The Social Function of Schools in the Lutheran Reformation in Germany
Author(s): Gerald Strauss
Source: History of Education Quarterly, Vol. 28, No. 2, (Summer, 1988), pp. 191-206
Published by: History of Education Society
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The Social Function of Schools in the
LutheranReformationin Germany
Gerald Strauss
One of the most interestingaspects of the GermanReformationfor us
to ponderis that of the educationalreconstructionattemptedin all Lutheranstates in the sixteenthcentury.Churchmenand politiciansacted
in close collaboration,firstin responseto the reformistzeal chargingthe
Lutheranmovementin its heroic years, later in meetingthe procedural
obligationslaid down for officials in the establishedReformation'sinstitutionalstructure.They agreedon fundamentalobjectivesand shared
a coherentbody of pedagogicalsuppositions.They had high hopes for
the power of educationto directthought and mold behavior.In the new
church-statesymbiosisthey recognizedunprecedentedopportunitiesfor
reformand were eager to act on them. For a time, religionand politics
moved in unison toward the enactmentof a programof schooling intendedin its overallpurposeto conformthe young to approvedpatterns
of evangelicaland civic rectitude.
Ourquestionsconcerninga past systemof schoolingareno different
from those we ask about one in the present.What does a society wish
its schoolsto accomplish,and what is, in fact, being accomplished?Who
speaksfor societyin establishinggoals?Have those who set the objectives
formulateda policy?A program?A feasibleprogram?One to be implemented by schools adequate to the purpose? A purpose representing
concreteinterests?Of identifiablesocial groups?With what responses
from these groups?And with what consequences-in the short and in
the long term-for society itself?
The firstthingto note in approachingthe sixteenth-centuryLutheran
schoolingscene with these questionsis that the evidenceis availablefor
supplyinganswers. (This essay's focus on Lutheranregions should not
Gerald Strauss is professor of history at Indiana University, Bloomington.
History of Education Quarterly
Vol. 28
No. 2
Summer 1988
192
Historyof EducationQuarterly
be taken to imply that Catholic and ReformedGermanypursuededucational goals essentiallydifferentfrom those of the evangelicals.)Our
sourcesmay not sufficefor a fully differentiatedsocial history of early
Protestanteducation;but about objectivesand performance,and about
the evaluationof these, we are very well informed.1
Who, then, spoke for societyin the makingof educationalpolicy in
sixteenth-centuryGermany,and who acted in the implementationof it?
Governingauthoritiesdid, and the administrativebodies appointedby
them. In other words-to use the correctterminology-Obrigkeit, potestates, as in Jedermann sey unterthan der Oberkeit, die gewalt uber jn
hat and omnis anima potestatibus sublimioribus subdita sit,2 that is to
say, sovereignrulerspossessingHerrschaft,dominion and power, and
the executiveagentsandagenciesappointedby themto exercisedominion
and power. With respectto schools and schooling, the purviewof territorialandurbangovernmentsin Germanywas fixedat an earlyjuncture
in the chain of events leadingto the establishedReformation.This assignment,or self-assignment,happenedbecausegovernments,in the decades followingthe late 1520s, took on the job of directingecclesiastical
affairsin theirrespectivedomains,and educationhad traditionallybeen
includedamongecclesiasticalresponsibilities.Butthis assumptionof control did not happenwithout due considerationbeing given to the problems at issue in this turn of events.
In principle,instructingthe young was the duty and the right of
parents.By necessity,however,this obligationnow fell to the state. This
was becauseindividualparentscould only in exceptionalcases be relied
upon to performcompetentlythe vital-indeed, it was thought to be a
fateful-task of child rearing.Lutherwas his usual emphatic and uncompromisingself on this point. "The common man can do nothing,"
he wrotein 1524, as he urgedmagistratesto maintainandgovernschools.
"He [the common man] doesn't have the means for it, he doesn't want
to do it, and he doesn'tknow how."3The experienceof the early 1520s,
particularlythe failureof the communityof Leisnigto appropriatesufficientfunds-and Lutherseems for a time to have held high hopes for
Leisnigas the model for a reformationon a communalbase-had per-
introductionto this subjectsee GeraldStrauss,Luther's
' Fora generalbibliographical
House of Learning:Indoctrinationof the Youngin the GermanReformation(Baltimore,
1978), especiallythe notes to chapter1.
2 FromLuther's
Germantranslationof the New Testamentandrevisionof the Vulgate,
D. MartinLuthersDeutscheBibel (D. MartinLuthersWerke:KritischeGesamtausgabe
[fromnow on WA]) 7: 69 and 5: 645.
3An die Ratsherrenaller Stadte(1524), WA 15: 44.
