Melanchthon Fülöp: Catechesis puerilis

In this dissertation I would like to present an extract from Philipp Melanchthon's work Catechesis puerilis. I translated part of the work from Latin into Hungarian. The work, Catechesis puerilis, is quite distinct from Martin Luther's well-known Small Catechism. However, their objective is the same: to teach the knowledge of the Christian faith. Philipp Melanchthon begins the catechesis with a grammar lesson for school-age children. I have divided my dissertation into five major units. The first part is about the life of Philipp Melanchthon. I will briefly talk about his childhood, his school years, and then about his personality, his family and his family life. I am interested in what Melanchthon was like as a child, who were the people who helped him, who took him in, so to speak. In the second part I talk about Melanchthon as a teacher. I was curious to know what Melanchthon was like as a teacher. In this part, I talk about his teaching style, how much he was interested in the students, how much he engaged with the students. But I also talk about his working relationships, the relationships he had with his colleagues. In the third part, I will talk briefly about his reformatory work. Then, in parts four and five, I will present his Hungarian translation of the Catechesis puerilis. This will help us to understand all that Melanchthon wanted to communicate to the reader, but now in our mother tongue. Melanchthon stresses that the Christian faith passes from one man's lips to another man's ears. Catechesis, in its various forms, helps to frame the role of the transmission of the faith within the vocation.