Oral Dissemination and the Spread of Reformation Ideas

 In a society that is dominated by technological mass communication, the modern world often takes for granted the skills of reading and writing. From simple letter writing to the use of the e-mail, the emphasis in our world is on the gathering and dissemination of knowledge. We often tend to forget that communication fundamentally rests on our human ability to engage in conversation and debate. In such a manner, new and old ideas are related, discussed, disputed, and negotiated. Modern technology just provides us with the tools to implement this human interaction at a more extensive level and to a greater audience. The ability to read and write becomes the key to unlocking the wealth of knowledge available in an international and global society. In sixteenth century Germany at a time when literacy levels were low and educational resources infrequent or unavailable, the majority of the German population would have relied heavily on another set of fundamental human skills, talking and listening. To compensate for a lack in literacy skills the emphasis and importance of oral communication for an illiterate German in the sixteenth century would become more intensified and would have greater significance on a day to day basis. The reformers and their new ideas on religious change would have found use for those who could read and write along with significant assistance from the advent of the printing press; however, there is a strong case to be made that the most important agent for the spread of reformation ideas was through oral dissemination.

The printing press did benefit the reformers in that it enabled their message to be spread on a mass scale but the ability of the ‘masses’ to read the new gospel was limited. An estimated 4-5 per cent of the sixteenth century German population perhaps had the skills needed to read[1], moreover it has also been estimated that between 1517 and 1520 only 2.3 per cent of the reading German population would have been able to access Luther’s writings[2]. This tells us that sixteenth century Germany was predominantly an oral culture and that the spread of reformation ideas “depended as much on forms of oral communication as it did on printing”[3]. Andrew Johnston plays down the role of oral dissemination arguing that for Luther’s message “the original reference point was often the printed word”[4] but does concede “oral transmission of ideas was undoubtedly important”[5].

Listening to Reformation Preaching

Nowhere can this aspect be seen more dramatically than in the preaching revival within the evangelical movement and the methods used to address the ‘lay Christian’ or ‘common man’. The message contained in the new Gospel attracted immediately those in society who saw a way to address their social grievances and improve their life in the real world; the ‘common man’ in reformation propaganda was “idealised as the chief supporter of the Gospel”[6]. As Henry Kamen notes, it was into this “largely unlettered world” that “the zealots of reform...thrust their dogmatic certainties”[7]. Luther’s initial success seems to be linked to his contacts within the University of Wittenberg and the subsequent number of preachers influenced by his works and therefore in a strong position to influence the spread of his ideas throughout the country.[8] The preachers were interested in getting their reform message across to substantial numbers, and in particular, it was the towns where they found their largest audiences and the “maximum numbers of potential converts”[9]. The ease with which the gospel was spread was greatly enhanced by the preachers who came from the mendicant[10] orders who held a tradition of preaching in the vernacular making it simpler for the masses to understand; therefore broadening the audience and increasing the impact of Luther’s message. Luther had already recognised this aspect of reaching the majority and its potential effects on the success of the reformation. He endeavoured to write down the messages of the new church not in the contemporary Latin, but in “comprehensible German laced with homely metaphors”[11]; this enabled his message to be understood by the ‘simple folk’. Luther understood the need for secular support but he also understood that his teachings had to reach the wider sections of society to help stabilise the foundations of his new church. Popular piety and its acceptance of Luther’s ideas remained a central aspect to the reformations success. Oral communication would provide the centre of communication for both the masses and the elite, linked by their Christian piety “the gap between the peasant and the educated was much less in the realm of thought than in the realities of power and style of life”[12]

As well as formal gatherings, sermons were also available from wandering preachers who roamed the country communicating Luther’s gospel to those who were willing to listen. These sermons were not always held in the local churches; often they were spontaneous, informal and the setting unofficial[13]. Such spontaneity took advantage of social gatherings allowing assembled groups to hear Luther’s teachings on the spot and without the need for formal preparation. The preachers would often support their sermon by distributing illustrated broad-sheets and woodcut pictures enabling the illiterate (as well as an interested reader) to ‘see’ Luther’s gospel. Today, the modern world recognises the Internet as the most significant tool in the circulation of new information, Scribner holds the view that in sixteenth century Germany the pulpit was “the major mass medium of its age”[14].

