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Printing, Reform, and the Catholic Reformation in Germany (1521-1545)Author(s): Richard A. CroftsSource: The Sixteenth Century Journal, Vol. 16, No. 3 (Autumn, 1985), pp. 369-381Published by: The Sixteenth Century Journal

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Sixteenth CenturyJournalXVI, No. 3 (1986)

Printing,Reform, nd the CatholicReformationn Germany 1521-1545)Richard A. CroftsEast Tennessee State University

HISTORIANS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY continue o de-vote attention o theroleand significancefprintingntheReforma-tion.The workoftwo scholarsdeserves pecialnotice.First, n theforefrontf heefforto develop broad nterpretationasbeenEliza-bethEisenstein,whohas discussedwithdetail ndprecisionheprint-ing press as an agentofchange.'In hermanypublications he haspointed utthe nadequaciesof somecommon eneralizationsbouttherelationshipetween rintingnd both theReformationnd theScientific evolution. econd,MiriamChrisman as used the nalysisofprinted ooks to provide nsight ntothe social,cultural,ndintel-lectualforces t worknStrasbourg rom 480 to 1599.2Herworkhasboth ubstantivendmethodologicalmportancenthat tshowswhatcan be learned bout Strasbourg ymeansofcomputer nalysisofex-tensivedata.ScholarshipnprintingndtheReformationlso includes eneral-izationswhichneed to be testedwith he mostprecisedata possible.Amongthese generalizationsre the contentions hat those holdingfirmly o Catholicism gnoredthe propagandistic otentialof theprinting ress, hat ocal ordinances avored utheran ublications,4

'Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent ofChange: Communicationand Cultural Transformationn Early Modern Europe, 2 vols. (New York: CambridgeUniversityress,1979).2MiriamChrisman,Lay Culture,Learned Culture: Books and Social Change inStrasbourg,480-1599NewHaven:Yale Universityress,1982).Chrismanwrites nherpreface:Printed ooks, decided,ould erve s themajor ourcenmy ttemptoreconstructhiswhole ontext. ooksprintedn a givenyear,whether hework f iv-ingordeadauthors, ecord he deascurrentlyncirculation.hey reculturalrtifactswhich eflecthequestions, oubts, ssumptions,ndcertainties ftheir ime.Theto-tality fbookspublishedn a given ime anbeusedto providensightsnto he ultur-al andsocialforces peratingn a period p.xix).Thecompanion olumes thesameauthor's Bibliography ofStrasbourg Imprints,1480-1599 New Haven: Yale UniversityPress,1982).'Richard G. Cole, The Reformationn Print: German Pamphlets andPropaganda, Archiv furReformationsgeschichte66 (1975): 93: It is possible thatCatholic heologians ndstatesmenwhowere ong ccustomedopower ndauthorityfelt ittle eed oexperiment ith adically ewmethods fmasscommunication.ath-olicreluctance asreinforcedytactilemedieval abits foral,visual, ndceremonialmethods fcommunication.4Karl chottenloher,BuchdruckerndBuchfuhrermDienstederReformation,inRealencyclopediefurProtestant Theologie undKirche, ed. JohannJakob Herzog, 24vols. Leipzig:J.C. Hinrichs, 913)23:272.


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370 The Sixteenth CenturyJournalthatperiodsof tension timulated trong esponses nthebook mar-ket,5 hatthroughouthe crucial1520s theoutput fProtestant ooksenormouslyutnumberedheworks fCatholicdefense,6hatCatholi-cismdidnotproduce singlewriterwhose iterary enius ndpopularappeal couldremotelymatch hoseofMartinLuther,7 hatwecannotconfidentlynfer romhe contents fa book ts readers'outlook,8ndthattherelativelyowrate of iteracyessensthesignificancefprint-ing to the people. This articleprovidesdata that partially ddressessomeofthesegeneralizations.10

