The Earliest Protestants and the Reformation of Education

By Mark A. Noll

This study was originally prepared in a slightly different form for the Christian Education Association as part of its efforts to increase an understanding of Christian education among the Christian public.

It is now nearly 500 years since Martin Luther, the pioneer of the Protestant Reformation, was born. At Luther’s birth in 1483 the first voyage of Christopher Columbus to the uncharted New World was still nine years away. When Luther became a Roman Catholic monk in 1505, the first permanent settlement in British North America at Jamestown was still a century into the future. When Luther appeared before the German emperor in 1520 to declare that his “conscience was captive to the Word of God,” it was 110 years before the start of Puritan migration to America. When Luther wrote his first work on education in 1524, it was over 110 years before the Puritan authorities in Massachusetts passed the first American law concerning the education of children. And today it is over 300 years from the time of that law.

The Reformation, in short, took place a long time ago. Its world was greatly different from our own. Having admitted this, however, it does not mean that there are no lessons for us from that time. To the contrary, the commitments and actions of the Protestant reformers offer us much for modern Christians to ponder and, often, to imitate. This is particularly true for educational concerns. The reformers did not know how the world in general and the Christian church in particular would develop after their time. Nevertheless, their writings and actions offer sound guidelines for modern believers concerned about the place of education in a Christian view of life.

The Revolutionary Character of the Reformation and Its Threat to Education

The message of the Reformation was the message of the Christian gospel.[1] As always when the gospel is proclaimed in its fullness, there were revolutionary results. The recovery of a Reformed Christian faith called for radical changes in the personal lives, the churches, and the society of the sixteenth century. Each of the Reformation’s main commitments—to justification by faith, to the priesthood of Christian believers, and to the ultimate authority of the Bible—led inevitably to new ways of looking at life.

The reformers taught, first, that salvation was God’s work from first to last. Justification came from God who in his mercy reached out to sinful mankind through his Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. This biblical view of salvation—sola gratia, sola fide—revolutionized the relationship between God and man. The Christian religion was God-centered once again.

The Reformation’s concept of the priesthood of believers called forth a corresponding reformation in the church. All believers were equally priests of the living God. All had been called to serve their fellows as God’s representatives in the world. The holy, catholic church, with this Reformed understanding, became the communion of all saints.

Finally, the Reformation liberated the Bible and in so doing extended its revolutionary impact from the church to the world. The reformers proclaimed that Scripture was the final and ultimate authority in every sphere of life. Although they differed among themselves as to how this principle should be applied, they did not abandon its earth-shaking implications when facing matters of concern to individuals, the church, or society at large.

The impact of the Reformation was particularly strong on the theory and practice of education. In fact, it seemed at first as if the Reformation would lead to the destruction of education rather than its reform. To understand how this could come about, it is necessary to say something about medieval education.[2]

It was the Roman Catholic church that provided the absolute foundation for the schools of the middle ages. In the twilight days of the barbarian invasions (400–700) and in the truly dark period of the Viking raids (900–1100), the church had rescued learning from the threat of extinction. The monasteries, with their mission to provide havens in a stormy era, showed particular concern for the basic educational skills of reading, writing, and calculating. The Scriptures and commentaries needed to be read. Valuable manuscripts had to be copied accurately. The dates for church festivals had to be figured. Communications had to be maintained among the far-flung parts of the western church. To meet these needs, the church assumed almost the entire burden for preserving the life of the mind. Even during the periodic eras of renewal, such as under Charlemagne (800), priests and monks performed the intellectual tasks necessary to sustain a civilization. Medieval education, in short, was a true son of the Roman Catholic church.

The organization of the schools reflected that fact. The first schools of medieval Europe were schools established by monks for their own members. Later the demand came for schooling in the cathedral towns, settlements in which a local bishop resided and which were usually located at a strategic point—a ford by a river, a crossroads, or near a powerful feudal lord. These schools were manned by priests and were maintained to fill the needs of the church. Another type of church school arose as an off-shoot of Roman Catholic teaching. Believing that the saying of masses would ease their lot in the afterlife, wealthy landowners would leave an endowment for a priest to say masses in their behalf after they had died. Since these “chantry” priests had no other duties than saying daily masses for their patrons, they were often encouraged to teach school as a service offered by the church to the community.

The other types of schools in the middle ages were not connected to the church quite as directly, but they were usually bound indirectly to ecclesiastical control. The universities which arose in the years after 1000 were chartered as corporations, but their faculties were made up of priests and monks. And, with the exception of medical and legal studies, their curriculum was directed toward theology and church law. In the later middle ages, as towns began to increase in size and number, two other types of schools arose—the guild school, financed by trade and artisan organizations; the burgher schools, established by town councils. Like the universities, these schools were usually staffed by monks and priests.

Regardless of the kind of school one attended, the curriculum would have been about the same. The very earliest years of schooling—and it is well to remember that only a small percentage of the population enjoyed even that—might promote instruction in the common language of the region—German, Dutch, Spanish, French, English. Far more likely, however, education would begin with grammar. And in the middle ages, grammar always meant Latin grammar, for Latin was the universal language of the church and of anyone who had the least desire to be educated. From the study of Latin grammar the boys—and they were almost exclusively boys—moved to rhetoric, the art of communicating with persuasive conviction. And from there to dialectic, or logic. These three disciplines were the heart and soul of a medieval liberal arts education. On them were based the other four of the seven liberal arts—arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. The fortunate few who mastered this curriculum could then advance to the university studies in medicine, in law, or most commonly, in theology, the Queen of the sciences.

The Renaissance had encouraged the study of Greek language and literature and had loosened up European education somewhat in the 1400s. Still, it is fair to say that the shape of education—organized by and for the Roman Catholic church, based on the seven liberal arts—had not changed substantially in the 800 years before the Reformation.

The same could be said for the methods used to impart the educational training. Before the European invention of the printing press in the 1450’s students owned few books. In the absence of books, a great deal of time was spent in phrase-by-phrase lecturing (from the Latin: legere, lectus = to read). And phrase-by-phrase copying by the students. Rarely was such activity a stimulating experience. When the students were not copying as their teacher read from a precious book, they were instructed in a question and answer format. Closer to the time of the Reformation, debating was used increasingly as a means of instruction. Particularly in the higher levels of study, a teacher would state several theses, or contentions, which students would then argue pro and con.

In the first blush of the Reformation all of this was called into question—the purpose of education, its structures, its content, and its method. The Reformation, along with other changes in European life seemed to attack this educational system at every theoretical and practical point. The increasingly materialistic spirit of modern life joined the teachings of the Reformation to strike at the connection between education and the Roman Catholic church. There were two arguments here. Together they cast doubt on the ability of learning to survive.

From the side of the Reformation the case against medieval education went like this: “The Roman Catholic church has perverted Christianity and darkened the light of the gospel. It is the Roman Catholic church that sponsors and controls education. Education must therefore be as corrupt as its sponsor.”

The second argument was not in the least religious. It took its force from the new economic opportunities in Europe and from the natural human desire to get ahead while the getting is good. This argument ran thus: “Never in living memory have there been so many chances to get ahead in life. Gold, silver, and valuable raw materials are flowing into Europe from the Americas. Trade is growing. What, in these circumstances, can education mean for me and my children? All the knowledge of Latin in the world won’t help me get my own loom or my son to become a city father. All this concern for theology won’t buy a single inch of land. I want to be rich, or if not rich, reasonably well off. And to do that I don’t need to go to school.”

Together, these two arguments made it difficult for the traditional educational system to survive, much less to be reformed.

