R.A. Crofts - Reform + Catholic Reformation in Germany

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 JournalStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2540224 .Accessed: 19/10/2011 09:15

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Sixteenth Century Journal XVI, No. 3 (1986)

Printing, Reform, and the Catholic Reformation in Germany (1521-1545)

Richard A. Crofts East Tennessee State University

HISTORIANS OF THE SIXTEENTH CENTURY continue to de- vote attention to the role and significance of printing in the Reforma- tion. The work of two scholars deserves special notice. First, in the forefront of the effort to develop a broad interpretation has been Eliza- beth Eisenstein, who has discussed with detail and precision the print- ing press as an agent of change.' In her many publications she has pointed out the inadequacies of some common generalizations about the relationship between printing and both the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution. Second, Miriam Chrisman has used the analysis of printed books to provide insight into the social, cultural, and intel- lectual forces at work in Strasbourg from 1480 to 1599.2 Her work has both substantive and methodological importance in that it shows what can be learned about Strasbourg by means of computer analysis of ex- tensive data.

Scholarship on printing and the Reformation also includes general- izations which need to be tested with the most precise data possible. Among these generalizations are the contentions that those holding firmly to Catholicism ignored the propagandistic potential of the printing press," that local ordinances favored Lutheran publications,4

'Elizabeth Eisenstein, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change: Communication and Cultural Transformation in Early Modern Europe, 2 vols. (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1979).

2Miriam Chrisman, Lay Culture, Learned Culture: Books and Social Change in Strasbourg, 1480-1599 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982). Chrisman writes in her preface: "Printed books, I decided, could serve as the major source in my attempt to reconstruct this whole context. Books printed in a given year, whether the work of liv- ing or dead authors, record the ideas currently in circulation. They are cultural artifacts which reflect the questions, doubts, assumptions, and certainties of their time. The to- tality of books published in a given time can be used to provide insights into the cultur- al and social forces operating in a period" (p. xix). The companion volume is the same author's Bibliography of Strasbourg Imprints, 1480-1599 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1982).

'Richard G. Cole, "The Reformation in Print: German Pamphlets and Propaganda," Archiv fur Reformationsgeschichte 66 (1975): 93: "It is possible that Catholic theologians and statesmen who were long accustomed to power and authority felt little need to experiment with radically new methods of mass communication. Cath- olic reluctance was reinforced by tactile medieval habits of oral, visual, and ceremonial methods of communication."

4Karl Schottenloher, "Buchdrucker und Buchfuhrer im Dienste der Reformation," in Realencyclopedie fur Protestant Theologie und Kirche, ed. Johann Jakob Herzog, 24 vols. (Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs, 1913) 23:272.

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that periods of tension stimulated strong responses in the book mar- ket,5 that throughout the crucial 1520s the output of Protestant books enormously outnumbered the works of Catholic defense,6 that Catholi- cism did not produce a single writer whose literary genius and popular appeal could remotely match those of Martin Luther,7 that we cannot confidently infer from the contents of a book its readers' outlook,8 and that the relatively low rate of literacy lessens the significance of print- ing to the people." This article provides data that partially addresses some of these generalizations.10

'Cole, "The Reformation in Print," p. 98. 6A. G. Dickens, The Counter Reformation (New York: Harcourt, Brace, and World,

1969), p. 35. Joseph Lortz, The Reformation in Germany, trans. Ronald Walls, 2 vols. (London: Darton, Longman, and Todd, 1968), 2: 175, attempts to moderate this view: "We now know. . . that the literary effort behind the old Church at that time was much more imposing and extensive than was formerly supposed. In the interest of historical accuracy, the image of Reformation history must be rid of the notion that Luther and his followers utterly dominated the literary field."

7Dickens, Counter Reformation, p. 56. Cf. Lortz, The Reformation in Germany, 2: 187: "A survey of the entire Catholic literary effort, gigantic as it was, allows us to break into no triumphal song. There is no star of dazzling brightness. The Catholic liter- ary front knew no consummate, outstanding, leading genius, whose voice spoke for all, and who prepared the way for their words, as Luther did on the side of the Reformation." Lortz also suggests that Catholics were too reluctant to enter into dis- putations, that their timing was poor (they took too long in refutation), that they pro- duced nothing on a grand scale, that they were not always as knowledgeable about their opponents as they should have been, and that they underestimated the power of the en- emy (2: 190-192). See also Rudolf Hirsch, Printing, Selling and Reading, 1450-1550 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 1967), p. 98.

