The eighth and last chart of the Catechism differed from the preceding
ones in that it was superscribed: "Table of Duties (Haustafel),
Consisting of Certain Passages of Scripture for Various Holy Orders and
Stations. Whereby These are to be Admonished, as by a Special Lesson,
Regarding Their Office and Service." The exact time when Luther drew up
this Table is not known. The latest date to which its composition can be
assigned is the end of April or the beginning of May, 1529. It may,
however, be questioned whether it was published at all as a placard. The
two groups of passages: "What the Hearers Owe to Their Pastors," and:
"What Subjects Owe to Their Government," are probably not from Luther.
Following are the grounds supporting this view: 1. They are not
contained in the German editions but appeared for the first time in the
Latin translation. 2. Their superscriptions differ in form from those of
the other groups. 3. They adduce quite a number of Bible-verses, and
repeat some already quoted, _e.g._, 1 Tim. 2, 1, Rom. 13, 1. The German
Book of Concord omitted these passages, while the Latin Concordia of
1580 and 1584 embodied them. Albrecht writes: "The Table of Duties is an
original part of the Catechism, bearing a true Lutheran stamp. But it
was old material worked over, as is the case almost throughout the Small
Catechism." "The oft-repeated assertion, however, that the Table of
Duties was borrowed from the catechism of the Waldensians or Bohemian
Brethren, is not correct. For this Table is not found in the Catechism
of the Brethren of 1522, with which Luther was acquainted, but first in
Gyrick's Catechism of 1554, in which Lutheran material is embodied also
in other places." (W. 30, 1, 645.)
The confession books of the Middle Ages, however, which classified sins
according to the social estates, and especially John Gerson's tract (_De
Modo Vivendi Omnium Fidelium_ reprinted at Wittenberg 1513), which
treated of the offices of all sorts of lay-people in every station of
life, may have prompted Luther to draw up this Table. But, says
Albrecht, "it certainly grew under his hand into something new and
characteristic. The old material is thoroughly shortened, sifted,
supplemented, newly arranged, recast. While Gerson's tract throughout
bears the stamp of the Middle Ages, Luther's Table of Duties, with its
appeal to the Scriptures alone, its knowledge of what is a 'holy
estate,' its teaching that, as divine ordinances, civil government and
the household (when embraced by the common order of Christian love) are
equally as holy as the priesthood, reveals the characteristic marks of
the Reformer's new ideal of life, which, rooting in his faith, and
opposed to the hierarchy and monkery of the Middle Ages, as well as to
the fanaticism of the Anabaptists, became of far-reaching importance for
the entire moral thought of the succeeding centuries." (647.)
Grimm's Lexicon defines "Haustafel" as "_der Abschnitt des Katechismus,
der ueber die Pflichten des Hausstandes handelt,_ that section of the
Catechism which treats of the duties of the household." This verbal
definition, suggested by the term, is too narrow, since Luther's
"Haustafel" is designed "for various holy orders and estates,"
magistrates and pastors included. Still, the term is not on this account
inappropriate. Table (_Tafel, tabula_) signifies in general a roster, a
list, or index of leading points, with or without reference to the chart
form. And such a table suspended in the home and employed in the
instruction of the home congregation, is properly termed "Haustafel."
Agreeably to this, Andreas Fabricius, in 1569, called the "Haustafel" a
domestic table of works, _tabula operum domestica._ Daniel Kauzmann, in
his _Handbook_ (16 sermons on the Catechism) of 1569, says: "It is
called 'Haustafel' of the Christians because every Christian should
daily view it and call to mind therefrom his calling, as from a table
which portrays and presents to every one what pertains to him. It
teaches all the people who may be in a house what each one ought to do
or to leave undone in his calling." (642.)
In his _Catechismus Lutheri_ of 1600 Polycarp Leyser offers the
following explanation: "Why are these passages called a table? Beyond
doubt this is due to the fact that, from of old, good ordinances have
been written and graven on tables. So did God, who prescribed His Law to
the Jews in ten commandments on two tables. Similarly Solon wrote the
laws of Athens on tables. The Romans also had their law of twelve tables
brought from Athens. And so, when the government to-day issues certain
commands, it is customary to suspend them on tables, as also princes and
lords suspend on tables their court rules. But why is it called
'Haustafel' when it also treats of preachers and the government? The
reason for this is given by St. Paul, I Tim. 3, where he calls the
Church a house of the living God. For as the housefather in a large
house summons his servants and prescribes to each one what he is to do,
so God is also wont to call into certain stations those who have been
received into His house by Holy Baptism, and to prescribe to them in
this table how each one in his calling shall conduct himself." (641.)
Concerning the purpose of the Table of Duties, Albrecht remarks: "If I
am correct, Luther, by these additions, would especially inculcate that
Christianity, the essence of which is set forth in the preceding chief
parts, must daily be practised." That is certainly correct, for the
Catechism must not only be learned, but lived. And the Table of Duties
emphasizes the great truth, brought to light again by Luther, that
Christianity does not consist in any peculiar form of life; as Romish
priests, monks, and nuns held, who separated themselves from the world
outwardly, but that it is essentially faith of the heart, which,
however, is not to flee into cloisters and solitudes but courageously
and cheerfully to plunge into practical life with its natural forms and
relations as ordained by Creation, there to be tried as well as
glorified. In his _Admonition to the Clergy,_ 1530, Luther says:
"Furthermore, by such abominable doctrine all truly good works which God
appointed and ordained were despised and utterly set at naught [by the
Papists]. For instance, lord, subject, father, mother, son, daughter,
servant, maid were not regarded as good works, but were called
worldliness, dangerous estates, and lost works." (W. 30, 2, 291.) The
Table of Duties is a protest against such perverted views. For here
Luther considers not only the calling of preachers and teachers, but
also all those of government and subjects, of fathers, mothers, and
children, of masters and servants, of mistresses and maids, of employees
and employers, as "holy orders and estates," in which a Christian may
live with a good conscience, and all of which the Catechism is to
permeate with its truths. "Out into the stream of life with the
Catechism you have learned!" Such, then, is the admonition which, in
particular, the Table of Duties adds to the preceding parts of the
Catechism.