The Reformation had an even more direct impact upon the financial health of the schools. When the Reformation was preached, it quickly won adherents that included the leaders of principalities and cities. When a city or province “came over to the Reformation,” a great deal of Roman Catholic property had to be transferred to new hands. One of the complaints against the Reformation was that princes and magistrates became “Reformed” solely to be able to take Roman Catholic lands and endowments for themselves. There was truth in this accusation, even though many rulers were sincerely converted under the preaching of the Reformed gospel. Whether sincerely or insincerely, however, the rulers still had a great deal of church property to dispose of. This situation led to a crisis for the schools. Lands owned by the monasteries, and used to support education, were taken over by rulers and very often distributed to their friends. When belief in purgatory was given up, chantry endowments were dispersed and chantry priests no longer offered instruction for communities. The same thing happened to the cathedral schools. In this process financial support for education, whether Roman Catholic or Reformed, was frequently gutted.

One of the Reformation’s key affirmations led to another direct attack on education in general. The reformers proclaimed that all believers were equal members of a spiritual priesthood. All had the privilege of standing before God without the mediation of any other human beings or human structures. The Holy Spirit was active in all believers. The conclusion, at least to many, was obvious: education as such is not necessary for the Christian led by the Holy Spirit. Education can only create a privileged, priest-like class of the learned who impose themselves between God and individuals.

The cumulative effect of these opinions spelled disaster for schools in the early Reformation period. Statistics are hard to come by for the lower schools, but the sad plight of the universities reflected a general decline in education throughout Germany and Switzerland. Martin Luther posted his 95 Theses with their attack on the Roman Catholic concept of Christianity in 1517. When he entered the Universitv of Erfurt in 1501, it had an enrollment of 2,000 students; by 1529 it was down to 20. The University of Leipzig, an institution of comparable size in 1500, was down to slightly under 200 students by 1525 and under 100 by 1529. Even Luther’s own University of Wittenberg had dropped from 250 to 173 students in the period 1525 to 1529.[3] The situation could have been even worse in the lower schools. At least the universities continued to exist. But many of the local schools, stripped of financial support and of community confidence, had simply vanished from sight.

The Support of Education by the Reformation

The Reformation had hardly taken hold before the leading reformers set the record straight. The reformers did not attack education. They supported it. In fact, said leaders such as Luther and Zwingli, the adherents of reform who had joined the hue and cry against the schools were betraying the cause of the Reformation itself. The easiest way to see this concern for education is simply to provide a partial listing of the occasions in the first decade of the Reformation when the reformers called for the renewal and support of education.

1519 Only two years after posting the 95 Theses and still before the final break with Rome, Luther had strong things to say about the necessity for schooling. In his Sermon on the Estate of Marriage, Luther advised parents “that they please God, Christendom, the entire world, themselves and their children in no better way than by educating their children.”[4]

1520 In 1520 Luther published several powerful works denouncing Roman Catholic oppression of souls and proclaiming a renewed Christian gospel. Among these was his stirring challenge To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate. This tract called the Germans to end their subservience to Rome and to protect all areas of life from Roman corruption. One of the things Luther wanted to reform in Germany was education. He devoted a lengthy section to the universities but also addressed the question of primary and secondary schools directly. Rather than an end to the education of young people, Luther called for reform also so that children might learn truths important for Christian living and for the health of society.

1523 Concern for education was also present in the other major center of the early Reformation, Zurich in Switzerland. Ulrich Zwingli had had a personal journey much like Luther’s and at much the same time—from despair over his own sinfulness to the freedom and joy of salvation by God’s grace through faith in Christ. When Zwingli was called in 1519 to be the people’s (or preaching) minister at the chief church in Zurich (the Great Minster), he began systematically to preach the biblical message of justification by faith. As this message took its natural course, the city turned toward reform. By 1523 Zurich had thrown over its Roman Catholic bishop and declared for the Reformation. Part of the work of reconstruction was to establish the schools on a new footing. In June, Zwingli proposed an educational reconstruction to the city council. In August he published his tract Of the Education of Youth, in which he set out principles justifying a reform of education. In September the council approved Zwingli’s proposals and the educational reform began.

1524 In Germany Luther had become very apprehensive about two threats to the schools: the rampant materialism which denied the value of education in economic terms and the ardent enthusiasm which denied its value in spiritualistic terms. To counter these threats Luther penned an exhortation To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools.

1524-1526 Luther’s admonition bore fruit and the city councils of Magdeburg, Nordhausen, Halberstadt, Gotha, Eisleben, and Nuernberg established schools. The gaps left by the collapse of the Roman Catholic educational system were beginning to be filled.

1525 Throughout this period Luther’s correspondence often turned to general educational concerns. On May 20, 1525, he wrote to his ruler, John Frederick, asking him to support the University of Wittenberg. It was the kind of plea, however, which Luther often extended to the lower schools as well, “I humbly beg your Grace to act quickly and not be held back by the courtiers who speak scornfully of book learning.”[5]

1527 The success of the Reformation in Luther’s Germany seemed in doubt toward the end of the 1520’s. Luther’s refusal to support the peasants in their war of 1525—in fact his sharp denunciation of their violent tactics—alienated some of his popular support. The rapid gains of the early years were slowing down. A crowning blow came when Luther’s ruler sent out pastors and professors from Wittenberg to survey the state of the church in his principality, Saxony. What Luther, his friend and colleague Philip Melanchthon, and the other “visitors” found disappointed them profoundly. Many ministers could not even recite the Lord’s Prayer or the Apostles’ Creed. One thought the Ten Commandments was a recent book. And the schools which must someday supply an educated clergy? These were in ruins, poorly maintained or simply absent. The disappointment of this “Saxon Visitation” led to a flurry of efforts to improve the state of the church and of the schools.

1529-1530 Luther first wrote an angry preface to a book by a friend. In this he promised a fuller treatment of education and poured scorn on parents who did not see to the education of their children. The fuller work appeared the next year, A Sermon on Keeping Children in School (1530). The argument of this book was simple: No schools, no Christianity. No schools, no good rulers. No Christianity and no good rulers, utter chaos and heathenism in Germany.

With his colleague, Philip Melanchthon, Luther set about to establish a positive program for spiritually and educationally destitute Saxony. Melanchthon was most concerned about university education that would be thoroughly Reformed, but with the crisis in Saxony he turned his hand to lower education. Instructions for the Visitors of Parish Pastors, written by Melanchthon but edited and signed by Luther as well, offered detailed guidelines for nurturing Christian faith amongst the common people in Saxony. Among these guidelines was a careful, sensible plan for educating the common people. As this plan went into effect intellectual, and spiritual, health in Saxony began to be regained.

But the strongest tonic for Saxony’s spiritual ill-health was provided by Luther himself. In 1529 his Small Catechism came from the press. Into it Luther compressed the essentials of basic Christian faith. His exposition of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer provided a brief summation of the Christian faith in the words of the common people. This Catechism has become a Christian classic. Not only the ordinary people of Saxony, but unlearned and learned people all over the world—Lutherans along with members of other Christian bodies—have learned of the Christian faith through this short summary of the gospel. Its educational value in communicating Christian truth has been incalculable. It came into being when the burden of educating the common people of Saxony was laid upon Luther’s heart.