"Natalie Davis, Society and Culture in Early Modem France (Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 1975), p. 191.

'Ibid., p. 190. The literacy rate in Germany at the turn of the sixteenth century must have been quite low, but no one has yet found a way to document or measure it with precision. Robert Scribner estimates a rate of 10 to 30 percent in the towns, but only 4 percent nationally. See his "How Many Could Read? Comments on Bernd Moel- 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. by Wolfgang J. Mommsen, Publications of the German Historical Institute London, vol. 5 (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1979), p. 44. Because only a minority of the population could read, Scribner emphasizes that sixteenth-century society was still predominantly dependent on oral communication and that few people acquired their basic information about the Reformation through print. In addition to the article cited above see Scribner's "Flugblatt und Analphabetentum. Wie kam der gemeine Mann zu refor- matorischen Ideen?," in Flugschriften als Massenmedium der Reformationszeit, ed. by Hans-Joachim Kohler, Spatmittelalter und Fruhe Neuzeit: Tubinger Beitrage zur Geschichtsforschung, vol. 13 (Stuttgart: Klett-Cotta, 1981), pp. 65-76. Moeller argues that the Reformation gave the printed book the new function of mass literature and that it is difficult to imagine the Reformation without the support of printing. See his "Stadt und Buch. Bemerkungen zur Struktur der reformatorischen Bewegung in Deutschland," in The Urban Classes, the Nobility and the Reformation, pp. 30-31, and "Einige Bemerkungen zum Thema: Predigten in reformatorischen Flugschriften," in Flugschriften als Massenmedium der Reformationszeit, pp. 261-268.

"?An earlier version of this paper was read at the annual meeting of the Sixteenth Century Studies Conference held in October of 1981. The paper has benefitted from dis- cussions with my colleagues at that meeting.

Printing, Reform, & Catholic Reformation 371

Before reporting and commenting upon the results of this study, it is important to describe its methodology. I have tabulated books pub- lished in Germany from 1521 to 1545, collecting titles from the British Museum's Short Title Catalogue of Books Printed in the German- Speaking Countries." The titles were tabulated on an annual basis, broken down into Latin and German and into seven subject categories: nonreligious books, books by reformers, books by Catholics, editions of the Bible, books by humanists, Jewish authors, and a large group that could not easily be classified. Books written by Luther were in- cluded in the 'reformers' category, but a separate tally was main- tained. Catholic works were divided among three sub-groups: reprints of earlier works, works by controversialists or of a controversialist na- ture, and non-controversialist works.'2 The books placed in the contro- versialist group were ones which were obviously attempting to con- front or refute the position of the reformers. The books placed in the non-controversialist group were of a more traditional nature and not so clearly attempts to counter the Reformation. My count began in 1521 because by that time Luther had been excommunicated and con- demned by the Diet; the battle lines appeared drawn. My count ended in 1545 with the Council of Trent.

The size and breadth of this study required that it rely on the tabu- lation of titles, discounting differences in the size of editions and the length of the works. Estimates of the average size of editions vary from a minimum of two or three hundred to one thousand, though most of these estimates seem highly conjectural and imprecise.

In contrast to this imprecision, Chrisman has suggested an ingen- ious means of measuring production which avoids the problem of both size of editions and lengths of works: the masterforme as a unit of pro- duction. The masterforme is the body of type locked up by the compos- itor into a frame which makes up whatever number of pages are to be printed at one operation of the press on one side of one sheet. Chrisman argues for an average edition of 1,250 copies on the logical basis that a printing team using a press most efficiently could pull 1,250 sheets off the press in a day. A smaller edition would mean that they would have to change the formes in the middle of the day, a costly and inefficient process."

"Short-title Catalogue of Books Printed in the German-speaking Countries (Lon- don: Trustees of the British Museum, 1962). The data in this study can be refined and additional similar studies carried out with greater assurance, certainty, and complete- ness when the group of scholars at the University of Tubingen completes its publica- tion of texts and bibliography of sixteenth-century pamphlets in German and Latin published in the Holy Roman Empire from 1501 to 1530. The project is being edited by Hans-Joachim Kohler, Hildegard Hebenstreit-Wilfart, and Christoph Weismann.

