When planning and writing his Small Catechism, Luther self-evidently did
not overlook the schools and the schoolteachers. The first booklet of
the charts for the Latin schools of the Middle Ages contained the abc;
the second, the first reading-material, _viz._, the Paternoster, Ave
Maria, and the Credo; the third, the Benedicite, Gratias, and similar
prayers. Albrecht writes: "We may surmise that Luther, when composing
the German tables and combining them in a book, had in mind the old
chart-booklets. This view is supported by the fact that in it he
embodied the prayers, the Benedicite and Gratias, and probably also by
the title Enchiridion, which, besides the titles 'Handbooklet' or 'The
Children's Handbooklet' was applied to such elementary books." (W. 30,
1, 546.) In the _Instruction for the Visitors_ we read: "A certain day,
either Saturday or Wednesday, shall be set aside for imparting to the
children Christian instruction. ... Hereupon the schoolteacher shall
simply and correctly expound at one time the Lord's Prayer, at another
the Creed, at another the Ten Commandments, etc." (W. 26, 238.) In these
schools Luther's Small Catechism served as text-book. From 1529 until
the beginning of the eighteenth century Sauermann's Latin translation
(_Parvus Catechismus pro Pueris in Schola_) was employed in the Latin
schools of Saxony. In the German schools the German Enchiridion was used
as the First Reader. Hence, the Marburg reprint of the first Wittenberg
edition of the Catechism begins with the alphabet, and makes it a point
to mention this fact on its title-page.
Down to the present day no other book has become and remained a
schoolbook for religious instruction to such an extent as Luther's Small
Catechism. And rightly so; for even Bible History must be regarded as
subordinate to it. The assertion of modern educators that instruction in
Bible History must precede instruction in Luther's Catechism rests on
the false assumption that Luther's Catechism teaches doctrines only. But
the truth is that it contains all the essential facts of salvation as
well, though in briefest form, as appears particularly from the Second
Article, which enumerates historical facts only. The Small Catechism is
"the Laymen's Bible, _der Laien Biblia,_" as Luther called it in a
sermon of September 14, 1528, an expression adopted also by the Formula
of Concord. (777, 5.) Luther's Enchiridion presents both the facts of
salvation and their divine interpretation. The picture for which the
Small Catechism furnishes the frame is Christ, the historical Christ, as
glorified by the Holy Spirit particularly in the writings of the Apostle
Paul. In the Lutheran Church the Small Catechism, therefore, deserves to
be and always to remain what it became from the first moment of its
publication: the book of religious instruction for home, school, and
church; for parents, children, teachers, and preachers, just as Luther
had planned and desired.