Hannah Simpkins
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Luther and the Reformation essay task Topic 2- Martin Luther lived in a period of extraordinary change. Describe the social, economic and technological changes happening during this period, and reflect on the way this helped Luther and his ideas become so famous
ESSAY The reformation was a time of change socially, economically and technologically. Martin Luther lived during this time, where the printing press was evolving; making bible translating easier and protestant churches were arising. Because of these advances, his wise words and teachings were able to become famous and make big changes in the church and in Western Europe at the time. The printing press was one thing that helped Luther and his ideas to become so famous. The printing press was invented in 1445. Before this if you wanted to make copies of books they had to be written out by hand onto animal skin that had been scraped until it was clean, smooth and thin.
Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiaru...
Image of the Dutch Reformation iconoclasm (Beelden...
English: Print shows Luther burning papal bull of ...Because so much labour was put into making each book, they were very expensive to make and rare for common people to be able to buy. The printing press made book making a lot quicker and easier which meant it was a lot less expensive and more people could buy reading material. In 1518 Christoph von Scheurl and other friends of Luther translated his 95 theses (eg. "16. Hell, purgatory, and heaven seem to differ as do despair, almost-despair, and the assurance of safety"-Martin Luther) into German. It was then printed and copied making it one of the first documents to be printed with the help of the printing press. Within two weeks copies of the theses had spread throughout Germany and soon after they had been copied across Europe. This greatly increased the knowledge of Martin Luther and...