12 See the excellent discussion of "Catholic Controversial Theology" in Lortz, The Reformation in Germany, 2: 175-223.

'3Chrisman, Lay Culture, Learned Culture, p. 5. Chrisman's argument parallels that of Leon Voet in his work entitled The Golden Compass: A History and Evaluation of the

372 The Sixteenth Century Journal

Two methodological limits must be admitted at the outset. Of course, to claim completeness would be folly. Reliance upon the Short Title Catalogue without doubt means that a significant number of ti- tles are omitted. As one indication of the incompleteness of the Short Title Catalogue, Paul Grendler has discovered that the Italian Short Title Catalogue includes slightly less than half of the titles that have been found in a census of some Italian libraries.14 Substantiation of this degree of incompleteness can also be seen by inference-if the to- tals reported here are approximately doubled, the numbers are roughly consistent with those I published in an earlier study dealing with 1510 to 1520, where the availability of additional sources of titles permitted a closer approach to completeness.' The lack of completeness leads to a related limitation-a higher degree of confidence can be placed in the relationships between the numbers than in the numbers themselves. In addition, it must be admitted that the results of this study are based upon the assumption that this sample of sixteenth-century books has not been biased in ways that would alter the broad conclu- sions which will be offered. With the exception of Luther's works, it is likely that pamphlets coming down to us in modern times survived wars and destruction at a roughly equal rate.'6

The related question of possible bias of provenance in relying on the collection of German books by an English library requires a com- ment about the history of the British Museum. Considering her wealth and political and commercial power, England developed libraries sur- prisingly late compared to other European national powers. Although the British Museum was established by an Act of Parliament in 1753, it did not add to its collections in large numbers until the middle of the nineteenth century. It is also true that the collections have often grown in an apparently haphazard and accidental way due to the un- Printing and Publishing Activities of the Officina Plantiniana at Antwerp, 2 vols. (New York: Abner Schram, 1972), 2: 169: "The number of copies was as a rule 1,250 for or- dinary editions, 1,000 for black-and-red liturgical works. These figures were not arrived at arbitrarily but were based on the rate at which the journeymen-printers worked: an average of 1,250 sheets per day for ordinary works, 500 per day for service books." Voet presents data indicating that approximately half of the editions published by the Officiana Plantiniana were done in multiples of these figures (2: 172).

"4Paul Grendler, The Roman Inquisition and the Venetian Press, 1540-1605 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1977), p. 299. Despite this limitation, Michael Pegg has concluded that the Short Title Catalogue is a basic bibliographical tool, somewhat crude, but worthwhile nonetheless. See his essay, "Short Title Cata- logues. Notes on Identity of Texts," in Flugschriften als Massenmedium der Reforma- tionszeit, p. 30.

"Richard Crofts, "Books, Reform and the Reformation," Archiv furReformations- geschichte 71 (1980): 21-36.

'6This last point is argued by Richard Cole in "The Reformation Pamphlet and Communication Processes," in Flugschriften als Massenmedium der Reformationszeit, p. 147.

Printing, Reform, & Catholic Reformation 373

certainty in knowing when new material would become available by gift, sale, or discovery. Therefore, there is little reason to conclude that the collection of these books was biased by the religious convictions of sixteenth-century librarians embroiled in religious controversy.17

While it must be admitted that the amount of confidence in the rel- ative proportions in this data is higher than in the raw numbers, it is striking to note that the number of books published in each five-year segment of this period actually declined. Table I presents the break- down of the books published from 1521 to 1545 in the three largest cat- egories. Chrisman's detailed study reveals a similar pattern in Stras- bourg. The highest productivity for her entire period is also reached in

TABLE I Non-Religious Works by Works by Total

Works Reformers Catholics Works

1521 - 1525 291 = 15.0% 890 = 46.0% 328 = 16.9% 1936 1526 - 1530 352 = 33.1% 268 = 25.2% 247 = 23.2% 1063 1531 - 1535 425 = 46.0% 209 = 22.6% 167 = 18.1% 924 1536 - 1540 450 = 50.4% 169 = 18.9% 135 = 15.1% 892 1541 - 1545 411 = 49.1% 171 = 20.4% 115 = 13.8% 836

Total 1929 = 34.1% 1707 = 30.2% 992 = 17.6% 5651

the early 1520s, followed by a rapid decline and a secondary peak around 1530.18 From the data in this study, the decline was most pre- cipitous between the first and second five-year periods when it was 45 percent. Another way of expressing that relationship is to note that 34 percent of the books tallied for the twenty-five year period were pub- lished in the first five years. This may be a reflection of the events of 1521 to 1525 and of the importance authors, printers, and the reading public placed upon them. The fact that the total number of books pub- lished declined after 1525 and was fairly stable from that point on is reflected in the fact that from 1526 to 1545 only two years varied from the mean for the period by more than one standard deviation.