'Cole, The Reformationn Print, p. 98.6A.G. Dickens,The Counter eformationNewYork:Harcourt, race,andWorld,1969),p. 35. JosephLortz,The Reformationn Germany,rans.Ronald Walls,2 vols.(London:Darton,Longman, nd Todd,1968),2: 175, attempts o moderate hisview:We nowknow. . thatthe iteraryffort ehind heold Church t that imewasmuchmore mposingnd extensive hanwas formerlyupposed. n the nterest fhistoricalaccuracy, he mageofReformationistorymustbe ridofthe notion hat Luther ndhis followerstterly ominated he iterary ield.7Dickens, Counter Reformation, p. 56. Cf. Lortz, The Reformation n Germany, 2:187: A survey f the entireCatholic iterary ffort, igantic s it was, allowsus tobreak ntono triumphalong.There sno starofdazzling rightness.he Catholiciter-aryfront newno consummate,utstanding,eadinggenius,whosevoice spokefor ll,and who preparedthe way for their words, as Luther did on the side of theReformation. ortz also suggests hatCatholicswere oo reluctant o enter ntodis-putations, hat their imingwas poor they ooktoo long n refutation),hat theypro-ducednothingn a grand cale, hat heywerenot lways s knowledgeablebouttheiropponents s they houldhave been, ndthat hey nderestimatedhepower f he n-emy (2: 190-192). See also Rudolf Hirsch, Printing, Selling and Reading, 1450-1550(Wiesbaden:Harrassowitz, 967),p. 98.Natalie Davis, Society and Culturein Early Modem France (Stanford, California:Stanford niversity ress, 1975),p. 191.'Ibid., p. 190. The literacy ate inGermany t the turnof the sixteenth enturymusthavebeenquite ow,but no onehas yet found wayto document r measure twithprecision. obert cribner stimates rateof10 to 30 percentnthetowns, utonly percent ationally. ee his HowManyCould Read? CommentsnBerndMoel-ler's 'Stadt und Buch,' in The Urban Classes, the Nobility and the Reformation:Studies on The Social History of the Reformation in England and Germany,ed. byWolfgang .Mommsen, ublications ftheGermanHistorical nstitute ondon, ol.5(Stuttgart:Klett-Cotta, 979),p. 44. Because only minorityf thepopulation ouldread, Scribner mphasizesthat sixteenth-centuryocietywas still predominantlydependentn oral communicationndthatfew eople cquired heir asic nformationabout the Reformationhroughprint. n addition to the articlecited above seeScribner's Flugblattund Analphabetentum.Wie kam dergemeineMann zu refor-matorischen Ideen?, in Flugschriften ls Massenmedium derReformationszeit,ed. byHans-JoachimKohler, Spatmittelalter nd Fruhe Neuzeit:TubingerBeitragezurGeschichtsforschung,ol. 13 (Stuttgart: lett-Cotta, 981),pp. 65-76.Moeller rguesthat the Reformationave theprinted ookthe new function fmass literature ndthat t is difficulto imagine he Reformation ithout hesupport fprinting.ee hisStadt und Buch. Bemerkungenur Strukturder reformatorischenewegung nDeutschland, in The Urban Classes, the Nobility and theReformation,pp. 30-31, andEinige BemerkungenumThema:Predigten n reformatorischenlugschriften,nFlugschriften als Massenmedium derReformationszeit, pp. 261-268.?An arlier ersion f thispaperwas read at the annualmeeting f theSixteenthCentury tudiesConference eld nOctober f1981.Thepaperhas benefittedrom is-cussionswithmycolleagues t thatmeeting.


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Printing,Reform,& Catholic Reformation 371Before eportingnd commentingpon heresults f his tudy, tis importanto describe ts methodology. have tabulated ookspub-lished nGermany rom521to 1545, ollecting itles rom heBritishMuseum's Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in the German-SpeakingCountries. he titles were tabulatedon an annualbasis,broken ownntoLatinandGerman nd nto even ubject ategories:nonreligious ooks,books by reformers,ooks by Catholics, ditionsof theBible,books by humanists, ewish uthors, nd a largegroupthatcould noteasilybe classified. ooks written yLutherwere n-cluded n the 'reformers'ategory, ut a separate tallywas main-tained.Catholicworksweredivided mong hree ub-groups: eprints

