What Did Luther Teach?: Contents: Luther's Shorter Catechism, with Preface (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from What Did Luther Teach?: Contents: Luther's Shorter Catechism, With Preface

Preachers, grace, mercy, and peace in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The miserable sights which met my eyes in my late round of visitation have induced me to put forth this short and simple Catechism. God help us, what calamity saw I everywhere! The people, especially the dwellers in the country, yea, many of the Clergy, are so utterly ignorant of all Christian doctrine, that I am even ashamed to speak of it. And yet they are all called by that Holy Name of Christ, they all use the same Sacraments with us, though they not only do not understand the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the ten Commandments, but cannot even repeat the words. To put it briefly, they are no way difl'ercut from the beasts. But now that the Gospel is taught everywhere, they enjoy their Christian liberty to the uttermost. How will ye answer to Christ in this, 0 yo Bishops, to whom this charge has been divinely committed P For ye are they to whom, and to whom alone, this calamity of the Christian religion is owing. Ye have permitted these men thus vilely to err; yours is the fault, ye who have cared for anything rather than for this which was your bounden duty. I would not here call down any evil on your heads. Yet is it not the height of impiety, joined with the utmost shamelessness, that ye are fighting for Com munion in one kind, and for your own traditions; utterly careless meanwhile, whether the flock committed to your trust and keeping know the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed, and the ten Commandments or not! Woe, woe unto you i In the Name of God, therefore, I entreat and charge you all ye Clergy and Preachers, seriously to discharge your ofice, and to attend to the souls commit tedtcyoubythelord. Andthisyewillhestdo, ifwith us, ye tesehthis Catechism to your people, especially to the young. But if any of you are so unlesrned as to have no knowledge at all of these things, be not ashamed to read over word by word to your hearers the form which we prescribe, and alter this manner.

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