On progress within the Common Man's written world

A Gift from that God who watches over us

On Progress Within the Renaissance Man's Written World

Before the advent of the Printing Press within the 15th century, the average man was largely reduced to the spoken word, as he was not literate, and even if for some odd reason he was there were almost no books for him to read. Only the local clergy as well as collegiates had the knowledge and resources to be able to read and study anything in any capacity. With Johannes Gutenberg's invention of such around 1439, however, several drastic shift began, the most greatest of which are the heightening of literacy in the general public and the reduction of trust placed on the Clergy as the representatives for the people in the eyes of God.

The Expansion of the Literate

Previously, the common standard among the populace, in regard to books (or rather, THE book) was to go to Mass, wherein the local priest would read a passage of the Vulgate, in Latin, than translate and explain in his own interpretation what exactly that passage meant, and use such as a lesson for the people listening to learn from. The issue of this, of course, was that the only way to read from the Bible was through an intermediary who had their own biases and opinions. The people themselves could not read the Lord's teachings due to it being in both another language they had no knowledge of, as well as an inability to read beyond a few simple phrases.

Enter the Gutenberg Printing Press. While education was already booming at the time due to a coincidental economic boom, the invention of the type-cast press lead to the mass production of books. No longer did a monk have to strain his eyes by candlelight in order to copy down the exact words in a particular passage. Now books could be churned out, not by the hour, but at least by the day. Once other presses had been established across Europe, people were able to more easily obtain books, and increasingly so in their native language. It's estimated that in 1500 around 20 million volumes had been produced. Considering that in the time of scribes the annual amount was around a couple thousand, and you have a 10,000% increase! However as Haley point out in her article on Education (found here), the already literate classes of the time hated anyone of lower status trying to become literate and educated. They felt that it tainted what it meant to be an educated man. There was also a bias against printed books among these types of people because of how plain and simple these editions were against their handcopied counterparts. These attitude, especially amoungst the clery, would lead to another issue...

The Downfall of the "Pious"

With greater and greater amounts of common folk learning to read, as well as efforts done by the religiously educated to bring to attention various issues that were occuring in the Catholic church at the time, as noted in Jonas' article (found here), people were beginning to protest what they felt were grave injustices done to them by the clergy. With the ability to directly read for themselves the teachings of Jesus, and comparing them to the sermons given by the laymen, the priests at the end of the day were found wanting. Combine that with the lackluster efforts by Pope Adrian VI to enact reforms, and suddenly no one wanted to hear what the Catholic Church had to say. By the time reforms did finally occur, it was too late, Protestant churches had already sprouted up all over in  sanctuaries such as England. In the end, you really do reap what you sow.

Image Credit: "Buchdruckerpresse" obtained via Wikimedia Commons