1528-1544 Concern for educational reform in Germany was not limited to just the major reformers at Wittenberg, Luther and Melanchthon. The local pastor there, Johannes Bugenhagen, also shared the burden for bringing the schools along in the Reformation.[6] Bugenhagen, as parish pastor, married Luther in 1525, baptized his children, and buried him in 1546. His ministry extended well beyond Wittenberg, however. Bugenhagen was from northern Germany where dialects of “Low German” were spoken. Since he had trained himself in these dialects, he was the one to whom local rulers in the north of Germany looked for help in putting the Reformation to work. In fact, Bugenhagen’s work of organizing the churches and schools of northern Germany probably had only one counterpart in the entire Reformation period—the work of John Calvin in organizing and systematizing reformed structures for church and school in Geneva and in France. Bugenhagen was ready when calls came to Wittenberg for help in organizing Reformation churches and schools. And come the calls did. From Braunschweig in 1528, Hamburg in 1529, Lubeck in 1531, all of Pomerania in 1534, all of Denmark in 1537, Holstein in 1542, Braunschweig-Wolfenbuttel in 1543, and Hildesheim in 1544. To each call Bugenhagen would prepare a “church order” in which institutions were set up that carried through the principles of the Reformation. An essential part of each “church order” was a school system in which young people could receive instruction in basic educational areas. Like Luther, Melanchthon, and Zwingli, Bugenhagen recognized the crucial role that education had to play if the reform were to succeed.

But why were the reformers so concerned about education? What, in fact, was wrong with the argument that the Reformation teachings, in particular the priesthood of all believers, had freed people from the harsh demands of rigorous education? To such questions the reformers responded by pointing again to the foundation principles of the entire movement.

Luther’s great works of 1520 showed that justification by faith was actually a call to true good works. It was not, as some assumed, a release to follow the sinful desires of the heart. His Treatise on Good Works labored at great length to show how faith in Christ for salvation is the source of every good work. The Freedom of a Christian painted the paradox of a Christian as, “a perfectly free lord of all, subject to none” and as “a perfectly dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”[7] A Christian is free as the Word of God, the forgiveness of sins in Christ, liberates him from sin, death, hell, and the devil. Such a liberated Christian does not scorn good deeds but does them willingly. joined with Christ for justification, the Christian lives now, as Christ in the world, a life of service to others.

In intellectual training, Luther argued, we learn what it means to have freedom in Christ and what it means to do good to others. This we do not know apart from God’s written Word, the Bible. To study the Bible and to absorb its message of God’s righteous standards and of his mercy is central to Christianity. Without such study we do not know how to be freed from sin or how to be freed for service in love to God and others. And Christians need to study other things than just the Bible in order that the Bible’s message may be applied in all areas of life.

The priesthood of believers is also a stimulus for education, not an argument against it. Learning should no longer be restricted to the clergy but thrown open to every person. Each man, each woman, each boy, each girl needs to know for himself the truth of the Christian message. The reformers recognized that teachers cannot make their pupils Christians. As Zwingli put it, “it is beyond our human capacity to bring the hearts of men to faith in the one God.” Yet Zwingli also noted that the Holy Spirit uses “the external word” to convert the individual.[8] No less than Zwingli the German reformers knew that the work of the Holy Spirit was joined to “means,” the chief of which was the message of the Bible. Now that the Roman Catholic, clerically-dominated lock on education had been broken, everyone had the opportunity to study the external Word of God (Scripture) through which the internal Word reconciled people to God.

Concern for that external Word of Scripture is merely another way of getting at the third major concern of the reformers—the final authority of the Bible. But how are the Scriptures going to be an authority, the authority, if educational skills are lost? The reformers demanded repeatedly that schools be set up so that all could read the written Word of God. They demanded universal education for the common people so that they could read the Bible at least in their own tongues. They demanded higher education for the intellectually gifted who could study the profundities of Scripture, who could learn to proclaim the truths of the Bible to all people.

The Reformation’s appeal for education came directly from its central principles. If justification is by a faith which becomes active in love, people must learn the proper expressions of that love. If all believers are equally priests, all need to learn what the privileges and responsibilities of that priesthood are. If the Bible is the believers’ ultimate authority, they must learn to read it with sensitive understanding.

The Place of the Home in the Reformation’s View of Education

Those who have some acquaintance with the Reformation know that Martin Luther was not one to mince words. In fact one of the first things often noticed about Luther is the relative coarseness of his language. This can be explained by referring to the standards of his day, which were much less refined (or perhaps squeamish?) than our own. But it can also be explained by how deeply he felt about matters close to his heart. When, for example, Luther spoke about the obligation of parents to educate their children, he did it with no holds barred, with no modern sensitivity for wounding feelings. The call for education flowing from the Reformation was to be heard first in the home.

A brief flurry of Luther’s comments will suggest something of his zeal on this subject. In 1524: “I…think that in the sight of God none among the outward sins so heavily burdens the world and merits such severe punishment as this very sin which we commit against the children by not educating them.…Dear Lord God, how light a sin it is to despoil virgins or wives (which, being a bodily and recognized sin, may be atoned for) in comparison with this sin of neglecting and despoiling precious souls, for the latter sin is not even recognized or acknowledged and is never atoned for.”[9]

In 1529: “Thus, even in worldly government, you can serve your lord (prince) or your city better by training children than by building him castles and cities and gathering the treasures of the whole world…” Luther then promises to write a book against parents who neglect the education of their children “in which I shall really go after the shameful, despicable, damnable parents who are no parents at all but despicable hogs and venomous beasts, devouring their own young.”[10]

In 1530, Luther spoke of the great gift given to parents when they are able to educate one of their children to be a minister of the gospel: “You ought…to know the harm that you are doing if you take the opposite course. If God has given you a child who has the ability and the talent for this office, and you do not train him for it but look only to the belly and to temporal livelihood, then…see what a pious hypocrite and unproductive weed you are.”[11]

Even in the introduction to his Small Catechism (1529) Luther uses strong words as he urges ministers to make known to rulers and parents their responsibilities to their children: “You should also take pains to urge governing authorities and parents to rule wisely and to educate their children. They must be shown that they are obliged to do so, and that they are guilty of damnable sin if they do not do so, for by such neglect they undermine and lay waste both the kingdom of God and the kingdom of the world and are the worst enemies of God and man.”[12]

Clearly, then, Luther felt that parents had a high and important responsibility to educate their children. He based this conviction on his own common sense observations of life—”nature itself should drive us to do this…. There is not a dumb animal which fails to care for its young and teach them what they need to know.”[13] But much more, he based this conviction on scriptural commands. In his exhortation to the Councilmen of Germany to set up Christian schools (1524), he cited passages from Psalms (78:56) and Deuteronomy (21:18–21; 32:7) to support his claim that parents must be responsible for educating their children properly. He even went so far as to say that it would not “profit us to possess and perform everything else and be like pure saints, if we meanwhile neglected our chief purpose in life, the care of the young.”[14] It is through education that children learn the Word of Truth and everything else necessary for a life pleasing to God. If parents fall down here, they have fallen down at the most important place.

Luther’s Small Catechism was written in no small part to help parents, and fathers in particular, to educate their children in Christian truth. Almost all of the sections of the catechism are prefaced with remarks directed to the head of the house, as “The Ten Commandments in the plain form in which the head of the family shall teach it to his household.” Or, “Grace at Table: How the head of the family shall teach his household to offer blessing and thanksgiving at table.”[15]

The story of how the Small Catechism came to be written shows further how concerned Luther was to see Christian instruction take place in the home. After the disillusioning visitation in Saxony, he began to have posters printed that could be hung around the house. The message on the posters were simple explanations of the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, and the Lord’s Prayer. These presented essential matters of the Christian faith sharply and succinctly. When Luther’s colleagues failed to produce simple catechisms as he had suggested, he gathered his wall-charts together, edited them, and published them as the Small Catechism. Behind both the charts and the booklet lay Luther’s conviction that the home must take first place in educating the young for a life of godliness.

