115. Symbolical Authority of Catechisms. The symbolical authority of Luther's Catechisms must be distinguished from the practical use to which they were put in church, school, and home. As to his doctrine, Luther knew it to be the pure truth of the divine Word. Hence he could not but demand that every one acknowledge it. Self-evidently this applies also to the doctrinal contents of the Catechisms. Luther, however, did not insist that his Catechisms be made the books of instruction in church, school, and home; he only desired and counseled it. If for the purpose of instruction the form of his Small Catechism did not suit any one, let him, said Luther, choose another. In the Preface to the Small Catechism he declared: "Hence, choose whatever form you think best, and adhere to it forever." Again, "Take the form of these tables or some other short, fixed form of your choice, and adhere to it without the change of a single syllable." Self-evidently Luther is here not speaking of the doctrine of the Catechism, but of the form to be used for instruction. And with respect to the latter he makes no demands whatever. However, the contents of these books and the name of the author sufficed to procure for them the widest circulation and the most extensive use. Everywhere the doors of churches, schools, and homes were opened to the writings of Luther. The tables had hardly been published when catechism instruction already generally was given according to Luther's Explanation. The church regulations, first in Saxony, then also in other lands, provided that Luther's Small Catechism be memorized word for word, and that preaching be according to the Large Catechism. The Church Order of Henry the Pious, 1539, declares: "There shall not be taught a different catechism in every locality, but one and the same form, as presented by Dr. Martin Luther at Wittenberg, shall be observed everywhere." In 1533 the ministers of Allstaedt were ordered "to preach according to Luther's Large Catechism." (Kolde, 63.) The authority of the Catechisms grew during the controversies after Luther's death, when the faithful Lutherans appealed to the Smalcald Articles and especially to Luther's Catechisms. The Lueneburg Articles of 1561 designate them, together with the Smalcald Articles, as the correct "explication and explanation" of the true sense of the Augustana. The _Corpus Doctrinae Pomeranicum_ of 1564 declares that "the sum of Christian and evangelical doctrine is purely and correctly contained in Luther's Catechisms." Their authority as a genuinely Lutheran norm of doctrine increased when the Reformed of Germany, in 1563, made the Heidelberg Catechism their particular confession.