Most readers and confessors of the Heidelberg Cat­echism recognize that a concern for God's glory pervades it. Moreover, they are immediately impressed precisely with its personal and experiential nature. This catechism drives biblical truth home not only to the mind, but also to the heart and will. Its theme, structure, and content are all scriptural and its appeal is holistic. For good reason the Catechism is often heard at pastoral readings along­side hospital beds and open graves. This is true not only of the first question and answer with its classic opening lines ("What is your only comfort in life and death?"), but also of many others.

How did this amazing Catechism come about? The Heidelberg Catechism has the unique quality of being a Reformed confession out of Germany – a region typical­ly associated with Lutheranism. Somehow the Reformed faith as confessed by men like Calvin and Farel carved out a niche in a German territory known as the Palat­inate. Behind all this was an influential ruler named Frederick III.

Frederick III⤒🔗

Frederick had been born and raised as a Roman Catholic in the Duchy of Simmern. He was the son of Duke Johann II. By 1548 he was a Protestant, having come to Lutheran convictions through his marriage in 1537 to Maria of Brandenburg. When Otto Henry died in 1559, Frederick became elector of the Palatinate. His predecessor had already exhibited tolerance for people with Reformed convictions, but it was really under Fred­erick that Reformed theology was not merely tolerated, but promoted and yes, even required.

When Frederick took the title of Elector Palatine, he was still a Lutheran. However, a debate erupted in the church at Heidelberg regarding the Lord's Supper. Tile­mann Hesshus was the general superintendent of the church and he held to a strict Lutheran view of the sac­rament. Opposing him was deacon Wilhelm Klebitz, a staunch defender of the Reformed position. The details of this debate need not detain us. What is important is that the debate forced Frederick to make a careful theological study of the matters at hand. The more he studied, the more he began drifting towards the Reformed stance. A debate was held in Heidelberg in 1560 on this question and it was this debate that definitively pushed Frederick to the Reformed confession.¹

Frederick's shift to Reformed convictions meant changes not only in the churches of the Palatinate, but also in the theological faculty at the university in Hei­delberg. The elector became eager to attract Reformed pastors and theological professors. This brought two notable young men to Heidelberg. Caspar Olevianus ar­rived in 1560 – he was a mere twenty-three years old. Zacharias Ursinus came a year later, in 1561, and he was only twenty-seven.

Ursinus and Olevianus←⤒🔗

Olevianus was born in 1536 in Trier. As a young teenager he went off to study in France and it was there that he became a Protestant. After completing his uni­versity studies in law, Olevianus went on to Switzerland to study with Reformers such as Calvin. He returned to Trier in 1559 to teach logic and philosophy, but eventual­ly his Protestant convictions put him in conflict with the Roman Catholic majority in the city. This brought him to Heidelberg in 1560. While he started off as an instructor of pastors, eventually he himself became a pastor.

Born in 1534, Ursinus hailed from Breslau, a city in present-day Poland. He was born into a Lutheran family – the Reformation had been introduced in Breslau al­ready in the 1520s. In 1550, Ursinus began studies under Philip Melanchthon at the university in Wittenberg. Af­ter completing his studies in 1557, the young man toured Europe and along the way made the acquaintance of other Reformers. In 1558, at twenty-four years old, he took up a job teaching classical languages and Christian doctrine at the St. Elizabeth School in his hometown of Breslau. However, like his future colleague Olevianus, Ursinus soon ran into difficulties back home, though not with the Roman Catholics, but with strict Lutherans who would not tolerate his view of the Lord's Supper. This led him to spend a year in Zurich studying under Peter Martyr Vermigli. In 1561, having heard high praise of the man, Frederick III invited Ursinus to come and teach in Heidelberg. Ursinus accepted and before long he was teaching dogmatics to future pastors.

Ursinus and Olevianus have often been identified as the main authors of the Catechism – indeed, the editions used by most Reformed churches today still identify them as such. The impression has sometimes also been given that it was a joint effort of these two men with Ursinus contributing theological acumen and Olevianus pastoral warmth. This impression has been called into question in the last century. The latest research by Lyle Bierma argues that the Catechism was a committee job. The lion's work on this committee was done by Ursinus – he probably had primary responsibility for the final draft, he organized the elements of the catechism, and provided proper connections between each question and answer (Lyle Bierma, "The Purpose and Authorship of the Heidelberg Catechism," in An Introduction to the Heidel­berg Catechism, p. 74). Yet the evidence also suggests that "Olevianus played a more significant role in the compos­ition of the HC than most recent scholarship has recog­nized" (p. 66-67).

The Purpose of the Catechism←⤒🔗

The purpose of the catechism has been far less con­troversial. Elector Frederick III composed a preface to the Heidelberg Catechism which clearly indicates why he commissioned it.²

It was written to regulate the religious instruction of the youth of the Palatinate. Pastors and schoolmasters were often doing their own thing and there was no con­sistency or guarantee of theological faithfulness. Fred­erick presented them with this request in the preface:

We ask that you diligently and faithfully represent and explain the Catechism according to its true mean­ing to the youth in our schools and churches, and also from the pulpit to common people you teach. We ask that you act and live in accordance with it. Have the assured hope that if our youth are early on instructed earnestly in the Word of God, it will please the Almighty also to grant reformation of public and private morals, and temporal and eternal welfare (p. 153).

While the focus was on the youth of the churches, the intent was also there that this catechism be used to in­struct older people. One might be tempted to think that the catechism was thus designed with an inward-looking orientation. However, one should also note Frederick's concern for reformation within his realm, a reformation which included the eternal welfare of his subjects.

It did not take long for the Heidelberg Catechism to be recognized as a first-class work. In the same year it was first published, it was translated into Latin and Dutch. An English translation appeared already in 1572. Over the years, the Catechism has been translated into numer­ous other tongues and adopted by hundreds of Reformed churches around the world. Its pastoral character carries a universal appeal. For this reason it is loved and used, not only in established Reformed churches, but also on mission fields around the world.