Much of the influence of Lutheranism around the world can be traced to the success of Luther’s Small Catechism in expressing the profound truth of the Christian faith in words that all can understand. The catechism contains nine sections in all—series of questions and answers on the Ten Commandments, the Apostles’ Creed, the Lord’s Prayer, Baptism, Confession and Absolution, and the Sacrament of the Altar, as well as instructions for morning and evening prayers, grace at table, and a “Table of Duties consisting of certain passages of the Scriptures, selected for various estates and conditions of men, by which they may be admonished to do their respective duties.”[16] Its general form resembles the structure of Calvin’s first edition of the Institutes, and its direct and personal style captures the immediacy of the faith in much the same way that the Heidelberg Catechism does. Luther’s Small Catechism does not achieve the theological comprehension of the Westminster Confession. Its aim, rather, is to implant in teachable minds the essentials of the faith in their objective and subjective characters. Nowhere is this seen more clearly than when Luther provides a summary of what it means to confess the second article of the Apostles’ Creed: “I believe that Jesus Christ, true God, begotten of the Father from eternity, and also true man, born of the Virgin Mary, is my Lord, who has redeemed me, a lost and condemned creature, delivered me and freed me from all sins, from death, and from the power of the devil, not with silver and gold but with his holy and precious blood and with his innocent sufferings and death, in order that I may be his, live under him in his kingdom, and serve him in everlasting righteousness, innocence, and blessedness, even as he is risen from the dead and lives and reigns to all eternity. This is most certainly true.”[17]

The church, Luther felt, should be an active supporter of education in the home. Several times a year at the Wittenberg churches, a series of ten sermons was preached which discussed at greater length the basic elements of the Small Catechism: the Ten Commandments, the Lord’s Prayer, the Apostles’ Creed, and the sacraments. In these “Sermons on the Catechism” it was Luther’s express goal “to teach the uneducated and the children.”[18] Such teaching would give the common people the basic Christian knowledge which they could communicate at home to their dependents. Luther was not beyond direct admonition to fathers that they see to the education of their children. One time, for example, he paused at the end of a sermon to urge the singing of Christian hymns and songs in the home: “You fathers should instruct your people diligently in them, for such songs are like a Bible for the common people, but also for the learned. See how pious people are moved by such singing.”[19] On another occasion he counseled parents not to let the weight of business activities squeeze out family worship: “I sincerely admonish you to meet with your entire household at the appointed time. Do not let your work prevent you and do not complain that thereby you would suffer a loss if you would stop working for an hour.”[20] In short, Luther used his public ministry in church to encourage Christian education in the home.

The importance which Luther placed on the home for Christian education can be seen in yet another way. On several different occasions he stated that the main reason schools are necessary is because parents are unable, or unwilling, to accomplish the responsibility for education which properly belongs to them. When Luther wrote to the Councilmen of Germany in 1524 urging them to establish Christian schools, he did so because parents were failing to educate their children. Some, Luther held, simply lacked the basic good intentions required for an educational program. Others were willing but did not have the necessary abilities. And almost no parent had the time that was required to fulfill the educational task properly. Therefore, Luther contended, the cities must take up the task of training the children.

The Reformation as whole had a great deal to do with the recovery of family life. What the reformers taught about the value of family life had some influence. What Luther, Zwingli, Calvin, and Melanchthon did by marrying and devoting themselves conscientiously to the well-being of their spouses and children exerted even greater influence. In education, too, the Reformation sought to regain the dignity of the Christian family and to recover for the family the privilege and responsibility of bringing up children in the wisdom of the Lord.

The Main Purposes of Formal Education

The Reformation’s emphasis on the family did not, however, blind it to the necessity for schools. All the major reformers expended great energy outlining the goals and methods for proper, and properly Christian, education. The general goal of education for the reformers was perhaps stated most clearly by Ulrich Zwingli: proper education must “serve to the advancement of virtue and piety.” Or as he put it again: the student “ought to fix his whole attention upon the fullest possible absorbing of Christ himself.”[21] Philip Melanchthon’s goal in education has been summarized as a desire for “learned piety.”[22] Luther spoke in even more simple terms when he asked in 1520: “Is it not only right that every Christian man know the entire holy gospel by the age of nine or ten?”[23] Later on Luther reflected more generally on the importance of educating young people: “It is a grave and important matter, and one which is of vital concern both to Christ and the world at large, that we take steps to help the youth. By so doing we will be taking steps to help also ourselves and everybody else.”[24] The dangers if such Christian education was not undertaken were also plain to Luther: “For preaching, governing, and administering justice, in both spiritual and worldly estates (spheres), all the learning and languages in the world are too little…. For if the Scriptures and learning disappear, what will remain in the German lands but a disorderly and wild crowd of Tartars or Turks, indeed, a pigsty and mob of wild beasts?”[25] In short, proper Christian education was regarded as nothing less than the foundation of Christian life and the guarantee of stability in the world at large.

The way to achieve these lofty goals was a major concern of Reformation education. It was the message of the Bible that led to educated godliness. Therefore, the study of the Bible was itself a central and specific goal for education at all levels. Luther put this concern with greatest clarity in his Address to the German Nobility of 1520: “The Scripture alone is our vineyard in which we must all labor and toil. Above all, the foremost reading for everybody, both in the universities and in the schools, should be Holy Scripture.”[26] Again and again the call came in the early years of the Reformation: “Study Scripture! Without Scripture our schools, our families, our cities and nations, our very souls are led astray by Satan into disorder, disease, and death.” Quotations could be piled up at this point, but let only one from Zwingli suffice to show the general concern for the Bible in education: “a man cannot rightly order his own soul unless he exercises himself day and night in the Word of God.”[27]

One of the striking things about the writings of the reformers on education is their intense concern for language. They show considerable interest in their native tongues. (Both Luther and Zwingli worked diligently to translate the Bible into their respective German dialects.) They show greater enthusiasm for Latin. And they wax nearly ecstatic in their praise of Greek and Hebrew. In fact, they sometimes write about education as if its sole concern should be the study of these languages. In so doing the reformers remind us as Christians that our knowledge of God and ourselves, our proper knowledge of the world and society, is bound up with Holy Scripture. Holy Scripture is God’s written communication to us. The original form of that communication is Hebrew and Greek. If we lose Hebrew and Greek, we lose contact with the written Word of God. When we lose contact with that written Word, we lose contact with the living Word, Jesus Christ. And that puts our souls in mortal danger.[28]

The reformers’ devotion to the languages knew no bounds. Hear Zwingli: “languages are gifts of the Holy Ghost.”[29] Hear Luther: “In proportion then as we value the gospel, let us zealously hold to the languages…. If God did not despise them (Greek and Hebrew) but chose them above all others for his word, then we too ought to honor them above all others…. And let us be sure of this: we will not long preserve the gospel without the languages.”[30] Hear Melanchthon: “How important it is to the church, thaf boys be well disciplined in the languages…. What will a teacher in the church be, if he does not understand grammar, other than…a shameless brawler?”[31] With one voice the reformers urged the diligent, scholarly study of Greek and Hebrew. Through that study the teaching of the Bible would be preserved. To understand that teaching became a major goal of the schools. As this goal was reached, the overarching purposes could be fulfilled.