Martin Luther Nails His Theses

In an age which still maintained the medieval tradition that reading and writing was “a practical skill, a qualification rather than a cultural necessity”[15], the role of the preacher was to build the bridges for the gospel to cross over. In this manner, Luther’s ideas circulated between rural and urban areas forging the gap between the literate and the illiterate.Once the people had received the gospel, the ideas could be expressed among themselves by using many forms of social intercourse, but primarily by oral communication between social groups and their day-to-day interaction. In the towns and cities, being natural cultural and political centres, Luther’s ideas would be debated by intellectuals whose discussions would “attract a wider audience and a mass following”[16]. Again, the printed word would have provided the starting point, but it was the discussion it promoted that enabled the ideas to ferment. The book had a role to play, but in the context of wider communication issues Scribner argues that the new ideas were then “mediated through personal contacts and the spoken word”[17]. Reading was not always a private or individual pursuit and it is has been suggested that the majority of reading in the sixteenth century occurred out loud to an audience often in small groups called ‘conventicles’[18]. There appeared to be occasions when citizens would gather in the privacy of their homes and discuss the matters brought about by the new gospel; forming ‘discussion groups’ to debate the merits of Luther’ works[19]. Scribner considers that these ‘discussion circles’ often “helped initiate the formal beginnings of the reformation in a town”[20]. Along with private discussion, frequent conversation was held in more public places with an emphasis on the importance of the ‘inn’ as a focus for social gathering and dissemination of ideas. The inns provided a popular and well-established network into which Luther’s ideas could take residence and where “casual encounters occurred, in which people made first hand personal acquaintance with unorthodox ideas”[21]. We can see from this evidence that discussion about the new gospel appears to have been a common way of acquiring new religious knowledge. When it comes to the social dissemination of Luther’s arguments, Scribner strongly promotes the idea that “public and private discussions were probably the most frequent means of transmitting ideas”[22].

Those in a more rural environment would have learnt of the new propositions by ‘social gossip’ found in abundance in the frequent visits to the urban markets fairs and other such social meetings[23]. The news was then transmitted back through the rural networks into the villages by hawkers, peddlers, local officials and the rural population itself[24]. Luther himself declared, “the ears alone are the organs of a Christian man.”[25] Those ears picked up the public opinion spread by rumour, gossip, and discussion; these being “the very stuff of daily life”[26]. This ‘daily life’ would have contained a variety of orally focused events reinforcing further still Luther’s message. Tales and plays would have installed Protestant ideas in the minds of the individual, but perhaps most importantly, it was the repetitive nature of songs, ballads and hymns that managed to dominate the mind more easily. Such methods only required the ability to listen and memorise, and then more notably, to repeat back. The sounds of the Protestant reformation became a vital component of the oral dissemination of information. Henry Kamen states that “Protestant religious music came to dominate and even replace other forms of melody...filtering down into the everyday singing of ordinary folk”[27]. All these issues would prove themselves as essential pieces in the assembly of the reformation jigsaw as its movement attempted to consolidate its impact on the German nation. The movement provided a complicated process of diffusion and it did not entirely depend on the printed word; as Scribner writes, “it depended on the printed manifestoes being received and spread over time throughout the many layers of oral culture”[28].

Oral dissemination of Luther’s ideas appear then to have had a dramatic effect on the success of the reformation in the early stages of the sixteenth century. The work of the preachers can be seen as an important role, if not a defining stage, in the development of the early reformation in Germany. The mind of a sixteenth century German must have been profoundly less distracted than its modern counterpart, and if illiterate, the focus of communication would have been intimately more connected to his or her psychological identity. As Steven Ozment cleverly points out, “to become a Protestant then required literacy no more than it does today”[29]. What they heard and who from would have had demanded their intense scrutiny and further explanation. Although the gospels message could often be interpreted according to context, a skilful preacher who understood his congregation well could reinforce his sermon by repetitive learning and the use of illustrations. Traditional preaching on its own would not have created the necessary ‘popular opinion’ required to make the reformation a mass movement. As Scribner rightly points out success often “depended on the style, zeal and popularity of the preacher”[30]. In such a manner the fundamentals of Luther’s ideas could be installed into the mainstream thinking of the masses. Lutheranism’s initial appeal to the ‘common people’, as a direct consequence of the preaching revival, resulted in an impatient demand for new changes. This enabled the message of the gospel to spread in such a swift and effective manner that Scribner suggests that if it was left to the limits of Luther himself, the reformation “might have remained as limited in its impact as earlier movements of religious reform”[31]. Due to a lack of literacy skills in sixteenth century Germany, the practical growth of the reformation most certainly can be put down to the real mass dissemination of ideas, which took place orally, and not principally through the printed word. Those that accepted the new gospel decided to act directly and decisively to promote the reformation, propelling the movement from its initial foundations to a firmer, broad-base focus of intent. The early stages of the reformation was a period of ideas and popular preaching which in the view of Euan Cameron created “a favourable climate of opinion... a crucial precondition of a ‘civic’ Reformation”[32]. From the rapid circulation of Luther’s gospel, we can confidently assume that the real triumph for the reformations initial success came from the importance of the ‘oral dissemination’ of Luther’s new ideas on a reformed church. 

