Laymen and
Children_ is properly considered a forerunner of Luther's Catechisms.

The three series of Catechism-sermons of 1528 must be considered the
last preparatory work and immediate source of the explanation of the
Catechisms. Luther delivered the first series May 18 to 30; the second,
from September 14 to 25; the third, from November 30 to December 19.
Each series treats the same five chief parts. We have these sermons in a
transcript which Roerer made from a copy (_Nachschrift_); the third
series also in a copy by a South German. In his _Origin of the
Catechism,_ Buchwald has shown how Luther's Large Catechism grew out of
these sermons of 1528. In his opinion, Luther, while engaged on the
Large Catechism, "had those three series of sermons before him either in
his own manuscript or in the form of a copy (_Nachschrift_)." This
explains the extensive agreement of both, apparent everywhere.

Luther himself hints at this relation; for said sermons must have been
before him when he began the Large Catechism with the words: "This
sermon is designed and undertaken that it might be an instruction for
children and the simple-minded." (575, 1.) This was also Roerer's view,
for he calls the Large Catechism "Catechism preached by D. M.," a title
found also in the second copy (_Nachschrift_) of the third series:
_Catechism Preached by Doctor Martin Luther._ In the conclusion of the
first edition of the Large Catechism, Luther seems to have made use also
of his sermon on Palm Sunday, 1529, and others, and in the _Short
Exhortation to Confession,_ which was appended to the second edition, of
the sermon of Maundy Thursday, 1529, and others. Some historians,
however, have expressed the opinion that the relationship might here be
reversed. The substance of the sermon-series is essentially that also of
the Large Catechism. In form the Catechism differs from the sermons by
summing up in each case what is contained in the corresponding three
sermons and by giving in German what the copies of the sermons offer in
a mixture of Latin and German (principally Latin, especially in the
first series).

Following is a sample of the German-Latin form in which Roerer preserved
these sermons: "Zaehlet mir her illos, qui reliquerunt multas divitias,
wie reiche Kinder sie gehabt haben; du wirst finden, dass ihr Gut
zerstoben und zerflogen ist, antequam 3. et 4. generatio venit, so ist's
dahin. Die Exempel gelten in allen Historien. Saul 1. fuit