The reformers did not stop with Greek and Hebrew, or even the more common Latin. Luther and his colleague Johannes Bugenhagen were particularly eager to see language training among the common people. In fact, Luther’s concern for the literacy of the common people initiated one of the major changes in western educational history. Everyone, Luther urged the councilmen in 1524, should have some education. Not just the wealthy or the naturally brilliant. Everyone should be provided with the opportunity at least to learn to read the native tongue. When Johannes Bugenhagen wrote “church orders” for the cities and principalities of northern Europe, he put Luther’s principles into practice. His “orders” did provide for a Latin grammar school oriented toward university education. But they also set up German schools in which the common people could learn to read at least the Bible in their own languages. So although more attention was given to Latin, Greek, and Hebrew as the way to preserve the Word of God, the language needs of common people were by no means neglected.

The schools, then, were to train students in godliness and in the general principles of civilization. The Bible was to be the chief focus of study. But what was the training for? To what end should it be directed? All of the early reformers agreed that the schools should work first on training people for two tasks: the Christian ministry and the government of society. Here again, the reformers speak with nearly one voice. But as it so often happened, Luther put the matter most directly. In particular, his Sermon on Keeping Children in School (1530) set out to show “what is at stake in this matter (of education) in the way of gains and losses, first those that are spiritual and eternal, and then those that are temporal or worldly.”[32]

The schools, Luther argued, must train men in the knowledge of the gospel. They must give them insights as to how that gospel should be proclaimed. If these goals are not achieved, unthinkable damage results. A properly trained and motivated clergy is necessary if life in the world is to continue on an even keel, if the safety of person and property is to be maintained. But a well trained Christian ministry is even more necessary, for it “gives eternal life and delivers from sin and death.”[33]

Luther defines the ministry broadly, including not only pastors and preachers but school teachers and other church officials as well. He begs parents to consider training their sons to become ministers. Think of the rewards, he urges, particularly the knowledge that your son is directly engaged in service for God’s kingdom. True, financial gains will be modest, and the son will probably encounter a good deal of opposition. Yet those are minor considerations when compared to the central thing: “If you were sure that your son would accomplish even one of these works in a single human being, that he would make one (spiritually) blind man to see or one dead man to rise, snatch one soul from the devil or rescue one person from hell, or whatever else it might be, ought you not with utmost joy devote all your means to train him for this office and work? … What would it matter to me as a preacher if the world were to call me a devil, so long as I knew that God calls me his angel? Let the world call me a deceiver as much as it pleases, so long as God calls me his faithful servant and steward, the angels call me their comrade, the saints call me their brother, believers call me their father, souls in anguish call me their savior, the ignorant call me their light, and God adds, ‘Yes, it is so’, and the angels and all creatures join in.”[34]

Ministers do even more. Not only do they do the work of God in spiritual affairs, but they also perform it in temporal matters. The minister interprets the Word of God to the rest of society so that each person knows the duties and privileges set out for him or her in Scripture. “He checks the rebellious; teaches obedience, morals, discipline, and honor; instructs fathers, mothers, children, and servants in their duties; in a word, he gives directions to all the temporal estates and offices.” When this aspect of a preacher’s service is considered, Luther thinks it fair to say that a good society is one of the byproducts of a faithful preaching of the gospel. In fact he can say that “peace, the greatest of earthly goods, in which all other temporal goods are comprised, is really a fruit of true preaching.”[35] In short, the school that begins with the training of ministers begins a supremely important work.

It would seem that anything short of producing ministers, then, would be wasted time for the schools. Luther, however, did not think so. Schools must also educate the leaders in society. Since “worldly government…preserves peace, justice, and life” in this life only, it is not as important as the peace, justice, and life found eternally by faith in Christ. Nevertheless, “worldly government is a glorious ordinance and splendid gift of God.”[36] Proper government in the world cannot even hope to be maintained unless knowledge of the law is present. And such knowledge cannot exist apart from proper education. Lawyers, judges, public officials of high and low estate, those who advise princes, city councilmen, and wealthy people—all must be properly educated if society is to maintain itself as God has graciously ordained. Luther can even go so far as to say that the smarter children should go into this sphere of life. Luther’s and the other reformers’ respect for life in the world can be seen as he develops this idea: “Indeed, there is need in this office (law and ruling) for abler people than are needed in the office of preaching, so it is necessary to get the best boys for this work; for in the preaching office Christ does the whole thing, by his Spirit, but in the worldly kingdom men must act on the basis of reason—wherein the laws also have their origin—for God has subjected temporal rule and all of physical life to reason. He has not sent the Holy Spirit from heaven for this purpose.

This is why to govern temporally is harder, because conscience cannot rule; one must act, so to speak, in the dark.”[37]

Education is to provide the light of learning. It is to train men to rule wisely and well. A scandal of the Middle Ages was the way law and the administration of justice had been tangled in ungodliness. With clear understanding of God’s Word provided in the schools, that kind of scandal need never be repeated.

The main purposes of education in the Reformation can be easily summarized. First, it was to provide students with the raw materials for a true knowledge of God and for proper Christian life in society. Second, it was to concentrate on study of the Bible as a means of attaining these lofty goals. Third, it was to prepare ministers of the gospel. These ministers would be specially trained to proclaim God’s gift of salvation to needy souls. As a byproduct, they would provide godly counsel for all people in their daily lives. Fourth, education was to train society’s rulers and those who administered the secular law. If a society possessed learned ministers and learned rulers, godliness would flourish. The schools would have done their jobs.

Education for the Rest?

But what, the modern mind immediately wonders, of the others? What about people who would be in business, or in farming? What about those bound for one reason or another to a life of service to others? What about the humble folk of society who did not have an interest in sophisticated learning, or a talent for it? And what about the ladies? Was half the population to be systematically excluded from the benefits of education? If women did not serve as ministers or rulers—which they almost never did in the sixteenth century—did they have no place in the schools?

In certain respects, the Reformation reflected the views of the sixteenth century in answering these questions. Zwingli’s tract of 1523 took for granted that the “youth” to be educated were almost exclusively the sons of the Zurich upper classes. The German reformers also took it for granted that schools would most obviously be concerned about Latin grammar and pre-university studies, a curriculum designed for rulers in church and state. Peasant boys of rare ability could sometimes advance in education, but that concession to natural talent was usually an exception. The system as such centered its concern on society’s elite,

Yet that is not the whole story by any means. Although Reformation education was a product of its times, it was also a captive of the gospel. Because it was a captive of the gospel, it had some new emphases. Some of these new emphases began reforms which modern people have long since taken for granted. It was the reformers’ doctrine of the priesthood of believers that moved education in a democratic, liberalizing direction. If there was no special class of priests uniquely sanctioned by God, then all believers needed to partake of the same body of Christian knowledge. The reformers also held a high view of the spheres of life created by God: no legal occupation was dishonorable. In fact, when the lowliest peasant, hauling manure for his lord, did that work for God’s glory, he was as pleasing to the Father as a splendid preacher presenting a moving sermon in a stately cathedral.