ofearlierworks,works ycontroversialistsrof controversialista-ture, ndnon-controversialistorks.'2 hebooksplaced nthecontro-versialist roupwereones whichwereobviously ttempting o con-front r refute he position f the reformers.he books placed n thenon-controversialistroupwere f more raditional ature nd not oclearly ttempts o counterheReformation. y countbegan n 1521because by that time Lutherhad been excommunicatednd con-demned ytheDiet; thebattle ines ppeareddrawn.My count ndedin 1545with he Council f Trent.The size and breadth f his tudy equired hat t rely n the abu-lation f titles,discounting ifferencesnthe size of editions nd thelength f the works.Estimates of the average size of editionsvaryfrom minimum f two or threehundred o one thousand, houghmostof theseestimates eem highly onjecturalnd imprecise.In contrast o this mprecision,hrisman as suggested n ingen-iousmeansofmeasuring roduction hich voidstheproblemfbothsize ofeditions nd engths fworks: hemasterformes a unit fpro-duction. hemasterformes thebody f ype ocked p bythecompos-itor nto framewhichmakesup whatever umber fpagesaretobeprinted t one operation f hepresson onesideofonesheet.Chrismanarguesfor naverage dition f1,250 opiesonthe ogicalbasisthatprintingeamusing pressmost fficientlyouldpull 1,250 heets ffthepress na day.A smaller ditionwouldmean hat heywouldhavetochange heformesnthe middle f theday,a costly ndinefficientprocess.

Short-titleCatalogue of Books Printed in the German-speakingCountries (Lon-don:Trustees fthe BritishMuseum, 962).The data inthis tudy an berefinedndadditional imilartudies arried utwithgreater ssurance, ertainty,ndcomplete-ness when he group fscholars t the UniversityfTubingen ompletestspublica-tionof textsand bibliographyf sixteenth-centuryamphletsn German nd Latinpublishedn theHoly RomanEmpire rom 501to 1530.The project s being dited yHans-Joachimohler,HildegardHebenstreit-Wilfart,ndChristophWeismann.12 See theexcellent iscussion f CatholicControversialheology n Lortz,TheReformation n Germany,2: 175-223.'3Chrisman,ay Culture,earnedCulture, . 5. Chrisman'srgumentarallels hatof Leon Voet inhis work entitledThe Golden Compass: A Historyand Evaluation ofthe


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372 The Sixteenth CenturyJournalTwo methodologicalimitsmust be admitted t the outset.Ofcourse, o claimcompleteness ouldbe folly. elianceupontheShort

Title Cataloguewithout oubtmeans that a significant umber f ti-tlesareomitted.As one ndication f the ncompletenessf theShortTitle Catalogue,Paul Grendler as discovered hat the Italian ShortTitle Catalogue ncludes lightlyess thanhalfof the titles hathavebeen foundn a censusof some Italian libraries.14 ubstantiation fthisdegree f ncompletenessan also be seen by nference-ifheto-talsreported ere reapproximatelyoubled, henumbers re roughlyconsistent ith hose publishedn anearlier tudydealingwith 510to 1520,where heavailability f dditional ources f itlespermitteda closer pproach o completeness.'The ack ofcompletenesseadstoa related imitation-ahigher egree fconfidenceanbeplaced ntherelationships etween he numbers han n the numbers hemselves.In addition, t must be admitted hat the resultsof this studyarebased upon the assumption hat this sample of sixteenth-centurybookshas notbeen biasedinways thatwould lterthe broadconclu-sionswhichwillbeoffered.With heexception fLuther'sworks,t slikely hat pamphlets omingdown to us in modern imes survivedwarsand destructiont a roughlyqual rate.'6The related uestionofpossiblebias ofprovenancenrelyingnthe collection f German ooksbyan English ibrary equires com-ment boutthehistory ftheBritishMuseum.Consideringerwealthandpolitical nd commercial ower, ngland developed ibrariesur-prisinglyate compared o other uropeannational owers.AlthoughtheBritishMuseumwas established yanActof Parliamentn1753,itdidnotadd to tscollectionsn argenumbers ntil hemiddle f henineteenth entury. t is also truethat the collectionshave oftengrownnan apparently aphazard nd accidentalwaydueto theun-Printing and PublishingActivities of the Officina lantiniana at Antwerp,2 vols. (NewYork: Abner chram, 972),2: 169: Thenumber f copieswas as a rule 1,250for r-dinary ditions, ,000for lack-and-rediturgical orks. hesefigures erenot rrivedat arbitrarilyut werebased on therate atwhich he ourneymen-printersorked: naverageof1,250 sheets per day for rdinary orks, 00 per day for ervicebooks.Voet presents ata indicating hat pproximatelyalf ftheeditions ublished y theOfficiana lantinianaweredone n multiples f thesefigures2: 172).4Paul Grendler, The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press, 1540-1605(Princeton, .J.: PrincetonUniversity ress, 1977), p. 299. Despite this limitation,MichaelPegg has concluded hat the ShortTitleCatalogue s a basic bibliographicaltool, omewhat rude,butworthwhileonetheless. ee hisessay, ShortTitleCata-logues. Notes on Identity of Texts, inFlugschriften ls Massenmedium der Reforma-tionszeit, p. 30.RichardCrofts, Books, ReformndtheReformation, rchiv urReformations-geschichte 1 (1980):21-36.'6This ast point s argued by RichardCole in The Reformationamphlet ndCommunication Processes, in Flugschriften ls Massenmedium der Reformationszeit,p. 147.


