Preface to the Small Catechism
Martin Luther, to all faithful and devout pastors and preachers: Grace, mercy and peace in Jesus Christ, our Lord!
I am moved to publish this Catechism—this Christian teaching—in such a small, plain and simple form by the deplorable, miserable predicament I recently discovered when I, too, was engaged in a visitation. Dear God, what a shameful state I beheld! The common man knows nothing at all of Christian teaching, especially in the villages; and, sadly, many pastors are incompetent and practically incapable of teaching. And yet they are all supposed to be called “Christians,” be baptized, and benefit from the holy Sacraments, even though they can recite neither the Lord’s Prayer, nor the Creed, nor the Ten Commandments. They live like animals, like irrational pigs. And now the Gospel has come! But they have learned to become masters at abusing all their freedom.
Oh, you bishops! How will you ever answer to Christ for so shamefully allowing the people to get to this point and for entirely neglecting your office? May you be spared from all misfortune! You withhold the cup from the laity in the Sacrament and insist on your manmade laws, but meanwhile you don’t stop to ask whether the people can recite the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Ten Commandments, or a single word of God. May woe and a curse hang around your necks forever!
Therefore, my dear sirs and brothers who are pastors or preachers, I ask you, for God’s sake: Take to heart your office! Have pity on your people who have been entrusted to your care and help us to bring the Catechism to the people, especially to the young! And for those who cannot do any better, take these tables and forms and set them before the people, word for word, in the following way.
In the first place, let the preacher above all avoid and beware of using various versions and forms of the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, the Sacrament, etc. Let him rather choose for himself a single form, and then stick to it and stress it all the time, year after year. For young and simple people must be taught with a single, reliable text and form, or else they will easily go astray if they are taught one way one year, another way the next, as if the teacher were trying to improve the text. All one’s toil and effort are lost in this manner.
The beloved Fathers noted this well. They all used a single form for the Lord’s Prayer, the Creed, and the Ten Commandments. Therefore we, too, should teach these parts to young and simple people without changing a single syllable, without presenting or reciting anything differently this year than last.
Therefore, choose for yourself whichever form you desire and stick with it forever. But when you preach to those who are well-educated and intelligent, then you may demonstrate your skill and make these parts as colorful and as flashy as you like. In that case, go ahead and turn a phrase as masterfully as you can! But with the young, stick to a single, reliable, permanent text. And teach them, first of all, these parts—the Ten Commandments, the Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, etc.—according to the text, word for word, so that they may also be able to repeat it and learn it by heart.
But if any are unwilling to learn it, then let them be told how they are denying Christ and are not Christians. Nor should they be admitted to the Sacrament, nor accepted as sponsors at Baptism, nor should they be allowed to use any part of Christian freedom, but should be sent away straight to the pope and his officials, and then to the devil himself. Not only that, but their parents and employers should deny them food and drink and warn them that the prince will run such crude people out of his country, etc.
For although we cannot and should not compel anyone to believe, we should, nevertheless, impress it upon the masses and insist that they know what is considered right and wrong among those with whom they wish to dwell and make a living. For whoever wants to live in a city should know and observe the laws of that city from which he hopes to benefit, whether God grants that he should actually believe, or whether he remains in his heart a rascal or a scoundrel.
Secondly, if they are able to recite the text well, then teach them to understand it, so that they may know what it means. And then follow the pattern again of these tables, or another single, brief pattern—whichever you wish—and stick with it. Do not change a single syllable, as has already been said concerning the text. And take your time with it. For it is not necessary to present all the parts at once, but one after the other. If they understand the First Commandment well, then proceed to the Second, and so on. Otherwise, they will be so overwhelmed that they won’t retain anything well.
Thirdly, once you have taught them this brief Catechism, then take out the Large Catechism and give them an even richer and broader understanding. Lay out each commandment, petition and part for them, each one with its various works, its benefits, its duties, its dangers and its harm, all of which you will find abundantly treated in many books. In particular, you should highly stress the commandment and part that touches on the greatest needs of your people. For example, you should strictly impress the Seventh Commandment about stealing upon workers, upon merchants, and even upon farmers and houseworkers, for among such people there is all kinds of dishonesty and thievery. Likewise, you should impress well the Fourth Commandment upon children and the common man, so that they live quiet, loyal, obedient, peaceful lives. And you should always bring in many examples from the Scriptures to show where God has both punished and blessed such people.
In this regard you should also especially impress upon rulers and parents that they should govern well and take their children to school, pointing out how it is their duty to do this and what a damnable sin they commit if they fail to do it. For in this way they topple and ruin both the kingdom of God and of the world, as the bitterest enemies of both God and men. Show them clearly what dreadful harm they do when they do not help raise children to be pastors, preachers, writers, etc., that God will punish them terribly for such neglect. For there is a need to preach about this. It can hardly be expressed how greatly parents and rulers sin in this matter at the present time. The devil also has great calamity in mind with such behavior.
Finally, since the tyranny of the papacy has been removed, people no longer want to go to the Sacrament. They despise it. Now, the need to go to the Sacrament should be impressed, but with this distinction: We should not compel anyone to believe or to go to the Sacrament, nor should we set up any law, time or place for it. Instead, we should preach in such a way that the people compel themselves, without our laws, and force us pastors to offer the Sacrament. This is done by telling them: If anyone does not seek or desire the Sacrament at least once or four times a year, it is to be feared that such a person despises the Sacrament and isn’t a Christian, just as the person who doesn’t believe or hear the Gospel isn’t a Christian. For Christ didn’t say, “Leave this out!” or “Despise this!” No, He said, “This do, as often as you drink it,” etc. He would have it actually done and not entirely left out and despised. “This do,” He says.
But if anyone does not highly esteem the Sacrament, that is a sign that he has no sin, no flesh, no devil, no world, no death, no danger, no hell—that is, he doesn’t believe in any of these things, even though he is stuck in them up to his ears and is twice of the devil. Likewise, he has no need of grace, life, paradise, the kingdom of heaven, Christ, God, nor anything good. For if he believed that he had so much evil and needed so much good, he wouldn’t leave out the Sacrament in this way, for in the Sacrament a person is aided against such evil and is given so much good. No, such a person cannot be compelled to the Sacrament with any law. He himself will come running and racing to it, forcing himself and insisting that you must give him the Sacrament.
Therefore, you shouldn’t make any law in this regard, as the pope does. Only show them the benefit and the harm, the need and the duty, the danger and the salvation in this Sacrament. Then the people themselves will surely come without your compulsion. But if they don’t come, then let them go, and tell them that, if they do not recognize or feel their great need, and if they do not take God’s gracious help seriously, then they belong to the devil. But if you fail to impress this or if you turn it into a law and a poison, then it is your own fault that they despise the Sacrament. How should they not be filled with apathy, if you yourselves sleep and remain silent?
Therefore, see to it, pastors and preachers! Our office has now become a different thing than it was under the pope. It has now become serious and salutary. For this reason there is now much more toil involved, more work, more danger and trouble, and little reward or thanks in the world. But Christ Himself will be our reward, if we labor faithfully. May the Father of all graces help us to do it! To Him be praise and thanks forever, through Christ our Lord! Amen.