The Protestant Reformation at the Hands of the Printing Press
In the year 1517, Martin Luther from Germany started a worldwide historical event called the Protestant Reformation. Martian Luther was part of the Catholic Church. At the time of the Catholic Church, the Church in Luther’s eyes had lost her way from how he thought it should have been. The church was practicing in selling of indulgences, which Luther did not agree with.
Just to put a little context on indulgences, the Catholic Church held many views on indulgence. The best one to sum it up is this one, Christians receive “temporal punishment” for sin, even after its guilt and eternal punishment have been forgiven by God. That temporal punishment must be paid either here on earth or in a temporary, after-death holding place called purgatory.
The Church was making people pay physical money to basically get out of hell. Luther thought this was a heresy. With that problem and 94 other issues, Luther posted 95 different problem, now called the 95 theses, to the doors of the Wittenberg Castle church in Germany in 1517.
These 95 theses was the foundation of the Protestant Reformation. But if one thinks about it, looking back on it, how does one man’s idea spread so quickly and widely in 1517? Without no advance technology.
The only thing Martian Luther, and the reformers had at that time was the Printing Press. The printing press played a major role in the Reformation. At this time in history the only thing people could use to spread ideas was writings. Books and pamphlets were the number one means of communication to the common people of Germany and greater Europe.
The church had so much control, common people didn’t have bible. Only the rich and church leaders. So Martin Luther had to outwork the Catholic Church. During the period of 1521 to 1545 produced a total of 5,651 works with 30.2% published by reformers, 34.1% were non-religious titles, and 17.6% were by Catholics. It was even recorded that, in the first half of the same time period, the reformers works constituted an even greater proportion of the output with the reformers producing 46% of the works. People counted read well, and with Luther’s writings people became more literate and started to see the difference in the church and Luther’s ideas.
By the end Bibles and pamphlets had become less expensive and more available. The end result of this movement ended in 3 new church being created, because of the split of the Catholic Church. Without the Printing press in the 1500’s, the protestant reformation would have died.