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Printing,Reform,& CatholicReformation 373certaintynknowingwhennewmaterialwouldbecome vailable bygift,ale,or discovery.herefore,here s little eason o conclude hatthecollectionf hesebookswasbiased by thereligious onvictions fsixteenth-centuryibrariansmbroiledn religious ontroversy.17While t mustbe admittedhat he mount f onfidencen therel-ativeproportionsnthis data is higher han n theraw numbers,t isstriking onotethat the number f books published neach five-yearsegment fthis period ctuallydeclined.Table I presents he break-down f hebookspublished rom521to1545 nthe hreeargest at-egories.Chrisman's etailed tudyrevealsa similar attern n Stras-bourg. hehighest roductivityorher ntire eriod s also reachedn

TABLE INon-Religious Worksby Worksby TotalWorks Reformers Catholics Works

1521- 1525 291 = 15.0% 890 = 46.0% 328 = 16.9% 19361526- 1530 352 = 33.1% 268 = 25.2% 247 = 23.2% 10631531 - 1535 425 = 46.0% 209 = 22.6% 167 = 18.1% 9241536- 1540 450 = 50.4% 169 = 18.9% 135 = 15.1% 8921541- 1545 411 = 49.1% 171 = 20.4% 115 = 13.8% 836Total 1929 = 34.1% 1707 = 30.2% 992 = 17.6% 5651the early 1520s,followed y a rapiddeclineand a secondary eakaround 530.18From he data inthis study, hedeclinewasmostpre-cipitous etween he first nd secondfive-yeareriodswhen t was 45percent. notherwayofexpressinghatrelationships to note hat34percent fthe books talliedfor hetwenty-fiveearperiodwerepub-lished nthe first iveyears.This may be a reflectionfthe events f1521 to 1525 and ofthe mportanceuthors, rinters,nd thereadingpublicplaceduponthem. hefact hatthetotalnumberfbookspub-lisheddeclined fter 525 andwas fairly table from hat pointonisreflectednthefact hatfrom526 to 1545 only woyearsvariedfromthemeanfor heperiodby more hanonestandarddeviation.As Table I shows, lightly verone-thirdf hebookspublishedntheentire eriodwereonnon-religiousubjects 34 percent). lightly

7SeeEdward Miller,That Noble Cabinet:A History of the BritishMuseum(Athens, hio:OhioUniversityress,1974), specially p. 15,24-25, 5.8Chrisman,ay Culture, earnedCulture, . 287, fig. I.


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374 The Sixteenth CenturyJournalless than one-third30 percent)werewritten yreformersnd aboutone-sixth16 percent)werewrittenyCatholics. orcomparative ur-poses,thedata frommyearlier tudy ndicated hat for heperiodfrom 510 to 1520 non-religiousooksaccounted or bout one-halffthebookspublishedn theperiod. ortheyear1520,however,hisfig-ure was 31 percent.More s learnedwhen hetotal s broken own ntofive-yeareri-ods thanfromhe aggregate.Between hefirst nd second ntervalsthepercentagefnon-religiousooksmore handoubled15 percento33 percent) nd for helast fifteen earsoftheperiodnon-religiousbooks ccounted or bouthalf f he itles49 percent).

