Useful Excerpts from “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany that they Establish and Maintain Christian Schools”
About Teaching The Languages
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Let us consider our former misery and darkness in which we sat. Germany, I trow, has never heard so much of God’s Word as now; at least we find nothing like it in history. If we permit it to go by without thanks and honor, it is to be feared we shall suffer a still more dreadful darkness and plague. My, dear Germans, while the fair is at your doors; gather in the harvest while there is sunshine and fair weather; use the grace and Word of God while they are here. For, know this, God’s Word and grace is a passing rainstorm, which does not return where it has once been. It came tot he Jews, but it passed over; now they have nothing. Paul brought it to the Greeks, but it passed over; now they have the Turk. Rome and the Latins hat it, too; but it passed over; now they have the pope. And Germans must not think you will have it forever; for ingratitude and contempt will not suffer it to remain. Take and hold fast, then, whoever can; idle hands cannot but have a lean year.
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But it is a sin and a disgrace that we must needs urge and be urged to train our children and youths and seek their best interests, when nature itself should drive us to do this and the examples even of the heathen afford us manifold instructions. there is not an irrational animal but looks after its young and teaches them what they need to know, except the ostrich, of which God says that she is hardened against her young ones, as though they were not hers, and leaves her eggs in the earth. And what would it profit us if we possessed and performed all else and became utter saints, and yet neglected the chief purpose of life, namely, the care of the young? I believe also that among outward sins none so heavily burdens the world in the sight of God nor deserves such severe punishment as the sin we commit against our children by not giving them and education.
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Truly, if there were no other use for the languages, this alone ought to rejoice and move us, that they are so fine and noble a gift of God, with which He is now richly visiting and endowing us Germans, more richly indeed than any other land. There is little evidence that the devil suffered them to be revived through the universities and monasteries; these have, on the contrary, always raged against them and are still raging. For the devil smelt a rat and perceived that if the languages were revived, there would be a hole knocked in his kingdom which he might have difficulty stopping. Since he was unable, however, to prevent their being revived, his aim is now to keep them on such slender rations that they will of themselves decline and pass away. They are like an unwelcome guest who has come to his house; so he determines to show him such entertainment that he will not tarry long. Very few of us, my dear sirs, see through this wicked plot of the devil.
Therefore, my beloved Germans, let us open our eyes, thank God for this precious treasure, and guard it well, lest it be again taken from us and the devil have his will. For though the Gospel has come and daily comes through the Holy Spirit alone, we cannot deny that it has come by means of the languages, by which it was also spread abroad, and by which it must be preserved. For when God desired through the apostles to spread abroad the Gospel in all the world, He provided tongues for that purpose. And before that He had spread the Greek and Latin languages, by means of the Roman empire, throughout all lands, in order that His Gospel might the more speedily bear fruit far and wide. He has done the same now. No one knew for what purpose God suffered the languages to be revived, until we now begin to see that it was for the sake of the Gospel, which He intended afterwards to reveal, in order to expose and destroy thereby the kingdom of antichrist. To this end He also gave over Greece to the Turk, in order that the Greeks, driven out and scattered, might spread their language and give an incentive to the study of other languages as well.
In proportion, then, as we prize the Gospel, let us guard the languages.
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And let us be sure of this: we shall not long preserve the Gospel without the languages. The languages are the sheath in which this sword of the Spirit is contained; they are the casket in which we carry this jewel; they are the vessel in which we hold this wine; they are the larder in which this food is stored; and as the Gospel itself says, they are the baskets in which we bear these loaves and fishes and fragments. If through our neglect we let the languages go (which may God forbid!), we shall not only lose the Gospel, but come at last to the point where we shall be unable either to speak or write a correct Latin or German. As proof and warning of this, let us take the wretched and woeful example of the universities and monasteries, in which men not only unlearned the Gospel, but corrupted the languages so that the miserable folk were fairly turned into beasts, unable to read or write a correct German or Latin and wellnigh losing their natural reason to boot.
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Hence it is certain that unless the languages remain the Gospel must finally perish.
This has been proved and is still shown by experience. Immediately after the days of the apostles, when languages ceased, the Gospel, the faith and the whole Church gradually declined, until they sank under the pope to the lowest depth; and after the languages declined very little that is excellent was witnessed in the Church, but a great many dreadful abominations arose because the languages were unknown. On the other hand, since the languages have been restored, they bring with them so bright a light and accomplish such great things that the whole world wonders and is forced to confess that we have the Gospel quite as purely as the apostles had it, and that it has altogether attained to its original purity, far beyond what it was in the days of St. Jerome or St. Augustine. In short, the Holy Spirit is no fool and does nothing unadvisedly or uselessly; He regarded the languages as of so great value and necessity to the Church that He oftentimes brought them down with Him from heaven. This alone should be a sufficient incentive for us to pursue them with diligence and reverence and not to despise them, for He Himself has now again revived them upon earth.
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that a Christian teacher who is to expound the Scriptures must know, in addition to Latin, also Greek and Hebrew; otherwise it is impossible not to stumble constantly, nay, there is room enough for labor and toil even when one is well versed in the languages.
There is a great difference, therefore, between a simple preacher of the faith and an expositor of Scripture, or as St. Paul puts it, a prophet. A simple preacher, to be sure, is in possession of so many clear passages and texts from translations that he can know and teach Christ, lead a holy life and preach to others. But to interpret Scripture, to treat it independently, and to dispute with those who cite it incorrectly, to that he is unequal; that cannot be done without languages. Yet there must always be such prophets in the Church, who are able to treat and expound the Scriptures and also to dispute; a saintly life and correct doctrine are not enough. Hence languages are absolutely necessary in the Church, just as prophets or expositors are necessary, although not every Christian or preacher need be such a prophet, as St. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12 and Ephesians 4.