Schools in the Lutheran Reformation
193
suadedLutherthat voluntary,participatoryprocedureswere inadequate
to the gigantictask of reform.4
Ordinarypeoplebeingunqualifiedto undertaketheirown children's
upbringing(Lutherincludedauffzihenamongthe tasks for which he held
people generallyunsuited) and instruction,governmentwas the only
existing alternative.Hence Luther'sexhortation in 1526 to his prince
of the young"-"oberster furmund
that he mustact as "guardian-general
derjugent"-in holdingcitizensto the supportof schools,5a formulation
latersharpenedby Melanchthonto "governmentas a common father."6
In 1530 Luthercame out in favor of the use of political force to ensure
generalschool attendance,7and this is the position adopted officiallyin
the Kirchenordnungen-ecclesiastical constitutions or ordinancesthroughwhich governingauthoritiesin Lutheranterritoriesand cities
regulatedfor theirrespectivedomainsall aspectsof churchand religion,
includingschooling.In these immenselyprolix documentswe see church
andstateactingjointly,with the temporalpartclearlydominant.As early
as 1528, Bugenhagen'sordinancesfor Braunschweigand Hamburgwere
confirmedand authorizedby the town councilsof these cities,8and subsequentecclesiasticalconstitutionswere alwayspublishedunderthe names
of the territory'sreigningprince:"Christoph,by the Graceof God Duke
of Wiirttemberg,our declarationof doctrines and ceremoniesas they
must be believed,kept, and obeyed in the churchesof our principality."9
Schulordnungen-enablingcharters setting up the schools in a given
realm-were in nearlyall instancesappendedto these church constitutions. They placed the supervisionof all educationalinstitutionsfirmly
in the handsof princeand magistrates,who werethe ownersandwielders
of the instrumentsof public power.
It is only when seen from the vantagepoint of a much later period
of conflictsbetweenchurchand state, and betweenindividualrightsand
state power over the control of education, that this amalgamationof
schoolingand politicalsovereigntyseems ominous.10The sixteenthcen-
4 For citationsof all relevantdocumentson this point see WernerReininghaus,Elternstand,Obrigkeit,und Schulebei Luther(Heidelberg,1969), 5.
5 Lutherto ElectorJohann,22 Nov. 1526, WA Briefwechsel4: 134.
6 "Die obrigkeitals gemeiner
vater."Quotedin WernerReininghaus,ed., Evangelische
Kircheund Elternrecht(Luneburg,1961), 19.
7 Eine Predigt,dass man Kinderzur Schulenhaltensolle (1530), WA 30 II: 586.
8 ReinholdVormbaum,Die evangelischen
des 16. Jahrhunderts(GuSchulordnungen
tersloh,1860), 8, 18. Cited from now on as Vormbaum.
9 Ibid.,68.
10For the Germandebate on this issue from about 1800 see ErwinStein, Wilfried
und evanJoest,and Hans Dombois,Elternrecht:Studienzu seinerrechtsphilosophischen
Grundlegung(Heidelberg,1958).
gelisch-theologischen
Historyof EducationQuarterly
194
tury recognized no Elternrecht, no right-statutory or customary-of
parents to have their children instructed in private, as opposed to public,
schools or to have in some other important way a voice in what their
offspring were to learn. Lacking legal grounds on which to challenge
state and church control of schooling, opponents had no position from
which to wage resistance-except, of course, passively, by indifference
and apathy, the traditional weapons of the weak. In any case, nothing
written by the educational theorists of the day suggested that formal
learning was, or could be, anything other than a blessing bestowed by
an Obrigkeit upon those privileged to receive it. This is how it was
represented in official pronouncements, notably in a host of Schulpredigten, sermons preached in church to remind fathers and mothers-I
quote the words of Werner Reininghaus-"of their parental responsibility
and to awaken in them an attitude of grateful acceptance of the opportunities created for them by the governing authorities."11Without posing
it explicitly, the question of who should bear primary responsibility for
the child's education-family or state-was being answered definitively
in the early years of the Lutheran era. Moving together toward what
Gerhard Oestreich, anticipating the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century
German state, has called Sozialdisziplinierung,12Reformation church and
Reformation state seized upon the control of schooling as an efficient
and effective way of acting directly on individual subjects for the purpose
of instilling in them a lasting sense of their places and duties in the wellordered society.
Lutheran churchmen and theologians heartily collaborated in this
effort. Although the final word always belonged to the temporal authorities, it was to the offices and activities of the ecclesiastics that the
actual operation of schools was entrusted. They saw in this assignment
a powerful opportunity to put the evangelical Reformation into place.
Hence their full-throated affirmation of existing arrangements, as when
a group of Rostock University professors, urging the dukes of Mecklenburg to take a stronger hand in the governance of schools, addressed
them in the-creatively interpreted-words of Psalm 24: "ye princes lift
up your gates, that is to say your churches, schools, cities, and entire
governments, that the king of glory may come in, meaning that Christ
may be known and honored by the multitude through the doctrine of
" Werner Reininghaus, Elternstand (see note 4), 5.
in his Geistund Gestaltdes frubmodernenStaates(Berlin, 1969); and
in "Policey und Prudentia civilis..." in Strukturprobleme der fruhen Neuzeit (Berlin,
1890), 367-79. On the concept of Sozialdisziplinierung in Oestreich's work see now Winfried Schuize, "Gerhard Oestreichs Begriff 'Sozialdisziplinierung in der fruhen Neuzeit,' "
12 Throughout
Zeitschriftfur historischeForschung14 (1987): 265-302.
Schoolsin the LutheranReformation
195
the holy gospel."The professorsdid not fail in this connectionto quote
Isaiah49:23 to the effect that "Kingsshall be your fosterfathers"(deine
pfleger,in Luther'stranslation),'3an echo, perhaps, of Melanchthon's
view of "governmentas a common father."