Books by reformersonstitutedlmosthalf 46percent) ftheto-tal for hefirst iveyears,dropped o about one-fourthnthesecondfiveyears, nd retained fairly teady hareofthemarket rom 526to 1545.Thenumber fbooksbyCatholic uthors eclined achfive-yearperiod, ut reached tshighest ercentage fthemarket 23 per-cent) ntheyearsfrom526to1530.Thereformersominated ermanprintingrom521to 1525,butfrom hatpoint nnon-religiousookswerepublishedmorefrequentlyhanclearly dentifiableatholic ndreformers'ooks, nd thenumber f Catholicbooks was only19per-centsmaller han thereformers.or all threegroups, 525/1526p-pears tobea significantividingine.From hatpoint n,thenumberofnon-religiousookswas up,andthenumber f booksbyreformersandCatholicswas down.A one-way nalysisofvariance eveals hatthemeansfor achdivision restatistically ifferentellbeyond he99 percent onfidenceevel, ndicating hatthedifferenceetweenhetwogroups s greater hanwhat could ikely e ascribed o chance.It is also of significanceonotethe anguage nwhich ookswerepublished.Ofthe total books talliedfrom 521 to 1545,57 percentwerewrittennGerman. hatcompares o60percent f he itles romthe1510-1520 tudy.Breaking hecategories ownbetween eligiousand non-religious orks, t is discovered hat67 percent f thereli-gious books and39 percent fthe non-religiousookswerepublishedinGerman. hiscompares o 61 percent nd 58 percent nthe earlierperiod. lightlymorereligious ookswerepublishednGerman, utsubstantially ewer on-religiousooks were.Breaking he religiousbooks downfurthereveals striking ifference,s can be seen nTa-ble II. TheCatholic ublications,hereligiousworks f hehumanists,and editions f heBiblehad similar ercentages fpublicationnGer-man.Thepercentage or hereformersoughly oubled hatof herestofthegroups.Table III showsthenumber fworkspublished nnu-ally byreformersnd Catholics nd the percentagewhichwerepub-lished nGerman. t is easily eenthatCatholics ublished n German


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Printing,Reform,& CatholicReformation 375TABLE II

Percentage fGerman ublicationsHumanists'Works 38.9%Catholic Works 34.8%Editions f Bible 42.5%Reformers'Works 79.7%All Religious Works 67.3%

TABLE IIIReformers Catholics

#of Works % inGerman#ofWorks% inGerman Ratio1521 125 79.7 74 50.0 1.691522 176 85.8 69 40.6 2.551523 249 90.4 59 44.1 4.221524 195 87.1 59 55.9 3.311525 145 82.1 67 26.9 2.161526 66 77.3 50 36.0 1.321527 60 65.0 48 27.1 1.251528 33 81.8 51 41.2 0.651529 27 88.9 45 26.7 0.601530 82 79.3 53 37.7 1.551531 51 86.3 31 6.5 1.651532 32 84.4 30 6.7 1.071533 44 79.5 24 37.5 1.831534 32 71.9 43 32.6 0.741535 50 76.0 39 43.6 1.281536 25 84.0 38 34.2 0.661537 34 58.8 31 35.5 1.101538 34 64.7 31 38.7 1.101539 40 65.0 17 11.8 2.351540 36 63.9 18 5.6 2.001541 25 64.0 19 31.6 1.321542 27 81.5 19 42.1 1.421543 43 76.7 19 36.8 2.261544 29 69.0 25 12.0 1.161545 47 68.1 33 36.4 2.04Total 1707 79.7 992 34.8 1.72


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376 The Sixteenth CenturyJournalat a rate essthanhalf hatof hereformers.he third olumn fTableIII givesthe ratiobetween ooksbyreformersndCatholics.

