As

The new developments of the period in Religionsunterricht attach themselves to the newly established secular schools. indicated, these schools grew up in competition with the church schools and stood in the disfavor of the clergy. Nevertheless, in these schools the mediaeval conditions as to religious instruction continue, there being in that matter no sharp distinction between them and the cloister and cathedral schools. The studies were the same; the methods were the same; and the church retained its essential supervisory rights. Speaking of the Latin school in which he himself learned the Creed, the Lord's Prayer, and the Ten Commandments, Luther testified that "noch was gutes im Papsttum blieben." The significance of this later mediaeval development lies not in any radical change of the religious instruction, but in the fact that the civil power, in assuming the task of popular education, chose to keep Religionsunterricht as an integral part of it.

IV.

The educational problem of the Protestant Reformation was exceedingly complex. The new ideals of Humanism were stirring the world. Through its breach with the political and ecclesiastical systems of the past, Protestantism was obliged to create for itself a new set of institutions, and this is the task to which it set its hand. After the Diet of Speier, 1526, the several states of the Empire established their state-churches, on the principle cuius regio, eius religio;2 and as part of the Protestant Church System the Protestant School System came into being.

With his insistence on the doctrine of the rights of the individual conscience as the central truth of Christianity, Luther promptly saw that in this principle lay the germ of a new ideal of popular education. If the true faith was to make its way, its elements must be taught to the children. They must be able to read the Scriptures in their own tongue and to interpret them for themselves. Luther's interest in education was primarily religious; learning was for him one of the necessary bulwarks of the faith.

'Schumann u. Sperber, 22.

'Schaff, VI. 513, 549.

Very early, therefore, he began to urge the duty of founding schools and to work for them in practical ways. In his “Address to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation," 1520, his "Letter to the Burgomasters and Counsellors of All Cities of Germany," 1524; his Longer and Shorter Catechisms, 1529;2 his German Bible, 1534; and in a multitude of sermons, expositions, exhortations, and the like, the great reformer sought to build foundations for the new education of Protestant Germany. In the actual shaping of the new education, Melanchthon had quite as large a share as Luther. Through his labors for universities and schools he won the name of "praeceptor Germaniae." Step by step, under these leaders the movement went forward. Grammar schools were founded. In 1528-29 Luther and Melanchthon carried out a systematic visitation of the churches in the Electorate of Saxony; the "Instructions" drawn up by Melanchthon for this work became the model for many similar codes in other states, and may be regarded as the foundation-stone of the educational structure of modern Germany. In the north, Johannes Bugenhagen (1485-1588), following the Saxon model, drafted ordinances and founded schools in Braunschweig, Hamburg, Lubeck, Schleswig-Holstein, and other cities and districts; and Johannes Brenz (1499-1570) performed a similar service in the south, his Württemberg ordinances of 1559 having wide influence in the land. Everywhere the school regulations were an integral part of the new church laws; the founding of schools grew out of the reorganization of the churches. Education remained a function of the church, but it had in a new way become dependent on the co-operation of the secular power.

In this reconstructive process all three classes of schools previously known appear in the service of Protestantism. The universities naturally assume the leading place, but for the purposes of this paper they must be disregarded. As between the lower schools, the reformers gave far the greater place to the Latin schools, because in them students were fitted for the universities and thereby equipped for the defense of the faith. The first need

'Transl. in Painter, Luther on Education, 169-209.

Text and Translation of Shorter Catechism in Schaff, Creeds of Christendom, III. 74-92.

of Protestantism was for trained leaders, and very rapidly there arose a measurably adequate supply of secondary schools.

But even the sixteenth century made notable progress toward elementary education for the people. The "German schools" of the previous period lived on and made a place for themselves. While laying stress on the Latin schools, Bugenhagen gave attention to the more elementary type. The Württemberg ordinances of 1559 contemplated a common-school education for all the people. Thus a standard was erected and simple foundations were laid for the Volksschule of the future.

In spirit and motive the Protestant school system was new, but it got its structural features from the later Middle Ages. It was strongest at the top, but in all its parts it was strong enough to give promise for the future. Its significant features are the closer affiliation between education and the State, the growing recognition and use of the German language, and above all else the domination of the schools by the humanistic ideals and methods derived from the neo-classical standards of the Renais

sance.