As Table I shows, slightly over one-third of the books published in the entire period were on non-religious subjects (34 percent). Slightly

"7See Edward Miller, That Noble Cabinet: A History of the British Museum (Athens, Ohio: Ohio University Press, 1974), especially pp. 15, 24-25, 95.

"8Chrisman, Lay Culture, Learned Culture, p. 287, fig. II.

374 The Sixteenth Century Journal

less than one-third (30 percent) were written by reformers and about one-sixth (16 percent) were written by Catholics. For comparative pur- poses, the data from my earlier study indicated that for the period from 1510 to 1520 non-religious books accounted for about one-half of the books published in the period. For the year 1520, however, this fig- ure was 31 percent.

More is learned when the total is broken down into five-year peri- ods than from the aggregate. Between the first and second intervals the percentage of non-religious books more than doubled (15 percent to 33 percent) and for the last fifteen years of the period non-religious books accounted for about half of the titles (49 percent).

Books by reformers constituted almost half (46 percent) of the to- tal for the first five years, dropped to about one-fourth in the second five years, and retained a fairly steady share of the market from 1526 to 1545. The number of books by Catholic authors declined each five- year period, but reached its highest percentage of the market (23 per- cent) in the years from 1526 to 1530. The reformers dominated German printing from 1521 to 1525, but from that point on non-religious books were published more frequently than clearly identifiable Catholic and reformers' books, and the number of Catholic books was only 19 per- cent smaller than the reformers. For all three groups, 1525/1526 ap- pears to be a significant dividing line. From that point on, the number of non-religious books was up, and the number of books by reformers and Catholics was down. A one-way analysis of variance reveals that the means for each division are statistically different well beyond the 99 percent confidence level, indicating that the difference between the two groups is greater than what could likely be ascribed to chance.

It is also of significance to note the language in which books were published. Of the total books tallied from 1521 to 1545, 57 percent were written in German. That compares to 60 percent of the titles from the 1510-1520 study. Breaking the categories down between religious and non-religious works, it is discovered that 67 percent of the reli- gious books and 39 percent of the non-religious books were published in German. This compares to 61 percent and 58 percent in the earlier period. Slightly more religious books were published in German, but substantially fewer non-religious books were. Breaking the religious books down further reveals a striking difference, as can be seen in Ta- ble II. The Catholic publications, the religious works of the humanists, and editions of the Bible had similar percentages of publication in Ger- man. The percentage for the reformers roughly doubled that of the rest of the groups. Table III shows the number of works published annu- ally by reformers and Catholics and the percentage which were pub- lished in German. It is easily seen that Catholics published in German

Printing, Reform, & Catholic Reformation 375

TABLE II

Percentage of German Publications Humanists' Works 38.9% Catholic Works 34.8% Editions of Bible 42.5% Reformers' Works 79.7%

All Religious Works 67.3%

TABLE III

Reformers Catholics

# of Works % in German # of Works % in German Ratio

1521 125 79.7 74 50.0 1.69 1522 176 85.8 69 40.6 2.55 1523 249 90.4 59 44.1 4.22 1524 195 87.1 59 55.9 3.31 1525 145 82.1 67 26.9 2.16 1526 66 77.3 50 36.0 1.32 1527 60 65.0 48 27.1 1.25 1528 33 81.8 51 41.2 0.65 1529 27 88.9 45 26.7 0.60 1530 82 79.3 53 37.7 1.55 1531 51 86.3 31 6.5 1.65 1532 32 84.4 30 6.7 1.07 1533 44 79.5 24 37.5 1.83 1534 32 71.9 43 32.6 0.74 1535 50 76.0 39 43.6 1.28 1536 25 84.0 38 34.2 0.66 1537 34 58.8 31 35.5 1.10 1538 34 64.7 31 38.7 1.10 1539 40 65.0 17 11.8 2.35 1540 36 63.9 18 5.6 2.00 1541 25 64.0 19 31.6 1.32 1542 27 81.5 19 42.1 1.42 1543 43 76.7 19 36.8 2.26 1544 29 69.0 25 12.0 1.16 1545 47 68.1 33 36.4 2.04

Total 1707 79.7 992 34.8 1.72

376 The Sixteenth Century Journal

at a rate less than half that of the reformers. The third column of Table III gives the ratio between books by reformers and Catholics.