Oneofourmost mportantoncernss theextent owhich hede-fenders f the churchwere uccessfulnrepresentinghechurch ndconfrontinghereformersnprint.For this we look to that groupofCatholic uthorswhichhas been dentifieds thecontroversialists.'9From1521 to 1545,992 works y Catholic uthorswere allied.Ofthese,139 (14 percent)werereprintsftheFathers,medieval heolo-gians,andother uthors f theMiddleAges.Not surprisingly,hree-fourthsfthesewerepublishednLatin. Slightlyverhalf52 percent)oftheseCatholicworkswere f non-controversialistature. eventypercent f thosewerepublished n Latin.One-thirdftheCatholicworkspublished etween 521 and 1545 wereof a clearly ontrover-sialistcharacter-that s, theywere obviously ttempts o confrontthereformersirectlys opposedto traditional xpressions fCatho-lic piety nd theology. t is only n the controversialistategory hatthepercentage f worksprintedn Latin changed ppreciably. venso, only 5percent fthesebookswerepublishedn German. ut eveninthis ategory, here ne would xpect hehighestevelof ctivitynGerman, he percentages only slightly verone-half fthat for llbookspublished ythe reformers.The data that s available ndicates hatno one understood etterthanMartinLuther he mportancefcommunicatingnGerman. a-ble V shows he ignificancefLuther y tabulating is percentagefthe reformers' orks,his percentage f the total number f bookspublished, nd theannualpercentage fhis workspublishedn Ger-man.Between1521 and 1525Luther ccounted or 0 percent fthereformers'orks ublished.n 1522and1523hisworks ccounted oraboutone-thirdfall thebookspublished. or the entire eriod, 9percent f Luther'sworkswerepublishedn German.n the owest fthoseyears hepercentagewas67 andtherewere nly woannualper-centages elow75.A comparisonfthenumberfworks ublished yLuther o thenumbers fthemajorCatholic igures onfirmshegen-eralization hatnoone camecloseto matching isproductivity.

9For a bibliographyof these authors see Katholische KontroverstheologenundReformer des 16. Jahrhunderts: Ein Werkverzeichnis, ed. by Wilbirgis Klaiber,Reformationsgeschichtlichetudienund Texte, vol. 116 (Munster:AschendorffscheVerlagsbuchhandlung,978).Thevolumes helpfuln general utcouldnotcontributemuch othisstudy.For a review rticle ee Jean-Francois ilmont,La bibliographiede la controverseatholique u 16e siecle; quelques suggestionsmethodologiques,-Revued'histoirecclesiastique 74 (1979):362-371.Gilmontegards hework s a goodstart oward nimportantroject, ut s critical f spectsof tsmethodology.e pro-poses to enlarge heproject o a bibliothecaatholica aeculixvi.


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Printing,Reform,& CatholicReformation 377TABLE IV

Luther's % of Luther's % of % of Luther'sReformers'Works Total Works Works in German1521 68.8 28.7 84.91522 71.0 33.6 88.81523 63.9 32.4 95.61524 46.7 21.0 90.01525 49.0 20.9 85.91526 45.5 14.5 86.71527 50.0 14.4 73.31528 36.4 7.1 100.01529 37.0 5.3 100.01530 57.3 16.3 93.61531 45.1 12.6 95.71532 56.3 9.4 94.41533 36.4 10.1 93.81534 40.6 7.0 84.61535 30.0 7.2 86.71536 32.0 4.3 87.51537 35.3 6.9 83.3

1538 52.9 9.9 66.71539 35.0 8.5 78.61540 22.2 4.3 87.51541 52.0 8.0 76.91542 33.3 6.0 100.01543 30.2 8.0 84.61544 41.4 7.1 83.31545 46.8 11.4 77.351.3 15.5 88.6


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378 The SixteenthCenturyJournalTable V lists the annualnumber fCatholicworks lassified scontroversialist.he secondcolumns thepercentage f thoseworks

publishednGerman.Thethird olumn s thepercentage he contro-versialistworkswereofthe Catholic otal.The data suggestthat twas notuntil1523thatCatholic uthors egantorisetotheir ontro-versialist ask.From1522to 1523thepercentage fcontroversialistworksdoubled ndfor heperiodfrom 523to 1530theaverageper-centage emained t a similarevel.After 530, and for herestoftheperiod,the percentage f controversialist orksdroppedfrom naverageof 40 percent o an averageof 32 percent. hatthe most n-terestncontroversialistritingame between 523 and 1530 s seeninthe fact hat52 percent fthe controversialistorks or heentireperiodwerepublishednthiseight-yearpan.The annualaverageof

