The first Protestant catechisms were prepared by Lonicer (1523), Melanchthon (1524),Brentius (1527), Althamer, Lachmann (1528), and later by Urbanus Rhegius (Rieger).^730 Luther
urged his friends and colleagues, Justus Jonas and Agricola, to write one for Saxony (1525);^731 but
after the doleful experience of popular ignorance during the church visitation, he took the task in
hand himself, and completed it in 1529. He had previously published popular expositions of the
Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer (1520).^732
He wrote two Catechisms, both in the German language. The "Great Catechism" is a
continuous exposition, and not divided into questions and answers; moreover, it grew so much
under his hands, that it became unsuitable for the instruction of the young, which he had in view
from the beginning. Hence he prepared soon afterwards (in July, 1529) a short or little Catechism
under the name Enchiridion. It is the ripe fruit of the larger work, and superseded it for practical
use. The same relation exists between the Larger and Shorter Catechisms of the Westminster
Assembly.
With his conservative instinct, Luther retained the three essential parts of a catechism,—the
Decalogue, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. He called the first the doctrine of all doctrines; the
second, the history of all histories; the third, the highest of all prayers. To these three chief divisions
he added, after the Catholic tradition and the example of the Bohemian Catechism, an instruction
on the sacraments of Baptism and the Lord’s Supper, in two separate parts, making five in all. He
retained in the address of the Lord’s Prayer the old German Vater unser (Pater Noster), and the
translation "Deliver us from evil" (a malo); but in his Bible he changed the former into Unser Vater
(Matt. 6:9), and in his Large Catechism he refers the Greek to the evil one, i.e., the Devil (oJ
ponhrov"), as our arch-enemy. Yet in practice these two differences have become distinctive marks
of the Lutheran and German Reformed use of the Lord’s Prayer.^733
The later editions of the Little Catechism (since 1564) contain a sixth part on "Confession
and Absolution," or, "The Power of the Keys," which is inserted either as Part V., between Baptism
and the Lord’s Supper, or added as Part VI., or as an appendix. The precise authorship of the
enlarged form or forms (for they vary) of this part, with the questions, "What is the power of the
keys?" etc., is uncertain; but the substance of it—viz. the questions on private or auricular confession
of sin to the minister, and absolution by the minister, as given in the "Book of Concord"—date
from Luther himself, and appear first substantially in the third edition of 1531, as introductory to
the fifth part on the Lord’s Supper. He made much account of private confession and absolution;
while the Calvinists abolished the same as a mischievous popish invention, and retained only the
public act. "True absolution," says Luther, "or the power of the keys, instituted in the gospel by
Christ, affords comfort and support against sin and an evil conscience. Confession or absolution
shall by no means be abolished in the church, but be retained, especially on account of weak and
timid consciences, and also on account of untutored youth, in order that they may be examined and
instructed in the Christian doctrine. But the enumeration of sins should be free to every one, to
(^730) Hartmann, Aelteste Katechetische Denkmale, Stuttgart, 1844.
(^731) 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.
(^732) Erl. ed., vol. XXII. 1-32. Comp. also his Taufbüchlein verdeutscht, 1523, and reproduced 1526 (?), ibid. XXII. 157 sqq. and 290
sqq.
(^733) 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."