“The deplorable, miserable condition which I discovered lately has forced and urged me  to prepare this Catechism, or Christian doctrine, in this small, plain, simple form.  Mercy! Good God! What manifold misery I beheld! The common people, especially in  the villages, have no knowledge whatever of Christian doctrine, and, alas! many  pastors are altogether incapable and incompetent to teach.
Nevertheless, all maintain that they are Christians, have been baptized and receive the  holy Sacraments. Yet they do not understand and cannot even recite either the Lord's  Prayer, or the Creed, or the Ten Commandments; they live like dumb brutes and  irrational hogs; and yet, now that the Gospel has come, they have nicely learned to  abuse all liberty like experts...”
~ Luther's Preface to the Small Catechism