CATECHISM 



3 



appeared in French in 1541 or 1542 (Lat. ed. 1545), 

 licctlily translated into various languages, and 

 became an acknowledged standard of the Reformed 

 elmrchfs, not only in Swit/.rrland hut in the Low 

 Couiitni-s, in France, and in Hungary. The First 

 1'xi.ik "t Discipline of the Scottish Church (1560) 

 directs that tin- children he taught this catechism 

 ' which catechism is the most perfect that ever 

 \n was used in the kirk' every 'Sonday' after- 

 noon in the presence of the people. The Church of 



< .1'in-va has set aside the authority of Calvin's cate- 

 chisms. The Heidelherg or Palatinate Catechism 

 i< of greater importance, however, than any other 

 as a standard of the Swiss Reformed churches. It 

 was compiled by the Heidelberg theologians, Caspar 



< Mrvi.-mus and Zacharias Ursinus, at the request of 

 tin- Flcctor Frederic III. of the Palatinate; it was 

 jiuMished in 1563, was approved by several synods, 

 ami recognised as a symoolical book by the Synod 

 of Dort in 1619, and has been translated into all 

 the languages of Europe. It is the standard of the 

 Dutch and German Reformed churches of America. 

 A tercentenary edition of this catechism was 

 published in German, Latin, and English at New 

 York in 1863. King James said at the Hampton 

 Court Conference that in Scotland ' every one who 

 was the son of a good man ' thought himself com- 

 petent to write a catechism. The catechisms of 

 the Scottish Reformation must have been numerous. 

 The most popular, until it was superseded by the 

 Westminster Catechism, was John Craig's Smaller 

 Catechism (Edin. 1581 ; edited by T. G Law, 1883). 

 The doctrines of the Socinians are embodied in 

 the greater and smaller Racovian Catechisms 

 (Polished. Racow, 1605; Latin ed. 1609). Besides 

 a catechism of 1660, in the form of a conversation 

 between father and son, said to have been written 

 by George Fox, the Quakers have that of Robert 

 Barclay (1673), in which the answers are in the 

 language of the Bible, the distinctive peculiarities 

 of the sect being involved in the questions. 



In the Church of Rome there were several 

 catechisms published in Germany and elsewhere 

 before the Tridentine settlement of doctrine. A 

 Scottish catechism, known as Archbishop Hamil- 

 ton's, was issued by authority of a provincial 

 council in 1552, and was ordered to be read in 

 church by the parish priests. But in 1563 the 

 Council of Trent in its twenty-fourth session 

 determined to compose and prescribe for the whole 

 church an authorised form of catechism, which the 

 bishops were to have translated into the vulgar 

 tongue, and expounded to the people by the 

 curates. The work was, however, not carried 

 through by the council itself, and Pius IV. in- 

 trusted its completion to a commission of four 

 t btoloffians. Eminent scholars were also appointed 

 to perfect its latinity, and when finished in 1564 

 it was once again submitted to a new commission 

 under Cardinal Sirletus. It finally appeared in 

 1566 under the title Catechismus Romanus ex decreto 

 Concilii Tridentini Pii V. Pont. Max. iussu editus. 

 In form it is not catechetical, and it is addressed, 

 not to the people, but to the curates as a guide to 

 them in their instructions. It possesses veiy high 

 authority, but is ill adapted for popular use. For 

 lay teaching it has fallen into desuetude, and has 

 been superseded by various catechisms of more 

 private origin. The most popular of these were 

 prepared by the Jesuit Peter Canisius. His larger 

 work, entitled Suinma Doctrince et Institutions 

 Christiana, was published in 1554, and the shorter 

 (1556) reached more than 400 editions, and was 

 used in the schools of all countries. In the 

 present day, as a general rule, each diocese pos- 

 sesses a catechism of its own approved by the 

 bishop. In England the short ' Penny Catechism ' 

 is used by authority of all the bishops in concert. 



The catechism called the Orthodox Confusion 

 of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church, 

 was prepared about 1640 by Peter Mogila*, 

 metropolitan of Kief, and received symbolical 

 authority from a synod at Jerusalem in 1672. 

 It is often called the Larger Russian Catechi-m, 

 to distinguish it from the Smaller Catechism pre- 

 pared by order of Peter the Great in 1723. These 

 were practically superseded by the catechisms of 

 I Mat on, metropolitan of Moscow (first published in 

 1762), and of Philaret, also metropolitan of Moscow, 

 which has since 1839 been in general use in the 

 schools and churches of Russia. Besides these cate- 

 chisms, which have a historic interest, or are of 

 importance from their symbolical character, there 

 have appeared at all periods, since the Reforma- 

 tion, many others, both Protestant and Roman 

 Catholic, some doctrinal, some controversial, some 

 devoted to particular subjects, as the sacramente, 

 or to particular purposes, as the preparation of can- 

 didates for admission to the Lord's Supper, some 

 adapted to the mental capacity of very young 

 children, &c. The opinion, however, has become 

 prevalent, that doctrinal abstracts are not the 

 best form in which religion can be presented to 

 the young, and the use of catechisms has accord- 

 ingly been in some measure relinquished in favour 

 of other methods of instruction. 



The catechism of the Church of England with 

 which we are most familiar is the smaller one 

 published in the Book of Common Prayer. It is 

 in two parts : the first contains and explains the 

 Baptismal Covenant, the Creed, the Ten Com- 

 mandments, and the Lord's Prayer ; the second 

 explains the two sacraments, Baptism and the 

 Lord's Supper. It is not known with absolute 

 certainty who was the author of the first part ; 

 probably Cranmer and Ridley had the principal 

 hand in framing the questions and answers. It 

 was originally put forth in the reign of Edward VI., 

 and condemned as heretical in the reign of Mary, 

 and underwent several modifications from 1549 to 

 1661. It must not be confounded with Cranmer's 

 Catechism (1548), which was a larger work, differ- 

 ently arranged, and probably translated chiefly from 

 the Latin catechism of Justus Jonas. This first part 

 of the church catechism was formerly spoken of as 

 the Shorter Catechism. There was a larger church 

 catechism compiled also in the reign of Edward 

 VI. by Poynet, Bishop of Winchester, and pub- 

 lished, together with the 42 Articles, in 1553, and it 

 corresponds in some degree with the smaller work 

 above described. It was afterwards revised and 

 enlarged by Dean Nowell, and published in 1570 ; 

 and, though never officially promulgated by the 

 church, it has some authority from naving been 

 approved by the lower house of Convocation. At 

 the Hampton Court Conference (1604), the Shorter 

 Catechism was considered too short, and NowelFs 

 larger one ' too long for novices to learn by heart ; ' 

 accordingly, at James I.'s suggestion, an addition 

 was made to the former of that explanation of the 

 two sacraments which now forms the second part of 

 the church catechism. This is attributed to Dean 

 Overall. The whole is a work much esteemed by 

 all sections of the church as remarkable for its 

 simplicity, truth, and catholicity. It, however, 

 states sacramental doctrine in a wav that is not 

 very acceptable to the extreme Low Church party. 

 Hence, the Prayer-book put forth by the Church 

 of Ireland, while leaving the catechism otherwise 

 untouched, ingeniously interpolates an additional 

 question and answer (based on Article XXVIII. ), 

 which, in the opinion of many, tends to modify the 

 ideas suggested by the catechism concerning Holy 

 Communion. Modifications occur, too, in the 

 Catechism of the American Episcopal Church. 

 The rubrics in the Common Prayer-book enjoin 