One of our most important concerns is the extent to which the de- fenders of the church were successful in representing the church and confronting the reformers in print. For this we look to that group of Catholic authors which has been identified as the controversialists.'9

From 1521 to 1545, 992 works by Catholic authors were tallied. Of these, 139 (14 percent) were reprints of the Fathers, medieval theolo- gians, and other authors of the Middle Ages. Not surprisingly, three- fourths of these were published in Latin. Slightly over half (52 percent) of these Catholic works were of a non-controversialist nature. Seventy percent of those were published in Latin. One-third of the Catholic works published between 1521 and 1545 were of a clearly controver- sialist character-that is, they were obviously attempts to confront the reformers directly as opposed to traditional expressions of Catho- lic piety and theology. It is only in the controversialist category that the percentage of works printed in Latin changed appreciably. Even so, only 45 percent of these books were published in German. But even in this category, where one would expect the highest level of activity in German, the percentage is only slightly over one-half of that for all books published by the reformers.

The data that is available indicates that no one understood better than Martin Luther the importance of communicating in German. Ta- ble IV shows the significance of Luther by tabulating his percentage of the reformers' works, his percentage of the total number of books published, and the annual percentage of his works published in Ger- man. Between 1521 and 1525 Luther accounted for 60 percent of the reformers' works published. In 1522 and 1523 his works accounted for about one-third of all the books published. For the entire period, 89 percent of Luther's works were published in German. In the lowest of those years the percentage was 67 and there were only two annual per- centages below 75. A comparison of the number of works published by Luther to the numbers of the major Catholic figures confirms the gen- eralization that no one came close to matching his productivity.

"9For a bibliography of these authors see Katholische Kontroverstheologen und Reformer des 16. Jahrhunderts: Ein Werkverzeichnis, ed. by Wilbirgis Klaiber, Reformationsgeschichtliche Studien und Texte, vol. 116 (Munster: Aschendorffsche Verlagsbuchhandlung, 1978). The volume is helpful in general but could not contribute much to this study. For a review article see Jean-Francois Gilmont, "La bibliographie de la controverse catholique au 16e siecle; quelques suggestions methodologiques," -Revue d'histoire ecclesiastique 74 (1979): 362-371. Gilmont regards the work as a good start toward an important project, but is critical of aspects of its methodology. He pro- poses to enlarge the project to a "bibliotheca catholica saeculi xvi."

Printing, Reform, & Catholic Reformation 377

TABLE IV

Luther's % of Luther's % of % of Luther's Reformers' Works Total Works Works in German

1521 68.8 28.7 84.9 1522 71.0 33.6 88.8 1523 63.9 32.4 95.6 1524 46.7 21.0 90.0 1525 49.0 20.9 85.9 1526 45.5 14.5 86.7 1527 50.0 14.4 73.3 1528 36.4 7.1 100.0 1529 37.0 5.3 100.0 1530 57.3 16.3 93.6 1531 45.1 12.6 95.7 1532 56.3 9.4 94.4 1533 36.4 10.1 93.8 1534 40.6 7.0 84.6 1535 30.0 7.2 86.7 1536 32.0 4.3 87.5 1537 35.3 6.9 83.3 1538 52.9 9.9 66.7 1539 35.0 8.5 78.6 1540 22.2 4.3 87.5 1541 52.0 8.0 76.9 1542 33.3 6.0 100.0 1543 30.2 8.0 84.6 1544 41.4 7.1 83.3 1545 46.8 11.4 77.3

51.3 15.5 88.6

378 The Sixteenth Century Journal

Table V lists the annual number of Catholic works classified as controversialist. The second column is the percentage of those works published in German. The third column is the percentage the contro- versialist works were of the Catholic total. The data suggest that it was not until 1523 that Catholic authors began to rise to their contro- versialist task. From 1522 to 1523 the percentage of controversialist works doubled and for the period from 1523 to 1530 the average per- centage remained at a similar level. After 1530, and for the rest of the period, the percentage of controversialist works dropped from an average of 40 percent to an average of 32 percent. That the most in- terest in controversialist writing came between 1523 and 1530 is seen in the fact that 52 percent of the controversialist works for the entire period were published in this eight-year span. The annual average of

