LutherinPrint

The Print Revolution and Luther

The following charts convey an idea of how powerfully the dissemination of Luther's ideas was accelerated by the then relatively new technology of the printing press. Its effects seem to have caught Luther genuinely by surprise. In 1522, he wrote about the rapid spread of his ideas, saying

I opposed indulgences and all the papists, but never with force. I simply taught, preached, and wrote God's word; otherwise I did nothing. And while I slept or drank Wittenberg beer with my friends Philipp [Melanchthon] and [Nikolaus von] Amsdorf, the Word so greatly weakened the papacy that no prince or emperor has ever inflicted such losses on it. I did nothing; the Word did everything.

Luther is not writing specifically of printing here, but he later made the link to divine grace explicit. At one point, he refered to the printing press as "God's highest and most extreme act of grace, whereby the business of the Gospel is driven forward."

The chart at right shows the general dimensions of these changes. It contrasts the overall production of pamphlets and books in Germany between 1501 and 1530; for pamphlets, it also distinguishes between texts published in Latin and in the vernacular. Several phenomena stand out. One is the striking increase of publishing activity of all sorts in 1517 and 1518, the first years of the "Luther Affair." This flood of books and pamphlets continued until 1525, when it dropped off precipitously. The second trend worth noting is the discrepancy between book and pamphlet production during the high tide. Pamphlet production far exceeded book production during these years, and most of the pamphlets addressed some aspect of the religious controversy, usually advocating a pro-Luther position.

The second chart shows two specific relationships between printing and the evangelical movement: first is the enormous volume of publishing that was devoted to Luther during the early years of the Reformation. The red trend-line shows the total number of editions published in German and in Latin, including reprints; the brown line shows only first editions. The second phenomenon shown here is the very high proportion of his texts which were published in the German language. Until 1518, most of his writings were published in Latin for a scholarly audience. But from the 1518 on, the vast majority of his works were published in German for a German-reading lay audience.

The third chart indicates just how dominant Luther's position was among the first cohort of reformers. There was a great deal of doctrinal diversity and hybridity among theologians of the first generation, so much so that one historian was described them as a theological "weed-patch" (Wildwuchs). But to judge by their publication records, Luther's predominance among them was overwhelming. This graph shows the top seventeen best-selling evangelical theologians and publicists, according to the total number of editions, including reprintings, between 1518 and 1525:

Return to 441 Homepage