These emphases from the Reformation’s teaching had two major effects. First, the elite education for ministers and rulers was offered to those who would never be ministers or magistrates. Second, and most radically, education began to be designed for the one who would never preach or govern. In the first case, Luther’s Sermon on Keeping Children in School was filled with encouragement for those who would not become pastors and rulers. Simply to be a good citizen in an increasingly complex world, the average person had to know many of the same things the rulers did. A person who had studied the Bible diligently could also rule his own household better. Or such a one might be able to offer valuable service as a teacher or a doctor, professions which required virtually the same preparatory training as for ministers and rulers. There was also the simple pleasure which traditional education made possible, “the pure pleasure a man gets from having studied, even though he never holds an office of any kind, how at home by himself he can read all kinds of things, talk and associate with educated people, and travel and do business in foreign lands.”[38] But most in keeping with the principles of the Reformation was another value. As Luther put it: “Even though a boy who has studied Latin should afterward learn a trade and become a craftsman, he still stands as a ready reserve in case he should be needed as a pastor or in some other service of the word. Neither will such knowledge hurt his capacity to earn a living. On the contrary, he can rule his house all the better because of it, and besides, he is prepared for the office of preacher or pastor if he should be needed there.”[39] The reformers’ belief in the priesthood of believers was not a sham. Every person should be encouraged to fulfill public functions in the church. Some would earn a livelihood thereby; the others would stand ready to fill in if needed.

The Reformation also began to consider education planned for those who were not headed for professional occupations. Bugenhagen and Melanchthon designed simple curriculums which local governing units could put into effect for all students. Luther too spoke out forthrightly in defense of “common” occupations. In his 1529 Sermon stands this affirmation of occupational equality: “Every occupation has its own honor before God, as well as its own requirements and duties…. All the estates and works of God are to be praised as highly as they can be, and none despised in favor of another.”[40] Luther’s 1524 letter to the German councilmen had even suggested how formal education and practical training could be brought together: “My idea is to have the boys attend … school for one or two hours during the day, and spend the remainder of the time working at home, learning a trade, or doing whatever is expected of them. In this way, study and work will go hand-in-hand while the boys are young and able to do both. Otherwise, they spend at least ten times as much time anyway with their pea shooters, ballplaying, racing, and tussling.”[41] This kind of concern for the education of ordinary children was a direct fruit of the Reformation’s belief in a common Christian priesthood. No one should be denied a chance to learn how to read the Bible. No occupation demeaned a Christian or kept him from living a fulfilled life for the glory of God. Only in the last generation has American secular education begun even to approach these insights.

But that is still only half the population. Is there nothing for the girls? By modern standards, educational reforms with girls in mind do not seem too spectacular. By comparison with the immediate context of the Reformation, however, they represent a giant leap forward. Just about the only girls who received any education worthy of the name in the sixteenth century were the daughters of kings and other top rulers. Even this education was often flawed or lightly regarded. Later in the century, Queen Elizabeth of England amazed foreign ambassadors that she, a mere woman, conversed fluently in Latin and knew how to handle herself in the realm of ideas. While the Reformation did not bring about equal educational opportunities for women, it did much to improve a desperate situation.

Were women also Christians? Of course. Then they too were priests of God with all the rights and duties of the children of God. The next step was natural for the Reformation, but shocking for the times. Women must learn to read. One of the revolutionary changes which Luther called for in 1520 was that girls be taught to read the Bible. He put it forcefully: “And would to God that every town had a girls’ school as well, where the girls would be taught the gospel for an hour every day either in German or in Latin.”[42] Luther later expanded his plan for vocational education to girls. He called for the funds of the old begging friars to be used for schools, staffed by women, to train girls.[43] He later wrote to a lady named Else von Kanitz to come to Wittenberg, take up lodging in his own house, and open a school for girls.[44] To be sure, Luther was not prepared to see women as the public leaders of the Reformation, but he compared their capacities for learning favorably with all the so-called learned men of the corrupt Roman Catholic establishment.[45] And when Luther’s colleague Bugenhagen sketched practical plans of reformation, he invariably included a school in every parish where girls could learn to read and receive at least preliminary instruction.[46]

The Reformation did not provide a public role for women. Zwingli’s comment perhaps overstated things, but it reflected a typical attitude: “Silence is always the greatest adornment of a Wife.”[47] Luther and his colleagues probably shared this attitude to a certain extent, but they also took positive steps to educate girls as well as boys. Not only did the reformers’ own doctrines demand such education, but their concept of the domestic life encouraged it. To their wives the German reformers gave great responsibilities. Katie von Bora Luther, for example, managed the Luther household—which could include up to 30 or 40 people: children, boarders, servants, and an occasionally stubborn husband. She later in life managed a farm which Luther had received as a gift. Luther was not “modern” in his attitude toward female education. He was reformed, however, and that made a great deal of difference: “In order to maintain its temporal estate outwardly the world must have good and capable men and women, men able to rule well over land and people, women able to manage the household and train children and servants aright. Now such men must come from our boys, and such women from our girls. Therefore, it is a matter of properly educating and training our boys and girls to that end.”[48]

Reforming the Practice of Education

The Reformation and the Renaissance were partners in applying pressure on educational methods in the sixteenth century. The reformers did express some distrust for the Renaissance’s emphasis on human reason, but they did so with an autonomous, self-sufficient reason in mind. Where Renaissance scholars brought their minds to bear on academic subjects reverently and humbly, the reformers recognized valuable allies. Even Luther, who spoke the most harshly against self-sufficient reason, had warm praise for the new learning of the Renaissance where it stayed within Christian bounds. Zwingli, Melanchthon, and Calvin appropriated the finest fruits of the new learning even more eagerly than Luther. Melanchthon even used two prominent slogans of the Christian Renaissance as his keys for educational reform: “back to the sources” (i.e. the original Greek and Latin writings) and “knowledge of Christ.”[49] The reformers naturally differed with Renaissance scholars who remained in the Roman Catholic church—the great Erasmus of Rotterdam, Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples of France, and England’s John Colet and Thomas More. But they did not despise the intellectual work of these learned men. The Greek text of the New Testament which Erasmus published was especialy dear to Zwingli, Luther, and Melanchthon. Particularly with regard to this New Testament, there is considerable truth in the old saying: “If Erasmus had not piped, Luther had not danced.”

Together, Renaissance and Reformation leaders attacked the old ways of running the schools. Renaissance scholars had less concern for the common folk and tended to concentrate their attention upon the universities. Reformers worked here but also in shoring up the lower schools. The reforms both worked for included basic goals of education, the curriculum, and the way that curriculum should be taught.

In one sense the Reformation had a narrower goal for education than had been the case in the Middle Ages. “Faith in and fear of God,” as one scholar puts it, was the chief end product which the reformers desired for education.[50] The simple way to achieve this end was to make Holy Scripture the mainstay of the curriculum. Thus, the medieval practice of education was disciplined and brought into line with this higher purpose. In another sense, however, the Reformation led to a broadening of educational goals. It demanded some kind of education for all, and not just prospective priests. By so doing, it took on a concern for training ordinary citizens in temporal duties which medieval education had not had. While the Reformation did maintain the seven liberal arts, it moved into newer fields that its own teachings had made important. The reformers also expressed renewed concern for the development of godliness and of general good character. These were goals in education which medieval schooling rarely set out as clearly.