TABLE V # of

Controversialist % Published % of Works in German Catholic Total

1521 15 53.3 -20.3 7 19.6 1522 13 46.2 18.8 Avg. 1523 22 54.5 37.3 1524 25 64.0 42.4 1525 33 20.2 36.4 -51.4 49.3 1526 18 Avg. 55.6 Avg. 36.0 40.3 1527 22 31.8 45.8 Avg. 1528 23 73.9 45.1 1529 17 41.2 37.8 1530 14 57.1 26.4 1531 5 40.0 16.1 1532 7 14.3 23.3 1533 9 66.7 37.5 1534 20 40.0 46.5 1535 15 53.3 38.5 1536 11 8.9 63.6 31.3 28.9 32.1 1537 8 Avg. 37.5 Avg. 25.8 Avg. 1538 8 37.5 25.8 1539 6 33.3 35.3 1540 1 0.0 5.6 1541 7 28.6 36.8 1542 3 0.0 15.8 1543 7 28.6 36.8 1544 12 0.0 48.0 1545 15 26.7 45.5

Printing, Reform, & Catholic Reformation 379

controversialist works between 1521 and 1530 was 20.2. The annual average from 1531 to 1545 was 8.9.

The middle column of Table V gives the percentage of these con- troversialist works published in German. For the entire period, 45 per- cent were published in German. However, the average percentage varies greatly when 1530 is used as a dividing line to demark two pop- ulations. Fifty-one percent of the controversialist works published through 1530 were published in German. After 1530 the percentage dropped to 31.

Publishing activity for the reformers and Catholics followed simi- lar patterns. Early in the period activity increased dramatically, and after a brief period of time activity declined almost as dramatically. For the reformers, the average number of books per year was sixty- eight. After 1525 that number was exceeded only once (eighty-two in 1530). Fifty-two percent of the reformers' books for the whole period were published from 1521 to 1525.

For the Catholics, the average number of books per year was forty. After 1530 that number was exceeded only once (forty-three in 1534). Fifty-eight percent of the Catholic books for the whole period were published from 1521 to 1530. The patterns for the two groups were quite similar. The Catholic increase and subsequent decline followed that of the reformers by a few years.

Three graphs picture this pattern. Graph A shows the dramatic in- crease of the reformers' works from 1521 to 1523, a steady decline to

Graph A Works by Reformers

250-

200 -

150 -

100

50 -

1521 1525 1530 1535 1540 1545

Years

380 The Sixteenth Century Journal

1529, and a much smaller second peak of activity in 1530.20 Graph B shows the total production of Catholic works in general decline from 1521 to 1539 with increases coming in 1525, 1530, and 1534. After 1539, there was a modest increase. Graph C portrays the Catholic con- troversialist works where the similarity to the reformers' pattern is most striking. The peaks and low points for the controversialist works follow the reformers at an interval of about two to four years. When the two graphs are superimposed, the similarity is most apparent.

Graph B 70 - Works by Catholics

60 -

50 -

40'40

30 -

20-

10

1521 1525 1530 1535 1540 1545

Years

20Again, the parallel to Chrisman's data is striking. If anything, the pattern of in- creases and decreases in her data is even more dramatic. See Chrisman, Lay Culture, Learned Culture, p. 289, fig. V.

Printing, Reform, & Catholic Reformation 381

35 - Graph C Works by Catholic Controversialists

30

25-

20 -

15-

10

5-

1521 1525 1530 1535 1540 1545

Years

In conclusion, we can see that this data supports some of the gen- eralizations noted at the start:

Despite the fact that the religious issues remained unsettled, after 1530 about half of the books published in Germany were on non-re- ligious subjects. This approximates the figure for the period from 1510 to 1520.

After 1525, the number of Catholic publications was surprisingly high, nearly matching the total of the reformers.

Despite the surprising number of Catholic publications, on the whole the Catholics either failed to recognize the value of publishing in German or were unwilling to do so.

Finally, the Catholics did not find a defender with the literary tal- ents and popular appeal of Luther. If they had, these figures, and per- haps the course of the Reformation, would have been different. If Luther's works are excluded from the reformers' total, the Catholics outpublished their opponents.