The eager and-despite the frustratingjob of finding the needed
cash-sustained response made by all governmentsto such open invitations suggeststhat rulersand their adviserssensed the role schooling
mightplayin the extensionof publicpoweroverthe populace.The results
of their effortswere, to be sure, a long way from the virtuallyabsolute
controllaterexercisedby eighteenth-century
Germanstates
administrative
through their Landschulordnungen, most notably Prussia's General-
of 1763. However,looking back in time from this
Landschul-Reglement
point of observation-in my opinion the correct perspective-one can
see things definitelytending in that direction.The clearestevidence of
this trend is found in the texts of Schulordnungen,many of them long
and punctiliouslydetailedprogramsdeclaringthe regulationsfor every
level and for everyaspectof teachingand learning.The most important
of theseOrdnungenareconvenientlyavailablefor studyin threevolumes
Buta vast numberof additional
of texts editedby ReinholdVormbaum.14
school plans, schedules,and related documentsmay be found in state
and municipalarchives,all of them, in their anxious concern for regulating everythingand leaving nothing to whim and chance, giving confirmationof the sixteenth-centurygoverning mind's predispositionto
arrangethings in a definitiveorder, to stipulate,regulate,and control.
Organizationallyat least, this endeavormust be counted a success.
In every Germanstate, primaryand secondaryschools were built up,
enlarged,equipped,ably staffed(moreor less), tied togetherin sequence,
andgivenfullyarticulatedteachingprogramsand a clearsenseof mission.
This part of the story of Lutheraneducationhas been told often. By the
1560s and 1570s, somethinglike an integratedschool systemexisted, or
was coming into existence, in most of the Lutheranstates in the Holy
RomanEmpire-integratedin the sense that its levels and streamswere
linked in a coherentstructure,and that the educationalapparatusas a
whole was closely tied in its stated aims and assignedfunctions to the
objectivesand operationsof the ecclesiasticaland political organsof the
state.'5
Whatpurposedid this apparatusserve?Luther'scall for Christliche
Schulen to replace the "donkey stalls and devil's dens" of his own
Germaniae Paedagogica (from now on MGP) 38: 253-54.
Evangelische Schulordnungen, 3 vols. (Gutersloh, 1858-64).
15 Evidence for this development is given in Strauss, Luther's House of Learning, chap.
13 Monumenta
14
1.
Historyof EducationQuarterly
196
childhoodl6set a goal without much specificitybeyond the exhortation
that boys and girls should be trainedto play their severalparts in upholding God's spiritualand temporalrealms.'7Luther'slanguage and
choice of exampleson the occasion of this appeal suggest that he was
thinkingprimarilyof well-placedtownsmenwith ambitionfor theiroffspring and the means and social connections to speed them on their
careers:"themen to governland and people,"as he wrote, "the women
Fromamongthesecircles
to managethe house,children,and servants."18
young men would be takento staff the proliferatingbureaucraciesof the
expandingReformationstate and church.
Melanchthon's1528 school ordinance for Saxony made this the
official aim of schooling.Schools, he wrote, are "for raisingup people
who are skilledto teach in the churchand govern in the world."19Announcingthis aim more formally,the Schulordnungof Wurttembergof
1559-taken as a model by many subsequentordinances20-makesa
preambleof the propositionthat "honest,wise, learned,skilled,andGodfearingmen are neededto serve in the holy preachingoffice, in worldly
governments,in temporalposts, in administrativeofficesand households,
and ... schools are God's chosenand rightfulinstrumentsfor raisingup
such men."21A rigorousselectionprocess-at least, it was intendedto
be rigorous-advanced the more clever, or perhaps simply the more
compliant,pupils to the upper forms and, from there, to elite schools
suchas the SaxonFurstenschulen
or the StuttgartGymnasium,and thereafter to university.Instructionsto "pick out the most gifted"(diegescbicktestenauswahlen)appearin everySchulordnung,22
while "dullheads
and slow talents"(ungeschicktekopfeund ingenia)are ordereddemoted
to the vernacularbenchesat the bottom of the educationaledifice,where
all lessons were given in German.23
What was learnedin these common schools cateringto the undifferentiatedpre-teenchildrenof ordinaryfolk was rudimentaryindeed,
even when judgedby the period'sown standards.Wurttemberg'sSchulordnungsummarizesthe German-languagecurriculumas "prayersand
catechism,and in addition some writing and reading for [the pupils']
own use and the public good, also psalm singing and Christiancon-
16
17
An die Ratsherren,31.
Ibid.,44.
18 Ibid.
19Vormbaum, 1.
of the Duchyof Braunschweig1569; that of Saxony 1580.
20E.g.,the Schulordnung
21 Vormbaum,
68-69.
22
E.g., Saxony 1528. Ibid., 8.
23
Duchyof Mecklenburgschool ordinancefor city of Gustrow.MGP 38: 472.
