What effect did the printing press have on religion?

Answer 1

It enabled printed materials to be rapidly spread and so people could not any longer be kept in ignorance and darkness. Due to the great decrease in cost as well, the printed page became much more accessible to the common people, although many still could not read or write, this also added momentum to educational processes.

Several examples of documents which were greatly aided by the press were the "95 Theses Against Indulgences" by Luther, written in 1517, as well as his German Bible published some years later. The latter especially was important as people could read the word of God for themselves in their own language and thus understand what was God's will and word rather than the words and traditions of men.

Answer 2

Many people don't realize that the printing press with movable type was not invented until 1422, and for many years after, printed books remained rare, extremely expensive, and out of reach of most ordinary people. Medieval European farmers and villagers did not own books called The Rules of the Catholic Churchor What the Pope Wants You to Know. They did not own any books because there were no bookstores; books had to be copied by hand with a pen and ink which was very expensive - only universities, libraries, churches, and very, very wealthy persons could afford books until the 15th century, and even then, books were very, very costly. During the Middle Ages, monks living in monasteries, specially trained to reproduce Bibles, would lovingly hand-craft the sheepskin pages on which they would write, ground the powder and mixed the ink, then painstakingly copied from the original all of the thousands of words of text from the various books of the Bible. This process might take months - there was no electricy; all was done by sunlight through the window or by oil lamp or candle. It was necessary to dry the pages, then bind them. A parish church might wait years before they received their precious copy of the Bible. The Bibles were copied and passed on in Latin because everyone who had learned how to read, had learned how to read in Latin. There was no systematic writing of English until well after Shakespeare's time. Scholars - the ones who copied and purchased Bibles - read, wrote, and spoke Latin. King Henry VII even spoke Latin well, and spoke it with Catherine of Aragon, who arrived in England without being able to speak much English. Henry VIII spoke Latin, as did Martin Luther, whose 95 Theses were written in Latin. Pretty much anyone who could read, could read Latin.

Answer 3

By giving people the ability to know everything that was goingon in the Roman Catholic church and by printing Martin Luther's 95 theses will also make them change from being a catholic to a PROTESTANT

Answer 4

Pivotal; it was the vehicle by which they were heard.