Walter I. Brandt, an editor of the American Edition of Luther’s Works, has stated perceptively what Luther wanted to do with the curriculum: “combine the best features of humanist (Renaissance) education with history, literature, and the other liberal arts, and, above all, a thorough Christian training.”[51] Luther and his colleagues were flexible as they set about achieving this goal. The Instructions to Parish Visitors drawn up by Melanchthon in 1529 recommended a three-stage educational system. The first group was to be made up of “those children who are learning to read.” They should study “the alphabet, the creed, the Lord’s Prayer, and other prayers” in their own language. Then they should begin a study of the rudiments of Latin. If students do not advance beyond this stage, they have still learned basic material of great value for life. The next group would be for those who read Latin well and who are ready for a detailed study of grammar. The third group, those who have shown the most ability in earlier studies, should be prepared for university studies through even more advanced work. All three of the groups should receive basic instruction in the Christian faith at least one whole day a week. In giving this instruction, teachers should labor diligently to present the material as clearly as they possibly can.[52]

Luther and the other reformers had many suggestions concerning the subjects which students in primary and secondary schools should study. They were agreed that the seven liberal arts should stay. As we have seen, they argued very strenuously for instruction in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. In this they were full partners of the Renaissance scholars who had done so much to revive interest in antiquity. Luther had particular interest in music, and he urged that singing play a large role in the students’ daily program. “It is right,” he said, “that we retain music in the schools. A schoolmaster must know how to sing, otherwise I do not look at him…. Music is a beautiful and glorious gift of God…. I would not give up my slight knowledge of it for a very great consideration.”[53] Luther’s commitment to music grew out of his belief in the priesthood of all believers. One of the great privileges extended to lay people by the Reformation was the chance to sing praises heartily unto the Lord, in the regular services of the church and in private worship at home.

Other changes in the curriculum also flowed from the Reformation’s central principles. With the attack on the encrusted traditions of the church, all the traditions of the medieval period also came under fire. Among these was the way of doing science. Luther himself did not believe the new Copernican theory that the earth moved around the sun, but he did encourage students to take a fresh look at the created world in itself. As in theology so also in science. There was no need to rely exclusively on the written traditions of the Middle Ages. The reformers also pioneered in the study of history, a valuable tool to trace the spiritual corruption of the immediately preceding centuries and to recover authentic Christian examples from the Middle Ages and the early church. History as such was not part of the medieval curriculum, but Luther in particular worked hard to include it in the reformed schools. “Historians,” he said, “are most useful people and the best teachers, whom we can never sufficiently honor, praise and thank.”[54]

The reformers also were concerned about more practical matters. Melanchthon and Zwingli in particular urged students to write, speak, and think as clearly as they possibly could. They urged teachers to demand clarity from their students. They felt quite rightly that the future of the gospel itself could well be determined by how thoroughly its message was learned and how clearly it was communicated. The reformers also set aside more time for recreation than had been customary. Melanchthon’s 1529 plan for the schools allowed an hour a day for rest and relaxation. Zwingli pointed out how valuable games could be. He thought the schools should have “running, jumping, throwing, fighting and wrestling but the latter only in moderation for it often takes a serious character.”[55] They prepared students for the physical trials of ordinary life and provided a recreation break from formal studies. In sum, the reformers proposed a broader curriculum which looked more to the needs of students in society at large than had ever been the case in the Middle Ages.

The reformers also looked to the needs of students as children.

Luther in particular argued for gentler methods in education, methods which drew on natural curiosity and the desire for play as well as motives of fear and duty. He wanted learning in the early years to be fun as well as serious: “By the grace of God it is now possible for children to study with pleasure and in play languages, or other arts, or history. Today schools are not what they once were, a hell and purgatory in which we were tormented…and yet learned less than nothing despite 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 to teach them reading and other disciplines while they are young and have the time, and are apt and eager to learn? For my part…I would have them study not only languages and history, but also singing and music together with the whole of mathematics. For what is all this but mere child’s play?”[56]

The reformers did not approach the reconstruction of education halfheartedly. Their concern extended from top to bottom, from the overall purposes of schooling to what we would today call educational psychology. In every area of education they sought to do right—by the subject matter, by the students, by the needs of church and society, and by the glory due to God.

The Place of the State in Education

One of the ironies of the Reformation concerns the role of the state in education. As we have seen, the Roman Catholic church dominated education in the late Middle Ages. With the attack on Catholic doctrine and practice the Catholic educational system also suffered. The reformers cast about for a new institutional foundation for schooling. Luther would have preferred the family, but too many obstacles stood in the way for most parents. The newly reformed churches were usually not strong enough, confident enough, or wealthy enough to accept the educational task. The reformers looked next to the cities and princes of Germany and Switzerland to do the job. The result was a new chapter in the history of western education. As the noted Reformation scholar Harold J. Grimm puts it, Luther “was the first educator in modern times to make the state aware of its great obligations to society and of its far-reaching opportunities in the field of education.[57]

The ironic part of this development is that Luther and the other reformers called on the state to do the religious functions which Roman Catholic education was perverting. But later state-run education, particularly in America, became increasingly wary—or even hostile—to formal religious expression of any kind. In the sixteenth century we see a strange situation by modern standards. We have, on the one hand, Luther saying: “I would advise no one to send his child where the Holy Scriptures are not supreme. Every institution that does not unceasingly pursue the study of God’s word becomes corrupt.”[58] On the other hand, we hear him urging the governmental officials of Germany to set up Christian schools.

This strange situation can be explained historically. The early reformers did not have our belief in the separation of church and state. They thought a godly ruler should, and could, do much to advance the church and other Christian concerns. The reformers also lived in a society where the ideal of unity was much stronger. It was hard for them to imagine that any group of people could live harmoniously together who did not share the same basic religious beliefs and political allegiances. They did not envision modern pluralism, where wide varieties of beliefs and commitments can be found in the same society.

General histories of western education often praise the Reformation period as an era in which universal, public education began. They are not incorrect in doing so. They sometimes tilt the evidence, however, to suggest that the reformers were deliberate pioneers for modern ideas of democracy and natural equality. This is not really the case. The reformers were for universal education because everyone needed to read the Scriptures and to know the way of being reconciled to God. They were for public education because church schools had failed to impart that knowledge. Later on these purposes would give way to secular, non-religious ones. The reformers would probably have been perplexed if they had known their reforms in education would one day be heralded as the first steps toward democratic, egalitarian, secular education.

The Message for Today

What, then, can be learned from the Reformation of education which accompanied the wider Reformation in sixteenth-century Europe? Any number of applications could be drawn from the story we have sketched here, but the following are among the most important.

First, the reformers were not despisers of education. Much to the contrary, the early reformers were all dedicated and thorough students. Insights drawn from Scripture and from their own experience of God’s grace gave new zeal to their efforts in education. They did not throw out the structures of medieval education or ignore the intellectual fruits of the Renaissance. Rather, they brought these weighty intellectual traditions under the authority of God’s Word and renewed them even as they were renewing the churches and the individual Christians of Europe. The example of the reformers would teach us in our day to respect education. The Reformation would teach to appreciate the intellectual labors of all people, in all fields. It would teach us to avail ourselves of the best knowledge that can be obtained in the twentieth century. But it would also caution us to bring all that knowledge captive to the Word of God. As the reformers used the medieval and Renaissance traditions for God’s glory, so may we also use the best learning in our society today for the same glory of the same God.

Second, the reformers would caution us that in using the educational resources of our age we do not fall captive to the spirit of the age. The reformers made use of medieval and Renaissance insights into education. But their education program was a direct outgrowth of their theology. The chief guidelines for education were the chief guidelines for the Reformation itself: justification by grace through faith alone, the priesthood of all believers, and the supreme authority of the Bible. Parents today who are committed to these principles need to ask hard questions about the education received by their children. Is that education formed by these principles? Does it exclude these principles? Does it allow these principles to have free play?

Does it neglect them indirectly or directly? Parents today should feel free to ask these all-important questions of public and Christian schools alike.