Schoolsin the LutheranReformation
197
duct."24Regulationscalled for conscientiousteaching in these popular
schools ("let the schoolmasterteach Germanwriting and readingwith
but the substance
as muchdiligenceas is givento the teachingof Latin"25);
of whatwas taughtwas verythin, as it was in what learningwas imparted
to girls:"readingand writing,and if both of these can't be mastered,at
least some writing,the catechismlearnedby heart,a little figuring,a few
psalms to sing," and "storiesfrom the GermanBible."26As the MecklenburgSchulordnungsummedit up in 1552, "Habituate[girls]to the
catechism,to the psalms, to honorable behavior and Christianvirtue,
and especiallyto prayer, and make them memorizeverses from Holy
Scriptureso that they may grow up to be Christianand praiseworthy
matronsand housekeepers(Christlicheund loblichematronenund hausNeedless to say, femalepupils were kept out of schools
halterinnen)."27
of learningthat fitteda young person for a place in the
kind
the
offering
Poor
world.
boys, on the other hand, if born with good heads
public
and agile minds, were-when things went accordingto plan-marked
by observantteachersand, with financialaid fromtheirgovernment,sent
to Latinschools to preparethem for careersin the churchor the state.
The clerical profession seemed especially suitable for boys of modest
background.Everyterritoryopened one or severalboardingschools for
the nurturingof such otherwisewasted talent.28
The greatesteffort was given to monitoringthe curriculumof the
LatinSchool, the plan of studiesdesignedto bringto maturitythe type
of man consideredmost useful to, productivein, and representativeof
the well-orderedChristianpolity. The Latin course was the track laid
down for all who were expectedto play a leadingrole in makingit work.
Severalaspectsof this rigorousacademicshapingprocessareworth mentioning here. In its contents and in its teachingpractice,it was the humanist program, taken over virtually without change except for the
inclusionin it of the catechism.But for this addition,the Reformation's
pedagogy appearstaken straightfrom the educationaltracts of Vives,
24
Vormbaum,71.
1536. Ibid., 31.
26Jungfrauen-Schule in Wittenberg,1533. Ibid., 27-28; Braunschweigschool ordinanceof 1543. Ibid., 50-51.
27 MGP 38: 215.
28 Urbanschoolsgenerallyadmittedpoor childrenfreeof charge"um Gottes willen,"
e.g., Rostock, 1534. MGP 38: 122. For the care with which poor boys were selectedfor
the pastorate,see the regulationsin the Wurttembergschool ordinance,Vormbaum,104.
It was often statedthat gute und fruchtbare ingenia are found amongthe poor as well as
the rich:e.g., Vormbaum,70, 102.
25Baden-Durlach
school ordinanceof
198
Historyof EducationQuarterly
Erasmus,and Johann Sturm.29Begin serious formal educationearly in
life. Concentrateon language,especiallyon Latin, which is "a tongue
sacred to the learned."All learningdepends on correctpronunciation
and on fluencyin writingand speaking-Latin, of course. Speechis the
bestindexto the qualityof a mind,memorythe clearestsign of its power.
Superiorresultsare obtained by close imitation of classicalmodels. As
Roman and Greek authorsoffer the best preparationfor an intelligent
and activelife, ancientliteraturemust be the pupil'ssteadymentaldiet.30
The right techniquefor feedingit to him is by meansof ephemeridesor
commonplacebooks in which each pupil's growingstock of knowledge
is to be storedfor lifelongutilization.Dialecticand rhetoricpreparethe
mind for puttingthis accumulationto purposefuluse. Methodis the key
to all effectivelearning;every step along the educationalway must be
governedby rulesand by close surveillanceof the pupil's-and the teacher's-adherence to them. When this is done, learningwill build in the
ablepupilto forma mentalculturecomposedin equalpartsof eloquentia,
sapientia, and pietas.
The finishedproductsof this learningprocess were men equipped
to play leadingroles in the organizedsocietyemergingout of the turmoil
of the early Reformation.To say it in a vivid phrase used by Walter
Sohm:"thefullyeducatedgraduatesof the Latinschoolwerethe offerings
broughtby humanismto the state and to the church."31In their mentality-a mental cast patiently cultivatedduring ten or more years of
schooling-and in their speech and bearing,they exemplifiedthe intellectualand civic posturedeemedappropriatefor membersof the ruling
social group: they embodiedthe cultureof the elite. Their activitiesin
the world were expectedto transmitthis cultureto those destined,like
them, to rise to topmost positions in ecclesiasticaland political administration.Among those who were not so destined,they would engender
29 DesideriusErasmus,De puerisstatim ac liberaliterinstituendisdeclamatio
(1529)
(CollectedWorks of Erasmus26 [Toronto, 1985], 295-346); De recta latini graecique
sermonispronuntiationedialogus(1528) (ibid.,365-475); JuanLuisVives, De tradendis
disciplinis libri quinque (Antwerp, 1531; English translation by Foster Watson, Vives: On
Education [Totowa, N.J., 1971]). Johann Sturm's pedagogical treatises are discussed in
WalterSohm,Die SchuleJohannSturmsund die KircheStrassburgs(Munichand Berlin,
1912). Ultimately these treatises are all based on Plutarch's De liberis educandis, translated
by Guarino in 1411, and Quintilian's and Cicero's books on the education of the orator,
the former published by Poggio in 1417, the latter recovered in 1422. An argument for a
sharp break between Lutheran curricula and late fifteenth-century humanist educational
reforms is made by John N. Miner, "Change and Continuity in the Schools of Late Medieval
Nuremberg," Catholic Historical Review 73 (Jan. 1987): 1-22.
30 Latin and Greek authors and titles given in Vives, De tradendis disciplinis, book III,
especially chapters 6 and 7.
