Trubar speaks …

No land, no town and no parish can be without schools, without pupils and without learned people; without them it cannot rightly order and keep either worldly or spiritual matters. Any sensible person can understand this. That is why not only believing, godly people but also wise heathens everywhere had small and great schools in their towns and lands, and learned and wise people in them. The Egyptians and Philistines had their priests (Genesis 47; 1 Samuel 6), the Chaldeans and Persians had their magi, their wise men (Daniel 1; 2), the Indians their gymnosophists, the Greeks in the city of Athens and elsewhere high schools and many philosophers and great scholars, the Romans their collegia. And in the time of the old Church of Israel the Lord commanded that schools be set up in all the towns (Numbers 35). The great prophets, such as Samuel, Elijah and Elisha, were teachers themselves, and their pupils were called Nazirites or ‘sons of the prophets’ (1 Samuel 10; 2 Kings 6; Amos 2; Lamentations 4). At the time when Christ and his disciples walked through the land of the Jews, there were synagogues, that is schools, in all the Jewish and Greek towns, and in Jerusalem there was a high school (Luke 4; 8; 21; John 9; 12; 16; 18; Acts 6; 9; 13; 14; 15; 17). The apostles and Saint Paul also set up schools and teachers (Acts 13; 1 Corinthians 14). After the apostles, schools began to be founded everywhere in the Christian world, with God-fearing and learned teachers such as Pantaenus, Clement, Origen, Heraclas and Dionysius. Then Christian emperors, kings and dukes everywhere set up collegia, monasteries, schools and chapters, to bring up bright, learned boys who rightly understood Holy Scripture, explained it and preached it, and who then knew how to manage and lead the affairs of the church, the state and the towns. That is why it is very important in our time too that schools be founded everywhere, so that we leave behind for the Church good seed of young, learned people, to the honour of God and for the good of all Christendom. Emperors, kings, dukes and all kinds of authorities and lords are bound to place good, learned teachers and able young people in the monasteries and chapters, and to throw out and drive away the lazy, careless, greedy, impure and idolatrous priests and monks.

In every town, market town and every parish there must be teachers and pupils: in the towns and market towns so that they learn Latin and German, and in the parishes so that they learn the Slovene alphabet, reading and writing from the priests, chaplains and sextons. In this way the true old faith will rise again and spread throughout the world; we will establish true services of worship and prayers that please God, the fear of God, honesty, love for God and between people, and idolatry will be put down. And in this way we will also protect and defend our lands against the Turks, against our enemies and against want, bad weather and the death of livestock, and at the end of our lives we will receive heavenly joy through Jesus Christ. For this and for every good thing may God give our rulers his grace, his Holy Spirit, good thoughts and purpose, and the completion of it. Amen.

Saint Paul speaks about the usefulness of Scripture like this: “All Scripture, given by God, is useful for teaching, for rebuking, for correcting and for training or growing in the truth, so that the man of God may be complete and ready for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16–17). With these words the Holy Spirit, through Saint Paul, wants to tell all people that a person who is foolish and unlearned from his youth, full of evil, always inclined to evil and wanting to act only by his own evil will, cannot be brought up to be good, made wise and kept in goodness in any other way than by the word of Holy Scripture alone. For from Scripture we learn where the evil poison comes from that makes a person so bad and foolish and draws him towards evil. In it we also find the medicine: how a person can turn this poison – that is, sin – away from himself, so that he becomes good, wise and dear to God again, remains in God’s grace to the end and comes into heaven. That is why the Lord God so often commanded parents to give the young God’s commandments and to teach them (see Deuteronomy 6:7 and 11:19). So I, who have been set over you Slovenes as your spiritual leader, have written down in this little book the most important teachings of our true faith. In them I also wanted to show an easy and short way by which anyone can soon learn to read.