Third, the reformers placed great emphasis on the family’s role in education. Indeed, as we have seen, Luther called for state-supported Christian education only after noting the reasons why parents were not fulfilling their educational responsibilities. From the reformers, modern parents can learn how important it is for godliness to be nurtured at home. If the parents do not at least begin the task of educating their children for Christ, they may rest assured that no one else will ever be able to finish the job.

Fourth, the reformers can teach us, in this regard, how important God’s written word is for education in the home. By instruction, and much more by example, Christian parents must instill a confidence in Holy Scripture. If they show that its message brings the changing power of God’s grace into their own lives, the children will learn this too. If Christian parents use the Bible as a resource for shaping an outlook on the entirety of life, their children also will be able to do this.

Finally, the reformers can show us the spiritual value which lies in all legitimate spheres of human activity. The reformers examined in this study did not develop formal theories of education for the various spheres of life. This would be done more by Calvin, the English Puritans, and the Reformed strand of Protestantism. But Luther, the other German reformers, and Zwingli did have a broad, encompassing view of Christian education. They had room for science and history, music and physical education, speech and logic—in short, for all of the areas of life given by a gracious God for mankind to master. It would be the later Reformed wing of Protestantism that would develop the doctrines of Creation and Providence to give theological foundations to these wide activities. Nevertheless, the early reformers knew that the creation showed forth the glory of God. They knew that the institutions of human society were made by God for his own glory and the comfort of mankind.

Twentieth-century America is not sixteenth-century Europe. Nor is our day the day of the Protestant Reformation. In spite of that, the Protestant Reformation can still teach modern believers much. The educational goals of the early reformers, their

reliance on Scripture, their concern for the educational importance of the home, their openness to human culture at large, their concern to live out religious beliefs in education—all of these qualities give modern Christians excellent examples to follow. But most importantly, the early reformers teach us that formalized curiosity about life in all its aspects (which is just another way of saying “education”) can become another way of glorifying God and enjoying him forever.

Notes

1. An excellent introduction to Luther’s theology and, by extension, the entire theology of evangelical Protestantism is Philip S. Watson’s Let God Be God: An Interpretation of the Theology of Martin Luther (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1970 [orig. publ. 1947]).
2. The following paragraphs rely on R. Freeman Butts, A Cultural History of Western Education (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1955), and Frank Pierrepont Graves, A History of Education during the Middle Ages and the Transition to Modern Times (New York: Macmillan, 1913).
3. Robert C. Schultz, ed., “A Sermon on Keeping Children in School, 1530,” in The American Edition of Luther’s Works, eds. Jaroslav Pelikan and Helmut T. Lehman (St. Louis and Philadelphia: Concordia and Fortress, 1955—) 46:234n. This edition will be cited as LW hereafter.
4. Quoted in Harold J. Grimm, “Luther and Education,” in Luther and Culture (Decorah, Iowa: Luther College Press, 1950), p. 81.
5. Quoted in Preserved Smith, The Life and Letters of Martin Luther (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1968 [1911]), p. 184.
6. On Bugenhagen, see David C. Steinmetz, Reformers in the Wings (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1971); and Walter M. Ruccius, John Bugenhagen Pomeranus (Philadelphia: United Lutheran Publication House, n.d.).
7. “The Freedom of a Christian, 1520,” LW, 31:344.
8. Of the Upbringing and Education of Youth in Good Manners and Christian Discipline,” in Zwingli and Bullinger, ed. G. W. Bromiley, vol. XXIV of The Library of Christian Classics (Philadelphia: Westminster, 1953), p. 104.
9. “To the Councilmen of All Cities in Germany That They Establish and Maintain Christian Schools, 1524,” LW, 45:353–354.
10. Quoted by Schultz, ed., “Sermon on Keeping Children in School,” LW, 46:210–211.
11. Ibid., p. 229.
12. Luther, “The Small Catechism” (1529), in Creeds of the Churches, ed. John H. Leith (rev. ed.; Richmond, Va.: John Knox, 1973), p. 111.
13. “To the Councilmen,” LW, 45:353.
14. Ibid.
15. Creeds of the Churches, pp. 113, 125.
16. Ibid., p. 126.
17. Ibid., p. 116.
18. Luther, “Sermons on the Catechism” (1528), Martin Luther: Selections from His Writings, ed. John Dillenherger (New York: Anchor, 1961), p. 208.
19. Quoted in Grimm, “Luther and Education,” p. 107.
20. Quoted in ibid., p. 125.
21. “Education of Youth,” pp. 103, 117.
22. Clyde L. Manschreck, Melanchthon: The Quiet Reformer (Nashville: Abingdon, 1958), p. 45.
23. “To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation Concerning the Reform of the Christian Estate, 1520,” LW, 44:206.
24. “To the Councilmen,” LW, 45:350.
25. “Sermon on Keeping Children in School,” LW, 46:215, 217.
26. “To the Christian Nobility,” LW, 44:206–207.
27. “Education of Youth,” p. 108.
28. The reformers’ enthusiasm for Latin might seem stranger. True, Latin was a valuable “universal language” in the sixteenth century that functioned as a kind of trade language in church affairs, business, and government. Latin, of course, does not fulfill that function now. Yet Latin was important to the reformers for another reason. It put them in touch with over a thousand years of Christian history. It opened up to them the spiritual riches of the Middle Ages. But, we ask, were not the reformers out to overthrow medieval religion? Not really. They wanted a reform, not a demolition. In attacking the pope of the sixteenth century, for example, Luther drew on more than just Scripture and the first centuries of the church. He called as witnesses in his defense Ambrose of the fourth century, Augustine of the fifth, Gregory the Great of the sixth, Anselm of the eleventh, Bernard of the twelfth, John Gerson of the fourteenth, John Wessel Gansfort and John Hus of the fifteenth. All of these sterling Christians wrote in Latin. Through their knowledge of that language, Luther and the other reformers opened themselves to the fellowship of these saints as well as to the riches of western civilization in general. It is possible that we modern American evangelicals miss out on great encouragement and sound advice from genuine Christians in the Middle Ages because of our lack of concern for Latin. If we knew more Latin, we might have more help from the church’s past for the church’s present.
29. “Education of Youth,” p. 109.
30. “To the Councilmen,” LW, 45:359–360.
31. Quoted in Manschreck, Melanchthon, p. 147.
32. “Sermon on Keeping Children in School,” LW, 46, 219.
33. Ibid., p. 220.
34. Ibid., p. 225.
35. Ibid., p. 226.
36. Ibid., p. 237.
37. Ibid., p. 242.
38. Ibid., p. 243.
39. Ibid., pp. 231-232.
40. Ibid., p. 246.
41. “To the Councilmen,” LW, 43:370.
42. “To the Christian Nobility,” LW, 44:206.
43. “Ordinance of a Common Chest…, 1523,” LW, 45:175, 188–189.
44. Walter I. Brandt, ed., “To the Councilmen,” LW, 45:344n.
45. “Sermon on Keeping Children in School,” LW, 46:232.
46. Graves, History of Education, p. 188.
47. “Education of Youth,” p. 110.
48. “To the Council,” LW, 45:368.
49. Manschreck, Melanchthon, p. 145.
50. Grimm. “Luther and Education,” p. 80.
51. Brandt, ed., “To the Councilmen,” LW, 45:344n.
52. Manschreck, Melanchthon, pp. 140-142.
53. Quoted in Grimm, “Luther and Education,” p. 89.
54. Quoted in ibid.
55. “Education of Youth,” p. 116.
56. “To the Councilmen,” LW, 45:369–370.
57. Grimm, “Luther and Education,” p. 79.
58. “To the Christian Nobility,” LW, 44:207.