Modern pedagogs have contended that Luther's method of teaching the
Catechism unduly multiplies the material to be memorized, and does not
sufficiently stress the understanding. Both charges, however, are
without any foundation. As to the first, it is true that Luther did not
put a low estimate on the memorizing of the Catechism. In the Large
Catechism he says: "Therefore we must have the young learn the parts
which belong to the Catechism or instruction for children well, and
fluently and diligently exercise themselves in them and keep them
occupied with them. Hence it is the duty of every father of a family to
question and examine his children and servants at least once a week, and
to ascertain what they know of it, or are learning, and, if they do not
know it, to keep them faithfully at it." (575, 3f.) Again: "These are
the most necessary parts which one should first learn to repeat word for
word, and which our children should be accustomed to recite daily when
they arise in the morning, when they sit down to their meals, and when
they retire at night; and until they repeat them, they should be given
neither food nor drink." (577, 15.)
According to the Preface to the Small Catechism, the teacher is to abide
with rigid exactness by the text which he has once chosen and have the
children learn it verbatim. "In the first place," says Luther, "let the
preacher above all be careful to avoid many kinds of or various texts
and forms of the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Creed, the
Sacraments, etc., but choose one form to which he adheres, and which he
inculcates all the time, year after year. For young and simple people
must be taught by uniform, settled texts and forms, otherwise they
easily become confused when the teacher to-day teaches them thus, and in
a year some other way, as if he wished to make improvements, and thus
all effort and labor will be lost. Also our blessed fathers understood
this well; for they all used the same form of the Lord's Prayer, the
Creed, and the Ten Commandments. Therefore we, too, should teach the
young and simple people these parts in such a way as not to change a
syllable, or set them forth and repeat them one year differently than in
another. Hence, choose whatever form you please, and adhere to it
forever. But when you preach in the presence of learned and intelligent
men, you may exhibit your skill and may present these parts in as varied
and intricate ways and give them as masterly turns as you are able. But
with the young people stick to one fixed, permanent form and manner, and
teach them, first of all, these parts, namely, the Ten Commandments, the
Creed, the Lord's Prayer, etc., according to the text, word for word, so
that they, too, can repeat it in the same manner after you and commit it
to memory." (533, 7ff.) Thus Luther indeed placed a high value on exact
memorizing of the Catechism.
As to the quantity of memorizing, however, Luther did not demand more
than even the least gifted were well able to render. He was satisfied if
they knew, as a minimum, the text of the first three chief parts and the
words of institution of Baptism and the Lord's Supper. (579, 22. 25.)
That was certainly not overburdening even a weak memory. Luther was
right when he declared in his _Short Form of the Ten Commandments,_ of
1520: In the three chief parts everything "is summed up with such
brevity and simplicity that no one can complain or offer the excuse that
it is too much or too hard for him to remember what he must know for his
salvation." (W. 7, 204.)
Self-evidently, it was not Luther's opinion that instruction or
memorizing should end here. In the Preface to the Small Catechism he
says: "In the third place, after you have thus taught them this Short
Catechism, then take up the Large Catechism, and give them also a richer
and fuller knowledge. Here explain at length every commandment,
petition, and part with its various works, uses, benefits, dangers, and
injuries as you find these abundantly stated in many books written about
these matters." (535, 17.) Then, as Luther often repeats, Bible-verses,
hymns, and Psalms were also to be memorized and explained. Nor did he
exclude the explanation of the Small Catechism from the material for
memorizing. For this very reason he had written the Small Catechism in
questions and answers, because he wished to have it learned, questioned,
and recited from memory. "However," says Luther in the Large Catechism
"for the common people we are satisfied with the three parts, which have
remained in Christendom from of old." (575, 5.) As far, then, as the
material for memorizing is concerned, Luther certainly did not demand
more than even the least gifted were well able to render.