HEIDELBERG CATECHISM, THE, the most attractive of all the catechisms of the Reformation, was drawn up at the bidding of Frederick III., elector of the Palatinate, and published on Tuesday the 19th of January 1563. The task was entrusted to two young men who have won deserved remembrance alike by their learning and their character: Zacharias Ursinus (1536 1583), a man of modest and gentle spirit, unwearied in study and well fitted to impart his learning to others; and Caspar Olevianus (1536-1587 ), whose ardour and enthusiasm made him the happy complement of Ursinus. The elector could have chosen no better men, young as they were, for the task in hand. As a first step each drew up a catechism of his own composition, that of Ursinus being naturally of a more grave and academic turn than the freer production of Olevianus, while each made full use of the earlier catechisms already in use. But when the union was effected it was found that the spirits of the two authors were most happily and harmoniously wedded, the exactness and erudition of the one being blended with the fervency and grace of the other. Thus the Heidelberg Catechism, which was completed within a year of its inception, has an individuality that marks it out from all its pre decessors and successors. The Heidelberg synod unanimously approved of it; it was published in January 1563, and in the same year officially turned into Latin. The Heidelberg book, in spite of violent attacks on it by the extreme Lutherans, rapidly passed beyond the bounds of the Palatinate and gained an abundant success not only in Germany but also in the Netherlands and in the Reformed churches of Hungary, Transylvania and Poland. It was officially recognized by the synod of Dort in 1619, passed into France, Britain and America, and probably shares with the De imitatione Christi and The Pilgrim's Progress the honour of com ing next to the Bible in the number of tongues into which it has been translated.
This wide acceptance and high esteem are due largely to an avoidance of polemical and controversial subjects, and even more to an absence of the controversial spirit. There is no mistake about its Protestantism, even when we omit the unhappy addition made to answer 8o by Frederick himself (in indignant reply to the ban pronounced by the Council of Trent), in which the Mass is described as "nothing else than a denial of the one sacrifice and passion of Jesus Christ, and an accursed idolatry"-an addition which is the one blot on the f c€LKaa of the catechism. The work is the product of the best qualities of head and heart, and its prose is frequently marked by all the beauty of a lyric. It follows the plan of the epistle to the Romans (excepting chapters ix.-xi.) and falls into three parts: Sin, Redemption and the New Life. This arrangement alone would mark it out from the normal Reforma tion catechism, which runs along the stereotyped lines of Deca logue, Creed, Lord's Prayer, Church and Sacraments. These themes are included, but are shown as organically related.