31Walter Sohm, Die Schule Johann Sturms, 92.
Schoolsin the LutheranReformation
199
respectfulesteemand willing deference.In this way-and this is saying
only the obvious-schooling operated in the interest of the dominant
groups,as an instrumentof acculturation.
Without overextendingits relevanceto the sixteenth century, one
can elaboratethis line of interpretationand arriveat a numberof general
propositionsconcerningeducationin a hegemonicsetting.Schoolsreflect
social divisionsand replicatethem. They accomplishthis stabilizationof
social stratificationby meansof streaming.In every streamand at every
level, though in varying forms and ways, the reigningideology is presented as universallyvalid knowledge, value, and truth. Teachers are
trainedto accepttheirrole in this systemof culturalreproduction.Their
successis measuredby the pupil's unquestioningadoption of the dominantculture'sstockof ideas,as expressedin sanctionedformulae.Access
to governingideas,style, and speechis not restrictedto a particularsocial
class; but acculturationto this code promotes a young man, whatever
his birth,to the ranksof those who are calledto representit in the larger
society. A set of mutuallyreinforcingpedagogicalassumptionslinks the
code to techniquesof transmittingit. Educationworks becauseall human
beings are educable. Its essential purpose is to mold the young into a
desirableform, this form being determinedby society. The educational
processmust begin in childhood and must be well advancedbefore the
onset of puberty.Its early phases consist largelyof breakingthe child's
will and settingrestraintsto his naturalinclinations.To do the job properly, all schoolingmust be public,privateeducationbeing destructiveof
common goals. Equallydestructiveare habits of questioning,criticism,
ambivalence,suspendedjudgment;they must be inhibited. Schooling,
In its formal procedures,it reflects
therefore,must purveycertainties.32
the existing social order (modifiedsomewhat by desires for its amelioration) and promotes it by accustomingthe pupil from the start to hierarchy,authority,and the sanctity of the status quo. Everythingdone
in school servesthis purposein one way or another.
Take grammaras an illustration.Grammarwas present from first
to last in the classicalprogram,pervadingall classes and all subjects.In
his Instruction of the Visitors to the Pastors in Saxony, which includes
a lesson plan for Saxon Latin schools, Melanchthonwarns that where
boys arenot "pressedand driven"(gedrungenundgetrieben)to the study
of grammar,"all learningis lost and in vain. For," he continues, "no
greaterharmcan be done to the arts than to fail to accustomthe young
to grammar."33
The essenceof grammaris, of course, rules-normative
32 For a discussionof the applicationof these educationalaimsto the pedagogyof the
Reformation,see Strauss,Luther's House of Learning chaps. 2-4.
33Vormbaum, 7.
200
Historyof EducationQuarterly
and prescriptiverules-and drill. In all the years of a boy's academic
development,grammarwas thereforehis daily routine.Whenyou get to
the end of etymology,syntax, and prosody,Melanchthontells teachers,
"start over again, from the beginning."34One wonders, what was the
real objecthere:deep knowledgeof grammaras "the motherand nurse
of the other arts,"35or internalizationof a rule-bounddisciplineas the
paradigmof a rule-boundlife? Both of these objectiveswere aimed at,
it seems to me, with high hopes and expectationsfor the second one.
The patternof grammarbeing fixed and regular,its implantationas the
individual'sarmatureof thoughtwas expectedto guardagainstthe temptations of whim and will and to recall the imaginationto correctand
authorizedrules so that its tendencyto free-wheelingspeculationmight
be counteracted.
As for masteringthe content of the curriculum'sreadinglist, this
was largelya matterof filling the blank spaces in commonplacebooks
and ephemerides,an easily acquiredand-once it was learned-habitual
techniqueof organizingknowledge,and a methodusefulequallyto pedagogues and pupils: to pedagoguestrying to control their pupils' comprehensionof literature,and to pupils whose futurecareersin religion,
law, and administrationdemandeda constantrecyclingof the pieces of
excerptedwisdom taken from the canon of authorsand filed under approved rubrics.36Teachersinspectednotebooks at regularintervalsto
ensurethat no illicit opinionscreptin and no authorizedtruthwas omitted. Uniformitywas the salientvirtue."The same books in all schools,"
directedthe Wurttembergschool ordinance,"none changedor altered
in any way, and each to be read at the appointedtime as shown in our
ordinance,and when finishedto be read again from the beginning."37
This regularitywas an axiom of humanistpedagogy.It was madeexplicit
in Vives's definitionof art as "a collection of universalrules brought
togetherfor the purposeof knowing, doing, or producingsomething."38
Laterit was carriedto its extreme by the Jesuits. "Nothing maintains
the entire disciplineso much as observingthe rules," says the Ratio of
34Ibid. Repeated manytimes in other ordinances, e.g., Schleswig-Holstein 1542. Ibid.,
36.
35Valentin Trotzendorf in the school ordinance for the Goldberg Gymnasium, 1563.
Ibid., 54.
36 For a discussion of this technique see Anton Schindling, Humanistische Hochschule
und freie Reichsstadt: Gymnasium und Akademie in Strassburg1538-1621 (Wiesbaden,
1977), chap. 5, especially 180-95.
37 Wurttemberg school ordinance 1559, Vormbaum, 72. For similar sentiments: Hessen
1537 (Ibid., 33), Braunschweig 1569 (MGP 8: 25-26), Pomerania 1563 (Vormbaum, 168),
and many more.
