Note 1927 — Chapter XXXIV · (continued 2)

“Historien,” Bl. 63. Mathesius, however, will only admit that, on the whole, “some fragments of the Catechism” had been retained in Popery. Luther’s admirer cannot even recall that in Popery he “had ever heard ... the Ten Commandments, Creed, Our Father or Baptism spoken of from the pulpit.... Of the absolution and consolation arising from a believing reception of the Body and Blood of Christ I had to my knowledge never heard a word all my days before I came to Wittenberg, either in the churches or the schools, just as I cannot recall having seen any written or printed explanation of the Catechism in Popery” (Bl. 63 and 63´).—The ignorance of the facts of the case revealed in the latter statement is met with elsewhere in the rest of the passage of Mathesius’s writing; he may have been unfortunate in his own personal experience, but he certainly exaggerates. That, before Luther’s day, preaching was not everywhere sufficiently supplemented by catechetical instruction was undoubtedly to be regretted.