TABLE V#ofControversialist % Published % ofWorks in German Catholic Total

1521 15 53.3-20.3 7 19.61522 13 46.2 18.8 Avg.1523 22 54.5 37.31524 25 64.0 42.41525 33 20.2 36.4 -51.4 49.31526 18 Avg. 55.6 Avg. 36.0 40.31527 22 31.8 45.8 Avg.1528 23 73.9 45.11529 17 41.2 37.81530 14 57.1 26.41531 5 40.0 16.11532 7 14.3 23.31533 9 66.7 37.51534 20 40.0 46.51535 15 53.3 38.51536 11 8.9 63.6 31.3 28.9 32.11537 8 Avg. 37.5 Avg. 25.8 Avg.1538 8 37.5 25.81539 6 33.3 35.31540 1 0.0 5.61541 7 28.6 36.81542 3 0.0 15.81543 7 28.6 36.81544 12 0.0 48.01545 15 26.7 45.5


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Printing,Reform,& CatholicReformation 379controversialist orksbetween 521 and 1530was 20.2. The annualaveragefrom 531to 1545 was 8.9.

The middle olumn f Table V gives the percentage f these con-troversialist orks ublished n German. or theentire eriod, 5 per-centwerepublished n German.However, he average percentagevariesgreatlywhen 530 s used as a dividing ineto demark wopop-ulations. Fifty-one ercent f the controversialist orkspublishedthrough 530werepublishedn German.After 530 thepercentagedropped o 31.Publishing ctivity or hereformersnd Catholics ollowed imi-lar patterns. arly n the period ctivity ncreased ramatically,ndafter brief eriodof time ctivity eclined lmostas dramatically.For the reformers,he average number f books per year was sixty-eight.After 525thatnumberwas exceeded nlyonce eighty-twon1530). Fifty-twoercent f the reformers'ooks for he wholeperiodwerepublished rom 521to 1525.For theCatholics, he veragenumber fbooksperyearwas forty.After 530 that numberwas exceeded nlyonce forty-threen 1534).Fifty-eightercent f the Catholicbooks for he wholeperiodwerepublished rom 521 to 1530. The patterns or he two groupswerequite similar. he Catholic ncrease nd subsequentdeclinefollowedthat of the reformersya fewyears.Three raphs icture hispattern.GraphA shows hedramaticn-creaseof the reformers' orks rom 521to 1523, a steadydecline o

GraphWorksy eformers

250-20015010050 -

1521 1525 1530 1535 1540 1545Years


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380 The Sixteenth CenturyJournal1529, and a much maller econdpeak of activity n 1530.20 GraphBshows the total production f Catholicworks ngeneraldeclinefrom1521 to 1539 with ncreases oming n 1525, 1530,and 1534. After1539, herewas a modest ncrease.GraphC portrays heCatholic on-troversialist orkswhere he similarity o the reformers'atternsmost triking.hepeaksand owpointsfor hecontroversialistorksfollow he reformerst an interval f about two to fouryears.Whenthe twographs resuperimposed,hesimilaritys mostapparent.

Graph70 - Worksy atholics60-5040'40

30-20-10

1521 1525 1530 1535 1540 1545Years

20Again,heparallel oChrisman's ata is striking.fanything,hepattern f n-creasesand decreases nherdata is even moredramatic. ee Chrisman,ay Culture,LearnedCulture, . 289,fig.V.


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Printing,Reform,& CatholicReformation 381

35- GraphWorksy atholicontroversialists3025-20-

15-105-

1521 1525 1530 1535 1540 1545Years

In conclusion, e can see thatthisdata supports omeofthegen-eralizations oted t thestart:Despite thefact hatthereligious ssuesremained nsettled,fter1530 abouthalfof thebooks published n Germanywereon non-re-ligious ubjects.Thisapproximates hefigureor heperiod rom510to 1520.After 525,the number f Catholicpublicationswas surprisinglyhigh,nearlymatching he total of the reformers.Despite the surprising umber f Catholicpublications, n thewhole heCatholics ither ailed o recognizehevalueofpublishingnGerman r wereunwillingo do so.Finally, he Catholics id not find defender ith he iterary al-entsandpopular ppealofLuther. ftheyhad, thesefigures,ndper-haps the courseof the Reformation, ouldhave been different.fLuther'sworks re excludedfrom he reformers'otal,the Catholicsoutpublishedheir pponents.

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