38 Vives, De tradendis disciplinis I, 3.
Schoolsin the LutheranReformation
201
1599,39and this could stand as the motto of the Reformation'swhole
educationalenterprise."For God is a God of order" it was said, "ein
Gott der ordnung,who demandsthat, in school no less than in the other
walks of life, all things must be done in the correctand orderlyway."40
For another example, let us consider religious instruction.To my
mind, nothingillustratesbetterthe overall aims of Reformationschooling, and the assumptionson which they stood, namely, that education
inculcatescertaintiesand that teaching assuresthe perpetuationof the
statusquo by accustomingcominggenerationsto a voluntaryacceptance
of it. Notions of a conflictbetweenlearningand piety neveroccurredto
Reformationeducators,who saw no need to raise again the humanists'
questionwhether"artsand eruditionhinderthe progressof religion."41
The conviction that they were, in fact, perfectly complementarywas
implicitin every stated aim of schooling in the Reformation:to teach
"learning,the fear of God, and good discipline,"to give instruction
"above all things in the fear of God and good behavior [Gottesfurcht
und gute Sitten]and also in the liberalarts and languages,"42to imbue
the young with "spirituality,the liberal arts, and honorable manners"
(geistlichkeit, gute kunste und ehrliche sitten).43"And this is best accom-
plished,"the school ordinancefor Mecklenburgdirects,when, "along
with instructionin liberalarts and languages,pupils memorizethe catWhatwas meant
echismandselectedpsalmsandversesfromScripture."44
in thesepronouncementsby "fearof God" and "spirituality"?The Wurttembergordinanceinforms us. "As for the implantationof the fear of
God in the boys," it says, "let them sing every morningbefore lessons,
and again every afternoon,the first and last verses of the hymn Veni
CreatorSpiritus,in Latin,andreverently.Andbeforegoinghome at noon
and again in the evening,let them recite from memorya portion of the
catechism."These exerciseswere accompaniedby "dailypracticein catechism," a weekly catechismexam on Fridays,and attendanceat all
servicesfollowed by a quiz on the sermonsheardin church.45An essentially mechanicalroutine, this regime was expected to lead boys to a
39 "Disciplinamomnemnihil aequecontinetatque observatioregularum."Ratio studiorum(1599) in MGP5: 395.
40"DennGott ist ein Gott der ordnung,welcherwill, dass es wie in allen Standen,
mit UnterweisungderJugendrechtundordenlichzugehe."From
also auchin Schulenstand,
school regulations for the city of Wismar, 1644, MGP 44: 84.
41 Vives, De tradendisdisciplinisI, chaps, 4, 6.
42 From school ordinances for the Duchy of Zweibrucken, 1575, MGP 49: 122; 1581,
ibid., 142; 1602, ibid., 159.
43 From visitation ordinance for Mecklenburg, 1541, MGP 38: 141.
44 Ibid., 214.
45 Vormbaum, 91-92.
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Historyof EducationQuarterly
godly disposition, which, the Wiirttembergordinanceexplains, is the
prerequisite for eusserlich Disziplin und Zucht. Procedures were the same
in Saxony46and-or nearly so-in most other Lutheranstates. Memorizing scripturaltexts was relied upon above any other instructional
method, and apparentlyit was not unusualfor model pupils to have a
repertoireof fifty or sixty psalms readyfor recitation.47Greatfaith was
placed in repeatedverbalperformance:declaimingaloud, in unison as
well as individuallyand in smallgroups,prayers,hymns,versesfrom the
New and Old Testaments,above all questions and answers from the
catechism.
By the 1530s, in largepart owing to the prestigegainedby Luther's
own catechisms,the catechismhad become, certainlythe chief, and virtually the sole, instrumentof religiousinstructionin the schools of the
GermanReformation.Fromfirstgradein elementaryschool, whereABC
to the upperprimersfed straightinto the ShorterGermanCatechism,48
mostclassof the Gymnasium, wherepreceptorslecturedon the catechism
in Greekand Latin,it dominatedthe curriculumas the pupil's authoritative sourceof theologicalknowledgeand fixed frameof religiousreference.Whythiswas so is not difficultto understand.Establishedreligion
requiresexperienced,informedguidance:the catechismgaveit. The Bible
is complex and far from unambiguous:the catechismoffered reliable
interpretation.It askedall the necessaryquestionsand suppliedthe correct answers. It made first-handoccupation with Scripturepractically
unnecessary.The Bible itself became an adjunctto the catechism.This
is why so little encouragementwas given in the pupil'sformaleducation
to individualBiblereading.Most school plans make no mentionof it at
all. Pupilsregularlyattendedservices,of course,and heardthe Scripture
preachedthere.Butthis is the point:preachingwas authoritative.Private
reading,even when championedas part of a carefullydrawn program
of studies, was unpredictablein its consequences.This was the lesson
responsibleLutheransdrew fromthe eventsof the mid-1520s.Theywere
determinedthereafterto do all that lay in their powers to prevent a
recurrence.
EverySchulordnung issuedduringthe sixteenthcenturyreflectsthis
resolve.The best hope for preventionof futuretrouble rested with the
catechism."Becauseschoolmastersstand in loco parentis," states the
ordinanceof Brandenburgof 1573, "they must devote the greatestcare
46Ibid.,247 (1580).