 

[1]R. W. Scribner, The German Reformation (London,1986) p. 19. Scribner gives approximate figures in which he suggests that out of an estimated population of 16 million, the reading public comprised of no more than 400, 000 individuals.

[2]R. W. Scribner, The German Reformation (London, 1986) p. 20. Scribner writes that of the 300,000 copies of Luther’s works published in this time period, assuming that no one bought more than one, and that some copies were passed around, only one person in forty three would have encountered Luther’s ideas in this way.

[3] R. W. Scribner, The German Reformation, (London,1986) p. 20.

[4] A. Johnston, The Protestant Reformation in Europe,  (Harlow, 1991) p. 31. Johnston’s research is mainly focused on German urban society where literacy levels may have been higher but again relatively low with regards to the whole population.

[5] A. Johnston, The Protestant Reformation in Europe,  (Harlow, 1991) p. 31.

[6] R. W. Scribner, The German Reformation, (London,1986) p. 19.

[7] H. Kamen, European Society 1500-1700,  (London, 1984) p. 195.

[8] R. Bonney, The European Dynastic States 1494-1660,  (Oxford, 1991) p. 37. Bonney writes that over a third of 176 evangelical preachers active in Germany between 1520 and 1560 had studied at the University of Wittenberg and thus had fallen to a greater or lesser extent under Luther’s influence.

[9] A. Johnston, The Protestant Reformation in Europe,  (Harlow, 1991) p. 31.

[10] A. Johnston, The Protestant Reformation in Europe,  (Harlow, 1991) p. 31. 

[11] R. Bonney, The European Dynastic States 1494-1660,  (Oxford, 1991) p. 35.

[12] H. G. Koenigsberger, George. L. Mosse, G. Q. Bowler, Europe in the Sixteenth Century, 2nd edition,  (New York, 1989) p. 128.

[13] R. Scribner, The German Reformation,  (London, 1986) p. 21. By way of example Scribner informs us that in Leipzig in 1523, Sebastian Froeschel was prevented from preaching in St John’s church because the doors were locked, so his supporters set up a pulpit for him in the churchyard. Also, in 1522 a schoolmaster by the name of Johannes Zymler preached from a window of his schoolhouse to a crowd which had gathered outside.

[14] R. Scribner, The German Reformation,  (London, 1986) p. 21.

[15] H. Kamen, European Society 1500-1700,  (London, 1984) p. 209.

[16] R. W. Scribner in The Reformation in National Context, chapter 1-Germany,  p. 16,edited by Bob Scribner, Roy Porter and Mikulas Teich, (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge) 1994.

[17] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 55.

[18] R. Bonney, The European Dynastic States 1494-1660,  (Oxford, 1991) p. 31.

[19] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany, p. 55. Scribner does however admit that such meetings were probably more ‘ad hoc’ and unstructured than his term ‘discussion circles’ implies.

[20] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 55.

[21] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 57.

[22] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 51.

[23] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 64.

[24] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 64.

[25] S. Ozment, Protestants-The Birth of a Revolution,  (London, 1993) p. 46.

[26] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 69.

[27] H. Kamen, European Society 1500-1700,  (London, 1984) p. 198.

[28] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 68.

[29] S. Ozment, Protestants-The Birth of a Revolution,  (London, 1993) p. 46.

[30] R. W. Scribner, Oral Culture and the Diffusion of Reformation Ideas in R. W. Scribner, Popular Culture and Popular Movements in Reformation Germany,  p. 52.

[31] R. Scribner, The German Reformation,  (London, 1986) p. 24.

[32] E. Cameron, The European Reformation,  (Oxford, 1991) p. 110.