Propaganda during the Reformation

Dutch Renaissance and Golden Age There were a number of different methods of propaganda used during the Reformation including pamphlets/leaflets, texts, letters, and translations of the Bible/New Testament.

Pamphlets or leaflets were one of the most common forms of propaganda, usually consisting of about eight to sixteen pages – were relatively small and easy to conceal from the authorities.

[3] Protestant and Roman Catholic propaganda during the Reformation attempted to sway the public into adopting or continuing religious practices.

Occasionally these printed texts also acted as manuals for lay people to refer to about the appropriate way to conduct themselves within the church and society.

They called for a change in the way that the church was run and insisted that the buying and selling of indulgences and religious positions be stopped as well as the papal corruption that had been allowed to occur.

[13] Another dominant message that was found in Protestant propaganda was the idea that every person should be granted access to the Bible to interpret it for themselves; this was the primary reason why Luther translated and published numerous copies of the New Testament during the Reformation years.

This can be seen in Luther's publication titled To the Christian Nobility of the German Nation, which criticized the Catholic belief that the Pope was supreme and could interpret scripture however he saw fit.

The sheer number of pamphlets produced during this time period indicates that Protestant works during the Reformation were available on a consistent basis and on a large scale, making the controversial ideas accessible to the masses.

Many leading Roman Catholic writers believed that had Luther not written his heretical works, the violence caused by the Peasants War would not have occurred.

[22] Emser actually quoted Luther's work in this article and in doing so inadvertently introduced Protestant ideas and doctrine to Roman Catholic readers who may not have had any prior exposure to them.

Also Roman Catholic publications, either in German or Latin, produced during the reformation years were greatly outnumbered by the Protestants.

[32] Catholic propagandists were not initially as successful as the Protestants were, but included several noteworthy figures: Johannes Cochlaeus, Hieronymus Emser, Georg Witzel, and John Eck who wrote in defense of Catholicism and against Luther and Protestantism.