47Seethedescription
givenbypastorGeorgZeamannof Kempten,in his Schulpredigten
of 1618 quotedin MGP Beiheft 1 (Berlin,1916), 10.
48 E.g., Saxony1580, Vormbaum,237.
Schoolsin the LutheranReformation
203
to our young people and instruct them with the utmost earnestness in
the catechism and, for the rest, in the liberal arts and the singing of
hymns."49In Hanover, "so that young people may learn the fear of God
no less than the liberal arts," the Latin school taught them "catechism,
grammar, good behavior, and also languages." In the upper forms, where
the New and Old Testaments formed an integral part of the curriculum,
the emphasis in the teaching of Scripture was placed on language and
grammar.50In Mecklenburg, in 1552, "upper form boys read the gospel
in Greek, and it must be expounded to them by giving them easy topics,
making clear their meaning and letting the topics be declined and conjugated."51In Wuiirttemberg,Scripture seemed mainly to serve as a means
of gaining proficiency in Hebrew and Greek, so that-to quote the 1559
ordinance-"through the study of these texts [pupils] may advance to
careers in theology, in the other arts, in governing posts, offices, and in
householderships.52
Preparing pupils for high office was always the salient objective.
Superior schools in Saxony "instruct the young in languages, arts, and
most of all in Holy Scripture, so that, in time, we will suffer no lack of
pastors and other learned men among us."53 Scripture seems to have
functioned here-and elsewhere54-mainly as a vehicle for language training,55and little ingenuity seems to have been devoted to creating a learning
atmosphere in which the deeper significance of Holy Writ might be understood. The teaching of Scripture did not seem to vary much from drill
in catechism. Here is what the Schulordnung of Pomerania said in 1563
about Bible study in the third form of that duchy's Latin school:
To accustomthe boys fromearliestyouthto Holy Scriptureand divine
doctrine,the schoolmastermust, on Wednesdaysor Saturdays,expound to them the GospelAccordingto St. Matthewor the Epistleof
Paulto Titus or to Timothy,and also severalselectedpsalms.... But
he must not attemptlearnedinterpretation.Let him explain the text
plainly, that is to say grammatically,and let him implant the right
understandingof it by teachingthe boys definitions,askingthem repeatedlyQuid Deus? Quot personaedivinitatis?.. . Quid lex? Quid
peccatum?Quid evangelium?Quid gratia?Quid fides?. .. Quid ministerium?Quid magistratus?And above all thingshe mustexercisethe
227.
50Hanover 1536. Ibid., 32.
s' MGP 38: 210. Similarly Mecklenburg 1552, Vormbaum, 64.
49 Ibid.,
52
Vormbaum,69.
S3 From regulations for the Furstenschulen in
Meissen, Pforta, and Grimma, ibid., 268.
54E.g., in the regulations for special boarding schools for talented poor boys in Wurt-
temberg, ibid., 102.
ss On the advisability of teaching the Bible in the ancient languages, see Bugenhagen's
memorandum of 1531 in MGP 38: 116-17.
204
History of Education Quarterly
studentswith all diligencein Latinspeechandstyle,andto thispurpose
schoolmastersmust speakonly Latinin class, and neverfall into German.56
What had changed, then, in Bible study as a result of the Reformation? For most pupils, including those educated in the classics, the
Bible was still a book to be heard rather than read. Most of those who
did learn to read it learned it in the ancient languages, the better to
expound it or apply it, in their professions, later. Of course, more attention than ever before was now given to effective preaching. But private
reading was not fostered. Preaching and oral explanation were still the
most highly valued path to Scripture, and this was the path given official
sanction in the teaching programs of Lutheran schools. Even the young
men chosen for the ministry encountered Scripture as a largely passive
experience;57for the rest, exposure to the Bible was entirely inactive. In
any case, it was not from the Bible but from the catechism that all were
expected to take their religious knowledge.58There are exceptions to this
pattern,59but they are rare. Most ordinary folk got their religious instruction not from the Bible but from the catechism, from religious hymns,
and fromprayers(Catechismus,Kirchengesang,und Gebet), along with
regular admonitions to display their fear of God in the form of disciplined
(ziichtig) conduct in the world.60 Professionally trained pupils enrolled
in Latin schools read the Bible in the setting of a carefully constructed
learning program, and mainly in the ancient tongues; they, too, relied
on the catechism for what they needed to know about their religion.61
To convey a glimpse of how the process of total catechization was intended to work in ideal circumstances, I quote David Chytraeus, a theology professor in the University of Rostock, as he outlined the duties
of pastors, teachers, and householders in the Duchy of Mecklenburg in
1578:
Pastorsin theirchurches,schoolmastersin theirschools, and headsof
householdat home among their childrenand servantsmust practice
the catechismwith the utmostindustry.Preacherswill take theirSun-
S6 Vormbaum,
172-73.
Cf. Walter Sohm, Die Schule Johann Sturms, 109-18 on the essentially passive
exposure to Scripture given in Johann Sturm's pedagogical program.
58 E.g., Wurttemberg 1559, Vormbaum, 71.
59E.g., Schulordnung for the German-language school in Gustrow 1602, MGP 38:
473; Schulordnung for Darmstadt, 1594, MGP 33: 206.
