The Importance of the Printing Press to the Development of the Reformation

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The Importance of the Printing Press to the Development of the Reformation

Both contemporaries and historians acknowledge that the printing press

was significant in the spread of ideas of the Reformation.

It has been argued by Elizabeth Eisenstein that printing did not just

spread Protestant ideas but helped to shape the Reformation in the

first place 'Printing was a cause of religious changes, and not simply

a consequence' (The Printing Press as an agent of change, CambridgeUniversityPress)

Printing ended the scribal corruption and copying errors which made it

easier to define theological positions exactly and made it easier for

Luther to attack the corruption of the Doctrine.

With regard to the sola scriptura, an appeal to the Bible as the sole

authority had been made before Luther by other reformers such as

Wycliffe; but an evangelical, or bible based, religion only became

possible once the Bible could be mass produced.

In September 1522 Luther published the September testament, a

translation into German of Er...

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