At the heart of this new Protestant curriculum stood the religious instruction. The schools existed to teach religion. They aimed to produce in the young that "sapiens atque eloquens pietas" which was the evangelical ideal.

The Saxon visitation of 1528-29 oppressed Luther very deeply by reason of the ignorance and superstition he found among the people; and to meet the need he the same year wrote the Longer and the Shorter Catechisms. Numerous religious text-books in catechetical form had already appeared in Germany; but the Shorter Catechism of Luther soon superseded them all and made for itself a place in German estimation second only to the Bible. The Shorter Catechism contains the standard documents of religious instruction-the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, the Apostles' Creed-but the bulk of it is made up of Luther's comments in the form of question and answer; and the entire collection was designed for memorizing. The original symbols, therefore, are deeply imbedded in the dogmatic interpretations of the reformer. The Catechism is intensely Protestant and intensely Lutheran, finely adapted to the work of indoctrinating the minds of the young. And for almost four hundred years

it has kept its place at the center of German religious education. In the Latin schools of the sixteenth century religion had a large place. All lessons opened with prayer. All pupils were required to attend the daily church services and to participate in the singing. Within the school they must learn the Catechism with the explanations; portions of the New Testament were studied in class; and in the upper grades there was often "an introductory course in dogmatic theology." In the Braunschweig school ordinances of 1528, religious instruction is avowedly designed to prepare for baptism. Under the Schleswig-Holstein regulations, 1542, the entire instruction is directed to the end of making the youth devout and faithful members of the Christian communion.1 Much memorizing of Scripture and other religious matter was required; there were daily church services, daily drill in church music; and once a week the pupils had a recitation in the Latin Catechism, followed by the customary sermon on some doctrine of the Catechism. These provisions are fairly typical of the requirements for the period in the matter of Religionsunterricht.

.....

In the elementary schools religious instruction was simpler, but filled quite as large a place. "This instruction in reading and catechism was the root-stock from which has grown up the Protestant elementary school." Although the children of the common people were destined not for the learned professions but for the humbler pursuits, they too must be grounded in the summa doctrinae, the elements of the truth, and must be able to read the Scriptures for themselves. These were the ground principles of the Volksschule. In the application of them there was necessarily great diversity. Religious Religious instruction was given partly by the pastor in connection with the stated Gottesdienst, partly by the Küster, or sacristan, acting as the agent of the church, and partly in the boys' and girls' schools where such existed. But in all cases instruction consisted in essentially the same things-memorizing the Catechism, learning Bible verses, drill in church music, and participation in public worship. Often enough the teachers were ignorant or indifferent, and their teaching lacked the vital religious force which was the aim of the reSee the text in Rendtorff, op. cit. 4-24.

2 Paulsen, German Education, 72.

formers. But in one way or another, before the close of the sixteenth century, the system of Religionsunterricht here outlined was well established in Protestant Germany. Some provision had been made for instructing all the children and youth in the principles of the Lutheran faith.

Substantially, this system of religious instruction established in the Reformation period remains to the present day. Many changes have come in its methods, many betterments in its apparatus. A vast literature, expository, controversial, apologetic, has grown up around the subject. In a large degree religious instruction has shared in the conspicuous progress of modern pedagogy. But the chief features abide as they were fixed by Luther and his contemporaries. This paper can only indicate in the most general way the main lines of subsequent development.

V.

The later sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries saw a serious decline in German social conditions. The religious wars devastated the land and consumed its resources. Education and all the higher interests suffered a relapse. Even in such a time, great leaders like Ratichius and Comenius arose; but the main currents of the age were adverse.

Religious teaching necessarily shared in the decadence. Already, before the religious wars, a degree of mechanical formalism and polemic dogma had crept into religious instruction, giving concern to the better leaders.

The Peace of Westphalia brought in a new age. German education, German thought and culture, took a great leap forward. From the middle of the seventeenth century to the end of the eighteenth, German culture was dominated by certain great tendencies or schools of thought, all of which play their part in the history of the schools-Lutheran orthodoxy, Pietism, Rationalism, Aufklarung, Naturalism, and the New Humanism.

In the face of ever-widening opposition from the new intellectual and spiritual forces, the orthodox church strove to hold the field of religion and education, but with a constantly diminishing grip on the situation. Pietism, as represented by such