Frustrated with this realization, Luther quickly came to align himself with Melanchthon’s belief that the creation of a new educational system in Germany could be used to teach true Christian belief, based on scripture, to everyone. The most significant way in which Luther came to use schools to this end was through incorporating the study his versions of the catechism, or “lay-bible” into school curriculum.
After visiting several parishes, Luther “discovered an abyss of ignorance about the elements of faith and extraordinary inability in pastors to communicate the Christian religion.” Luther’s two catechisms, the smaller for elementary study and the larger for secondary, university, or clerical study, sought to overcome these inadequacies in teaching by making written explanations of the major concepts of Christian doctrine available to everyone. Included in the catechisms were explanations of the Ten Commandments, the Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. Following these were three other parts:
(1) question and answer on the sacraments with forgiveness as the key—baptism as the water of regeneration, confession (this bit was added on second thoughts), the receiving of the Body and Blood with its basic texts of the Bible; (2) a form of family prayer on getting up and before going to bed; and (3) added later, a short exhortation on how each member of a household ought to behave, including their obedience to the magistrate and their attention to the teachers and pastors.
The Catechism rapidly became the main tool for religious instruction in schools in reformed Germany. According to historian Gerald Strauss, “From first grade in elementary school, where ABC primers fed straight into the shorter German Catechism, to the upper-most class of the Gymnasium, where preceptors lectured on the catechism in Geek and Latin, it dominated the curriculum as the pupil’s authoritative source of theological knowledge and fixed frame of religious reference.”
Luther’s support of schooling continued to grow and he, along with Melanchthon, promoted schools and universities, not only as places that taught religious belief, but also as places that served to educate citizens in practical subjects. This, in turn, prepared them for service in either the church or in secular professions which Luther came to believe were of equal importance in the eyes of God. This follows with Luther’s belief in the Priesthood of all Believers, which was his assertion that the Bible states that all people are priests, because all people are to serve God and the community. Historian Owen Chadwick wrote that, “In his 1520 appeal To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Martin Luther, though himself a monk and a priest, tried to destroy the belief that under God’s law the human race is divided into two ranks, cleric and lay; the cleric as superior, because they care for the souls while the lay care for the bodies.” This was not; however, the only social division that Luther had to overcome in promoting education for all.
In supporting schooling for all people through the creation of new schools and programs Luther had to fight the period’s common attitudes toward education. At this time, many people also viewed society as being separated into two groups besides cleric and lay; “the learned and the ‘common man.’” Along these lines, many believed that education was wasted unless one planned on a profession in law, medicine, or the church. Luther’s response to these attitudes was that, “the vocation of any Christian, by contributing to society and thus serving one’s neighbor, is as fulfilling before God as any specifically religious vocation.” Schools, in Luther’s mind, represented a way to improve a person’s abilities and knowledge in everyday life, allowing them to serve others and thereby improve society as a whole.
Luther did, however, acknowledge that there existed a distinction between the “learned” and the “common man,” and that not everyone was able, or meant to become learned leaders or teachers. In this vein, Luther and Melanchthon suggested that elementary schools, while educating all young boys and girls, could be used as mechanisms in which promising young students could be identified and advanced to elite secondary schools or universities and on to positions of leadership.
In the Schulordnung of Wurttemberg of 1559, Melanchthon states that “honest, wise, skilled, and God-fearing men are needed to serve in the holy preaching office, in worldly governments, in temporal posts, in administrative offices and households, and… schools are God’s chosen and rightful instruments for raising up such men.” As a result, one of the main functions of schools becomes the measurement of student’s abilities and the selection of students to either advance to upper educational institutions, or to regress to the “vernacular benches at the bottom of the educational edifice, where all lessons are given in German.”
Luther, Melanchthon, and their colleagues went to great lengths to see that the German governing authorities realized the importance of creating and maintaining effective schools. In the early sixteenth century the task of educating children was the duty of the parent. As humanism and the ideas of Luther and Melanchthon spread, the importance placed on children’s education increased dramatically. People began to see the issue as being too vital to leave to individual parents. On the subject of the education of children, Luther states, “He [the common man] doesn’t have the means for it, he doesn’t want to do it, and doesn’t know how.” Luther also believed that the task of educating children was in many cases too large and expensive even for voluntary, community-based institutions of learning. Luther saw government as the only alternative and implored the German governing authorities to assume responsibility for educating children and governing schools.
