On October 31, 1517, Martin Luther (1483-1546) posted his 95 theses on the door of the church in Wittenberg, denouncing the sale of indulgences in the Catholic Church. The German theologian’s theses were printed as early as 1518 by his students and spread throughout Germany and then Europe.
In a work titled Appeal to the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, published in April 1520, Luther directly attacked the papacy using brutal terms that shifted the theological debate into a written confrontation. From 1521 until 1546, Luther’s polemical writings provoked vehement responses from his adversaries, whether Catholic or Protestant.
Print: A Weapon in the Service of the Religious Cause
The role of the printing press became decisive: it is estimated that one-third of German literature between 1522 and 1545 came from Luther’s pen. During his lifetime, there were 4,000 editions and reprints of his works. In the form of pamphlets, his writings used controversy and caricature to impact people from all social backgrounds.
Printed texts were often reinforced by aggressive satirical drawings, such as those by painter and engraver Lucas Cranach the Elder, particularly targeting the papacy.
Like Martin Luther, French theologian John Calvin (1509-1564), exiled in Geneva in 1541, developed his theses in scholarly treatises while using pamphlets to respond to his critics. In 1544, the Faculty of Theology at the Sorbonne published a catalog of banned books, including those of Calvin; the Geneva reformer responded with a Warning on Censorship… in which he delivered a merciless satire of the Sorbonne teachers’ morals.
The Use of Images
Even before the Reformation began, there was a tradition of anti-clerical imagery deeply rooted in the Germanic world. Luther’s supporters extensively used caricature to support his fight against Rome. The reformer was aware of the impact of images on illiterate populations and recommended illustrations in books. Woodcuts allowed the dissemination of inexpensive small vignettes, while more costly copper engravings enabled the reproduction of caricatured portraits. It can be said that the success of Luther’s pamphlets owed much to the engravings that accompanied the publications. They brought opposition to the papacy into broad circles of the population, even among non-readers.
The image was not only used to denounce or caricature the opponent: as early as 1521, engravings of Luther were disseminated, presenting him as the champion of Christian liberty. Protestant imagery spread in Geneva as early as the 1540s was equally imaginative. Over the century, propaganda images became more tied to current events, with each side striving to shape information in a way that favored them.
The Alliance of Printers with Protestantism
Luther considered the invention of the printing press as “the greatest gift of God.” The widespread diffusion of Protestantism is closely linked to the early alliance with the printing industry. Martin Luther’s theses would not have had such an impact without the presses in the cities of Nuremberg and Basel. Between 1518 and 1525, it is estimated that three million pamphlets circulated in Germany, which had a population of thirteen million at the time.
The wave of publications resumed in 1548 when Charles V sought to impose the Augsburg Interim, a text intended to restore Catholic worship in all Protestant territories while awaiting the decisions of the Council of Trent, which began in 1545. This period saw the printing of pamphlets and poems hostile to the emperor in northern Germany. This literature did not remain confined to the German-speaking world, as part of the production was translated into Latin to target an international audience. A workshop in Basel specialized in publishing for Italy, France, and Spain.
The Reformation found support outside Germany among booksellers who had converted to evangelical ideas: they decided to translate Luther’s writings into vernacular languages and disguise them in seemingly innocuous booklets. As the Reformation progressed, it established new centers for printed propaganda. For French-speaking countries, the city of Neuchâtel took on the task of distributing to France: it was there in 1535 that the first Reformed Bible in French, called the Waldensian Bible—financed by peasants from Provence and Dauphiné who were part of the Waldensian movement that joined Protestantism in 1532—was published. It remained the foundational book of the Reformation in France until the 17th century.
After 1541, Geneva became the center for the dissemination of Reformed propaganda, attracting prominent French booksellers like Jean Crespin and later Robert Estienne, a former royal printer for Francis I. A significant number of French printers served the Reformation: entire workshops, masters, and workers converted. Many had to leave the kingdom, often seeking refuge in Geneva.
The Catholic Counter-Reformation and the Book
Catholics also used books for religious propaganda purposes: the Jesuits understood the importance of publishing books, making the University of Ingolstadt the center of the Catholic reconquest of southern Germany. The city of Antwerp exemplifies the shift in power that occurred at the end of the 16th century: after working for Protestantism until the 1540s, the city’s printing presses became the spearhead of the Counter-Reformation, disseminating texts throughout northern Europe and England.
By 1600, the majority of published works were Catholic; the spiritual reconquest of southern Germany was reflected in a flood of texts from the Jesuits, printed in Ingolstadt. In fact, each side, Catholic and Protestant, clarified its doctrinal positions, and the process of confessionalization was practically completed by the early 17th century.