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Hence it was also a stupid undertaking to attempt to learn the meaning of Scripture by reading the expositions of the fathers and their numerous books and glosses. Instead of this, men should have given themselves to the study of languages.
About Other Subjects to Teach and in a Playful Way
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But the training which is undertaken at home, apart from such schools, attempts to make us wise through our own experience. Before that comes to pass we shall be dead a hundred times over, and shall have acted inconsiderately all our life; for much time is needed to acquire one’s own experience. Now since the young must romp and leap or at least have something to do that gives them pleasure, and since this should not be forbidden (nor would it be well to forbid them everything), why should we not furnish them such schools and lay before them such studies? By the grace of God it has now become possible for children to study with pleasure and in play languages, the other arts, or history. The kind of schools we attended are a thing of the past — that hell and purgatory in which we were tormented with cases and tenses, and yet learned less than nothing with all the flogging, trembling, anguish and misery. If we take so much time and trouble to teach children card-playing, singing and dancing, why do we not take as much time and trouble to teach them reading and other branches, while they are young and have the time, and are apt and eager to learn? For my part, if I had children and could accomplish it, they should study not only the languages and history, but singing, instrumental music, and all of mathematics. For what is all this but mere child’s play? In these branches the Greeks in former times trained their children, who grew up into men and women of wondrous ability, skilled in every pursuit. How I regret now that I did not read more poets and historians, and that no one taught me them! I was obliged instead to read, with great cost, labor and injury, that devil’s filth, the philosophers and sophists, from which I have all I can do to get myself clean.
About Maintaining Libraries
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Finally, one thing more should be well considered by all who earnestly desire to have such schools and languages established and maintained in Germany. It is this: no effort or expense should be spared to found good libraries, especially in the larger cities, which can well afford it. For if the Bible and all the arts are to be preserved, they must be contained and held fast in books and writings, as was done by the prophets and apostles themselves, as I have said above. This is necessary, not only that those who are to be our spiritual and temporal leaders may have books to read and study, but that the good books, the arts and the languages that we now have through the grace of God may be preserved and not lost. St. Paul, too, was concerned for this, when he commanded Timothy to give attendance to reading, and bade him bring with him the parchment left at Troas. Indeed, all kingdoms that attained preeminence gave attention to this matter, especially the people of Israel, among whom Moses was the first to undertake this work, when he had the book of the law preserved in the ark of God and gave it in charge of the Levites, from whom whoever needed it might obtain a copy; he even commands the king to procure from them a copy of this book. Thus we see how God appointed the levitical priesthood, among its other duties, to watch over and have the care of books. Afterwards this library was added to and improved by Joshua, then by Samuel, David, Solomon, Isaiah, and thus continuously by many other kings and prophets. Whence have come the Holy Scriptures of the Old Testament, which would never have been collected or preserved if God had not required such care to be bestowed upon them.
Following this example, the cathedral schools and monasteries also established libraries in former days, although there were few good books in them. What a loss it was not to have attended to the securing of books and good libraries in those days when there were books and men enough for that purpose, was plainly seen afterwards when all arts and languages gradually declined, and instead of good books the stupid, useless and harmful books of the monks, Catholicon, Florista, Graecista, Labyrinthus, Dormi secure, and the like ass’s dung, were introduced by the devil. Consequently the Latin language became corrupted and there remained nowhere a decent school, course of instruction or method of study, until, as we have experienced and observed, men recovered with much toil and labor the languages and arts, although only imperfectly, from bits and fragments of old books hidden among dust and worms, and are still searching laboriously for them everyday, as me n dig for treasures and jewels in the ashes of a ruined city.
It served us right, and God properly rewarded us for our ingratitude in not considering His benefits nor providing, while we had the time and the ability, for the continuance among us of good books and learned men. When we neglected this, as though it was no concern of ours, He in turn did the same, and instead of Holy Scripture and good books suffered Aristotle to come in with countless hurtful books that only drew us farther away from the Bible. In addition to these He let in those devil’s masks, the monks, and the phantoms of the universities, which we endowed with superhuman gifts, and received and loaded upon our own necks a host of doctors, preachers, masters, priests and monks, that is to say, great coarse fat asses adorned with red and brown birettas, resembling a sow with a golden chain and jewels, who taught us nothing good, but made us only the blinder and more stupid, and in return devoured all our goods and filled all monasteries and indeed every corner with the filth and dung of their vile, poisonous books, which it is appalling to contemplate.
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But my advice is not to huddle together indiscriminately all sorts of books and to look only to their number and quantity. I would gather only the best; there is no need of collecting the commentaries of all jurists, the sentences of all theologians, the questions of all philosophers, and the sermons of all monks. Indeed, I would throw out all such dung and furnish my library with the right sort of books, consulting with scholars as to my choice. First of all there should be in it the Holy Scriptures in Latin, Greek, Hebrew, German, and in whatever other languages they might be had. Then the best commentaries, and if I could find them, the most ancient, in Greek, Hebrew and Latin. Then books that aid us in acquiring the languages, such as the poets and orators, no matter whether heathen or Christian, Greek or Latin; for it is from such books one must learn grammar. Then should come books of the liberal arts and all the other arts. Lastly, books of law and of medicine, though here too a careful choice among commentaries should be made.
Among the chief books, however, should be chronicles and histories, in whatever language they may be had; for they are of wondrous value for understanding and controlling the course of this world and especially for noting the wonderful works of God.