After the parishes of Saxony were visited in 1528 and found to be in a terribly dismal state, Martin Luther penned the Large Catechism as an aid to the clergy in teaching Christian doctrine. It consists of sermons on each of the Ten Commandments, each article of the Apostles' Creed and each petition of the Lord's Prayer, together with a treatment of Baptism and of the Sacrament of the Altar. This recording also includes the "Brief Exhortation to Confession" which Luther appended early on. This last piece was translated by Ambrose and Socrates Henkel in 1851 while all the rest follows the translation of F. Bente and W. H. T. Dau from the Concordia Triglotta of 1921. (Introduction by Jonathan Lange)