60E.g., Wurttemberg 1559, Vormbaum, 160-65.
61 For a
very different approach to catechization, one that attempted to engender
individual responses to the faith, see John Morgan, Godly Learning: Puritan Attitudes
towards Reason, Learning, and Education, 1560-1640 (Cambridge, 1986), passim, especially 186.
S7
Schoolsin the LutheranReformation
205
day afternoonsermonsfrom no other texts than the catechism,and
once they have broughtit to an end, they will start over, from the
beginning,without cease or letup.... In the same way must the catechismbe taughtin the schools, day after day, with the same words,
in Latinor German,the school mastersayingit to the pupils,the pupils
recitingit backto him.... And everyhousefathermustdo likewiseat
home, makinghis childrenand hiredhelp recitethe catechismbefore
they go off to school in the morningor to work, or sit down to a
meal.... And lest the young and simplebe thrown into confusionby
the addition,omission,or substitutionof even a singleword or syllable,
let all thisbe doneaufeinerleyweyseallenthalbenstetesund ewiglichin a uniform manner, always and forever.62
Of the three target sites mentioned by Chytraeus-church, school,
and home-only the school offered a sufficiently dependable environment
to give the process a chance to work. Traditional learning psychologyessentially Aristotelian in provenance-justified the hope that systematic
habituation would produce desirable mental and behavioral dispositions
in the learners.63As the Schulordnung of Hanover asserted in 1536: "we
normally remain all our lives what we are taught to be in our youth."64
More than anything else, schooling was designed to effect this lifelong
habituation, and to do so in the most systematic way possible. Whether
the system was successful in accomplishing this aim is, of course, open
to question.65 But the aim itself is not in doubt. Education works by
inculcating habits, not only habits of conduct, but also-and more importantly-habits of thought, of attitudes, of inclinations. At the primary
and secondary level, schooling was essentially habit training. The humanist's course of liberal studies and the churchman's catechism drill
constituted a teaching program in which the acquisition of knowledge
was promoted through a technique of habituation: everything divided
into small units of study, memorized, endlessly repeated verbatim in oral
recitation. Commonplaces arranged everything in quotable statements
ready to spring to mind when the need arose. The well-educated schoolboy had a notebook fur alle memorabilia-for everything worth remem-
62From David Chytraeus, Der furnembsten heubtstuck christlicher lehr nutzliche erklerung (Rostock, 1578), quoted in MGP 38: 336-37.
63For a discussion of the psychology of learning utilized in the Reformation, see Strauss,
Luther'sHouse of Learning,chap. 4.
64Vormbaum,32.
65The unceasing appeals made throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by
Lutheran churchmen to parents, to send their children to school, suggests that popular
response to educational opportunities was not always enthusiastic. And the evidence in
visitation reports makes it possible to argue that schooling was less effective than had been
anticipated in producing the hoped-for change in habits. For a discussion of the problem
of response to Reformation pedagogy, see Strauss, Luther's House of Learning, chaps. 1213.
Historyof EducationQuarterly
206
beringin each subject.66Havingcompletedhis training,the pupil, when
he spoke, fell readilyinto cadencesnot his own. His memoryfurnished
learnedphrasesfor every occasion. When reflectingon something,his
mindcamebackwith cataloguedandlabelledformulae.In sucha system,
learningwas made useful, tidy, orderly,above all ideologicallysafe.
Actualitymay not have been quite as bleak as this picturesuggests.
Resultsalwaysfell short of intentions.On the otherhand, the pictureis
essentiallyaccurateas to the aims of pedagogues,school administrators,
and the politicaland churchfigureswho stood behindthem. These men
were not petty tyrants.Most of the time, most of them seem to have felt
kindlytowardtheircharges.Buttheyweredeeplyworriedaboutthe state
of the world, and twenty or thirtyyears of Reformationin Europehad
done nothingto dispeltheirfearsand allaytheiranxieties.The prospects
seemedanythingbut favorable.In the LatinSchoolthesemensaw a spark
of hope because,as they believed,the new generationsof leadersbeing
trainedup in them would, in the years of their intensiveschooling, internalizethe approvedvalues and would thus be intellectuallyand psychologicallypreparedto exhibit and promotethem in theirlives. At the
core of these approvedvalues lay the structuringideas of authority,
hierarchy,andorder,the prerequisitesof a stablesociety.As the ministers
of these ideas, Reformationschoolmenwere anythingbut liberal educators,despitetheir devotionto the liberalarts. They were dismayedto
see-as the preambleto one school ordinanceput it-"the flowerof our
young men wasted by being allowed to live by their own will."67"Not
to let them have their will" (ihnen iren willen nicht lassen) was the essence
of education,a processin which naturalwishes,habits,inclinations,and
tastes were replacedby a higher volition, the will of society's cultural
masters.To the extentthat they helpedbringabout this substitution,the
schools of the LutheranReformationfunctionedas instrumentsof acculturation.
66
Visitation ordinance for the Darmstadt Paedagogium 1655, MGP 27: 135.
From regulations for preceptors at the Domschule in Gustrow 1619, printed in H.
Schnell, Das Unterrichtswesen der Grossherzogtumer Mecklenburg-Schwerin und Strelitz,
MGP 44: 33.
67