The Conservative Reformation and Its Theology - Saint Mary ...

word, language found in Kero (the Monk of St. Gall, A. D. 750), in his
exposition of the Lord's Prayer, in fact, found yet earlier, in the
Sacramentary of Gelasius (Pope 492-496.) It shows the self-renunciation,
with which Luther held aloof from the formulary manner of Dogmatics and
from Polemics; it reveals the art of saying much in little, yet with all its
pregnant richness never becomes obscure, heavy, unfit for the people.
These qualities, in conjunction with that warm, hearty tone, in virtue of
which Löhe" (who simply repeats an expression of Luther himself) "says
the Catechism can be prayed, these--despite the barbarism of times and
tendencies, whose nature it has been to have the least comprehension of
the highest beauty--have preserved to this little book its exalted place of
honor." 201
The love of the Church anticipated the orders of Consistories in the
universal introduction of Luther's Catechisms, and authority could come in
only to sanction what was already fixed. So truly did the Shorter
Catechism embody the simple Christian faith, as to become by the
spontaneous acclamation of millions, a Confession. It was a private writing,
and yet beyond all the Confessions, the direct pulsation of the Church's
whole heart is felt in it. It was written in the rapture of the purest
Catholicity, and nothing from Luther's pen presents him more perfectly,
simply as the Christian, not as the prince of theologians, but as a lowly
believer among believers.
Confessional authority.
In the Preface to the Book of Concord the "Electors, Princes, and
Orders of the Empire, who adhere to the Augsburg Confession," declare in
conclusion: "We propose in this Book of Concord to make no new thing,
nor in any respect to depart from the truth of the heavenly doctrine, as it
has been acknowledged by our pious fathers and ourselves. By this divine
doctrine we mean that which is derived from the writings of the Prophets
and Apostles, and embraced in the three Ancient Creeds; the Augsburg
Confession, delivered in 1530 to the Emperor Charles V.; the Apology
which followed it; the Schmalcald Articles, and the CATECHISMS of Dr.
Luther. Wherefore, it is our purpose in nothing
201 Palmer in Herzog's: R. E. viii. 618. Do: Evang. Katechetik. Stuttg. 5. ed. 1864.