lt of the cultured paganism of
the Renaissance, but also through the brutish ignorance of the common
folk, deprived now of their traditional religious restraints. To the
urgency of this peril the reformers were fully alive; and they sought
its remedy in education. "Let the people be taught," said Luther, "let
schools be opened for the poor, let the truth reach them in simple words
in their own mother tongue, and they will believe."

_Catechisms of the Chief Religious Communions._--(a) _Evangelical
(Lutheran and Reformed)._--It was the ignorance of the peasantry, as
revealed by the horrors of the Peasants' War of 1524-25, and his
pastoral visitation of the electorate of Saxony 1525-1527, that drew the
above exclamation from Luther, and impelled him to produce his two
famous catechisms (1529). In 1520 he had brought out a primer of
religion dealing briefly with the Decalogue, the Creed and the Lord's
Prayer; and Justus Jonas, Johannes Agricola and other leaders had done
something of the same kind. Now all these efforts were superseded by
Luther's Smaller Catechism meant for the people themselves and
especially for children, and by his Larger Catechism intended for clergy
and schoolmasters. These works, which did much to mould the character of
the German people, were set among the doctrinal standards of the
Lutheran Church and powerfully influenced other compilations. The
Smaller Catechism, with the Augsburg Confession, was made the Rule of
Faith in Denmark in 1537.

In this same year (1537) John Calvin at Geneva published his catechism
for children. It was called _Instruction and Confession of Faith for the
Use of the Church of Geneva_ (a reprint edited by A. Rilliet and T.
Dufour Was published in 1878), and explained the Decalogue, the
Apostles' Creed, the Lord's Prayer and the Sacraments. Though it was
meant, as he said, to give expression to a simple piety rather than to
exhibit a profound knowledge of religious truth, it was the work of a
man who knew little of the child mind, and, though it served as an
admirable and transparent epitome of his famous _Institutes_, it was too
long and too minute for the instruction of children. Calvin came to see
this, and in 1542, after his experience in Strassburg, drafted a new one
which was much more suitable for teaching purposes, though, judged by
modern standards, still far beyond the theological range of childhood.
It was used at the Sunday noon instruction of children, on wh