The Printing Revolution: The Reformation

Check out this website for Martin Luther's actual 95 Theses

The Catholic church at first loved the printing presses. Gutenberg's Bible was part of a movement to standardize the writings, prayer books, etc. so that all of 'Christendom' was on the same page, so as to speak. The church had ’indulgences’ printed by the new moveable type printers, and this meant they could print lots of them. People bought ‘indulgences’ as a way of buying themselves or a loved one (even if they were already dead) out of purgatory and a ticket straight to heaven.

Eventually a young monk named Martin Luther, in the early 16^th century, questioned the ethics of money being able to buy off any ‘bad karma’ you had created. The change in society was that now people were actually reading the Bible, unlike 50 years ago, when not even all priests or monks or nuns were familiar with the contents of the whole Bible. It was written in Latin and there were limited copies available to those who could read Latin well enough to understand it all. Society at large was starting to understand Christianity in a new light. It became known that you were responsible for your own actions. This caused a lot of debate on whether we had free will or whether our actions were pre-destined.

Luther visited Rome and discovered the place seething with debauchery, packed with prostitutes servicing priests and monks, and a pope who believed in taking advantage of his position with an opulent and debauched lifestyle. Luther was horrified at what he saw, and from then on did not respect the authority of the pope. His reform proposals, which legend has it he pinned on the church wall, were sent by him to the pope, but leaked (to the press, the printing press that is), and everyone started to question the buying of indulgences at that point. This was bad for the church which was relying on these resources to pay for war against the Turks in Cyprus, and to build St. Peters Cathedral in Rome.

Luther’s ideas spread like wildfire, due in great part to the printing presses. Although initially horrified that his reform petition to the pope had become public knowledge, he stood up to a council of the Pope’s representatives, reiterating his beliefs, and, on the way home from that event, was fortuitously kidnapped by friends before his enemies could do him in, and hidden in a castle for a few years. Sequestered as he was in the castle, he set to work translating the Bible into German, which was subsequently printed.

This vernacular Bible brought knowledge to regular people, many of whom were the growing merchant and trading class who were becoming more literate, informed, and a growing political force. Luther kept printing documents for his whole life. The Reformation was in full swing. Much of northern Europe became disenchanted with and broke away from the Catholic Church. The Lutherans, as they were called, were still quite conservative. Many more protestant churches emerged which began to fight about beliefs among themselves.

The Catholic Church launched the Counter Reformation, cleaning up their church of the gross corruption, with a pious pope who behaved like a true Christian, living simply and giving to the poor. Also they standardized and printed the prayer books so that it was consistent across Europe. At about this time the Jesuit monastics started opening schools, and as they educated the children of the rich and powerful, their influence stemmed the protestant tide, which stopped expanding.

The Bible had been translated into English quite early, in the 14^th century, but the printing of the Bible into English in the 1520’s by William Tyndale opened the door to discussion of Christianity’s beliefs. Tyndale had to smuggle the books into England after they were printed in Germany, and the more the Church of England railed against these printed English Bibles, the more sought after they became! They were a hot item on the black market! The Bibles were burned, but more arrived to take their place.

A new dawn had emerged all across Europe, where the questioning of ideas gave rise to a fertile intellectual life.

The saddest part about the reformation I found was the wholesale destruction of church art and sculpture as the ‘puritans’ destroyed the symbols of idolatry in the Catholic churches. One can understand the anger of Catholics in the light of this uncivilized behaviour. I haven't mentioned the Inquisitions which, incidentally, were begun in Spain to persecute the Jews and Moslems, many of whom migrated back to the Middle East, bringing European ideas and culture with them, including the printing press. There was a lot of fighting, killing, and burning of heretics during this turbulent time.

The reformation