Luther an educator
It is no wonder, then, that much of Luther’s time and ambition was spent in the cause of education. “The necessities of the Reformation gave Luther,” says Painter, “an intense interest in education. The schools of the time, already inadequate in number and defective in method, were crippled during the early stages of the Reformation by the excited and unsettled condition of society. A new generation was growing up without education. The establishment of schools became a necessary measure for the success and permanence of the Reformation. The appeal had been made to the Word of God, and it was necessary to teach the masses to read it. Preachers and teachers were needed for the promulgation and defense of the gospel.... As early as 1524, Luther made an appeal of marvelous energy to the authorities of the German cities for the establishment of schools. If we consider its pioneer character, in connection with its statement of principles and admirable recommendations, the address must be regarded the most important educational treatise ever written.”[115] God had trained him for his position.
Luther’s plea for schools
Here are the words of the Reformer. Judge for yourselves if they should not voice the sentiment of every true Protestant to-day! “He wrote,” says D’Aubigné, “to the councilors of all the cities of Germany, calling upon them to found Christian schools.” “Dear sirs,” said Luther, “we annually expend so much money on arquebuses, roads, and dikes, why should we not spend a little to give one or two schoolmasters to our poor children? God stands at the door and knocks; blessed are we if we open to him! Now the Word of God abounds. O my dear Germans, buy, buy, while the market is open before your houses. The Word of God and His grace are like a shower that falls and passes away. It was among the Jews; but it passed away, and now they have it no longer. Paul carried it into Greece; but in that country also it has passed away, and the Turk reigns there now. It came to Rome and the Latin empire; but there also it has passed away, and Rome now has the pope. O Germans, do not expect to have this Word forever. The contempt that is shown to it will drive it away. For this reason let him who desires to possess it lay hold of it and keep it.
“Busy yourselves with the children; for many parents are like ostriches, they are hardened toward their little ones, and, satisfied with having laid the egg, they care nothing for it afterward.... The true wealth of a city, its safety, and its strength, is to have many learned, serious, worthy, well-educated citizens. And whom must we blame, because there are so few at present, except your magistrates who have allowed your youth to grow up like trees in a forest?”[116]
D’Aubigné says truly: “It was not the public worship alone that the Reformation was ordained to change. The school was early placed beside the church, and these two great institutions, so powerful to regenerate the nations, were equally reanimated by it. It was by a close alliance with learning that the Reformation entered into the world; in the hour of its triumph it did not forget its ally.”[117] Luther “felt that to strengthen the Reformation it was requisite to work on the young, to improve the schools, and to propagate throughout Christendom the knowledge necessary for a profound study of the Holy Scriptures. This was one of the results.”[118]
Schools strengthen the church