are pretty well known. The first table was in circulation as early as Jan. 20, 1529, and was a real children's catechism, including the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and some other prayers. The second table, which appeared in the middle of March, treated of the sacraments of baptism and of the Lord's Supper, and was intended chiefly for adults. This distinction between the catechism proper and the doctrine of the sacraments was clearly expressed by Luther in his catechetical sermons of 1528, then in the larger catechism, and again in 1530. Only by degrees did it disappear and the sacraments come to be considered an inseparable part of the catechism. The tabula: were first put into book form in a Low German translation (Hamburg, 1529). The larger catechism appeared in the same month of Apr., 1529, and retained in the main its original form in the numer-