In his 1554 tract to city councilors of Strasburg, Luther attempted to convince the state of the necessity for public education by arguing that, “Practice in reading will make the common people more polite, peaceful, and disposed to civic life.” He suggested that the uneducated and illiterate tend to be ignorant of the law which leads to social disorder. Luther also argued that, “Government and society cannot continue without educated leaders and citizens. The young must be trained in history, the arts, languages, mathematics, and sciences to be able to benefit and serve the world. ‘The devil much prefers coarse blockheads and ne’er-do-wells, lest men get along too well on earth.’” Luther’s arguments were successful in persuading the government, not only of the importance of schooling, but also that they should be the ones to maintain and govern the schools. Control of schools up to this point was the domain of the church, but the “supervision of all educational institutions” was then, through amendments in ecclesiastical constitutions and ordinances, transferred “firmly into the hands of prince and magistrates, who were the owners and wielders of public power.”
While it may seem contradictory for Luther to have chosen to encourage the shift in control over schools from church to state, especially since Luther’s message and the Bible were being taught in them, this choice actually fits well with his understanding of secular and religious authority. Luther believed that Government is given by God and that Christians should submit themselves to its authority. This belief is grounded in Scripture, which Luther quotes in his work, On Governmental Authority (1523). In this Luther refers to Romans 12, which states, “Let every soul be subject to the governing authority, for there is no authority except from God; the authority which everywhere exists has been ordained by God. He who resists the governing authority resists the ordinance of God, and he who resists God’s ordinance will incur judgment.”
Luther did not believe, however, that the government had authority in all areas. Instead, Luther felt that God created two governments with two types of law to rule over the world. According to Luther these were; “The spiritual, by which the Holy Spirit produces Christians and righteous people under Christ; and the temporal, which restrains the un-Christian and wicked so that --no thanks to them—they are obliged to keep still and to maintain an outward peace.” In this way the temporal government deals with morality and ethics, but it does so only in regulating the outward manifestations of wrongful actions.
The temporal government therefore has a responsibility to try to prevent immoral behavior by teaching correct morals, which, at this time, were based almost entirely on the Bible. Luther argued that, “All ethical matters belong to God’s secular government, and since upbringing and education are moral enterprises, this is where they belong. They are part of God’s work to uphold the world as a good place to live, with good people and useful citizens, a world where the gospel can be preached.”
Although Luther makes it clear that he believes that secular schools could create good citizens capable of understanding and accepting the gospel, he did not believe that they had authority over spiritual matters. Luther stated that, “The temporal government has laws which extend no further than property and external affairs on earth, for God cannot and will not permit anyone but himself to rule over the soul. Therefore where the temporal authority presumes to prescribe laws for the soul, it encroaches upon God’s government and only misleads souls to destroy them.” It was important to Luther that the Bible and Christian belief were taught alongside secular subjects, but only to present them to students not to force belief upon them.
The change in responsibility regarding education from parents to schools and from the church to government was enormously successful. “In every German state, primary and secondary schools were built up, enlarged, equipped, ably staffed, tied together in sequence, and given fully articulated teaching programs and a clear sense of mission.” Clearly Luther’s vision for effective control of education and schooling was coming into fruition. Soon this control was firmly in place in Germany and was spreading outward:
By the 1560’s and 1570’s, something like an integrated school system existed, or was coming into existence, in most of the Lutheran states in the Holy Roman Empire—integrated in the sense that its levels and streams were linked in a coherent structure, and that the educational apparatus as a whole was closely tied in its stated aims and assigned functions to the objectives and operations of the ecclesiastical and political organs of the state.
In exploring the relationship between Luther’s religious ideas and his contributions towards educational reform, it becomes obvious that this relationship was fully reciprocal. This relationship between Luther and Melanchthon and schooling was clearly mutually beneficial and interdependent. While they needed schools to provide people with the ability to understand true Christian doctrine based on the Bible, Luther and Melanchthon helped to create an effective educational system maintained and managed by the state.
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