Why was the invention of the printing press and the publishing of the bible a seditious act?

Answer 1

Absolutely, it was sedicious. Having the Word of God in print in Latin and in English would have shaken the stranglehold of the Catholic Church on the whole world.

It was, however, in Latin rather than English. With the onset of the Reformation in the early 1500s, the first printings of the Bible in the English language were produced, illegally, and at great personal risk to those involved.

William Tyndale was the Captain of the Army of reformers, and was their spiritual leader. He worked most of his translating years alone, but had help from time to time as God discerned he needed it. Indirectly, he had the help of Erasmus in the publication of his Greek/Latin New Testament printed in 1516. Erasmus and the great printer, scholar, and reformer John Froben, published the first non-Latin Vulgate text of the Bible in a millen­nium. Latin was the language for centuries of scholarship and it was understood by virtually every European who could read or write. Erasmus’ Latin was not the Vulgate trans­lation of Jerome, but his own fresh rendering of the Greek New Testament text that he had collated from six or seven partial New Testament manuscripts into a complete Greek New Testament.

The Latin that Erasmus translated from the Greek revealed enormous corruptions in the Vulgate’s integrity amongst the rank and file scholars, many of whom were already convinced that the established church was doomed by virtue of its evil hierarchy. Pope Leo X’s declaration that “the fable of Christ was very profitable to him” infuriated the people of God.

With Erasmus’ work in 1516, the die was cast. Martin Luther declared his intolerance with the Roman Church’s corruption on Halloween in 1517, by nailing 95 Theses of Contention to the Wittenberg Church door. Luther, who would be exiled in the months following the Diet of Worms Council in 1521 that was designed to condemn him, would translate the New Testament into German from Erasmus’ Greek/Latin New Testament and publish it in September of 1522. Simultaneously, William Tyndale would become burdened to translate that same Erasmus text into English. It could not, however, be done in England.

Tyndale showed up on Luther’s doorstep in 1525, and by year’s end had translated the New Testament into English. Tyndale was fluent in eight languages and is considered by many to be the primary architect of today’s English language. Already hunted because of the rumor spread abroad that such a project was underway, inquisitors and bounty hunters were on Tyndale’s trail to abort the effort. God foiled their plans, and in 1525/6 Tyndale printed the first English New Testament. They were burned as soon as the Bishop could confiscate them, but copies trickled through and actually were found in the bedroom of King Henry VIII. The more the King and Bishop resisted its distribution, the more fascinated the public at large became. The church declared it contained thousands of errors as they torched hundreds of New Testaments confiscated by the clergy, while in fact, they burned them because they could find no errors at all. One risked death by burning if caught in mere possession of Tyndale’s forbidden books.

Johann Gutenburg's printing was one of the most important technical advances in history. It has long been understood that Gutenberg's invention depended on a long process of trying out methods and refining them. After Gutenberg, his methods continued to be improved upon, but by the end of the 15th century printing had found the form which it retained until the 19th century.

Gutenberg's main inventions were the printer's ink, the making of type, the use of a press and perhaps most importantly the production process itself which combined these techniques to produce printed books. Each invention would have been useless without the vision which combined new and old methods. Part of the process was composition and once the sheets had been printed they had to be made into gatherings.

The surviving copies tell us how Gutenberg and his team learnt about the work processes and their financial implications as the work went on. They made at least three changes during the printing.

Printing could not have been an economic success without paper, which was originally invented in China and then spread west reaching Europe via the Muslim world. Before this European books were written on vellum, animal skin. One of the British Library's copies of the Gutenberg Bible is printed on vellum.

We can also estimate how many copies of the Bible Gutenberg printed. A contemporary witness, Enea Silvio Piccolomini, reports that the Bible was said to have been produced in either 158 or 180 copies.

Much earlier, books had been produced in China and Korea with type made first of wood and later of bronze. Gutenberg's invention was different: it was possible to print many copies of the same text speedily. It had great commercial potential, but it did not make Gutenberg a rich man. Information on how he produced his Bible.

It was crucial to choose the right texts in order to succeed in the market. More on the texts printed by Gutenberg.

Much of what we know about Gutenberg's invention comes from a detailed study of surviving books from his press. More information on Gutenberg's works in the British Library.

Gutenberg's invention made it possible to mass-produce books. He himself did not make money out of it, but his method had great commercial potential and it became the basis of the success of many later printers and publishers.

Technology is not enough for success however. A publisher needs to choose the right texts for his market. This was much more important for a printer than for the men and women who made a living from producing manuscripts. A printer had to sell many copies of the same work at the same time, and he had to sell them fast to recover a substantial investment.

Gutenberg and his team were aware of this problem: all copies of the Bible had been sold even before printing was completed.

In the 50 years after Gutenberg began printing, printed books spread along the trade routes of Western Europe. Books did not become cheap immediately after the appearance of Gutenberg's printed works, but prices soon began to fall. By 1500 access to books had changed profoundly. This meant more access to information, more dissent, more informed discussion and more widespread criticism of authorities. Europe and the world beyond would have been a very different place without Gutenberg's invention.

No evidence survives to tell us how Gutenberg actually worked, except the books themselves. By comparing them we can find differences which tell us something about how the work was done.

In the past such differences have taught us about the three major changes which took place during the printing of the Gutenberg Bible. More information on these changes.

The chief benefit from digitisation is, however, the unlimited access to some of the British Library's greatest treasures. The books are now over 500 years old and we want them to last for at least as long again. That means that we cannot allow many people to touch the originals. Previously not even all scholars who specialised in books from the 15th century could see them. Now everyone can examine them in much greater detail than it was ever possible in a reading room.

Answer 2

Because knowlege is power....clique, but true. Literate people are more informed about the world and their placed in it. If only the wealthy can afford to be literate (due to the high costs of books) then the poor do not have access to this power. The printing press enabled material to be mass printed, eliminating the need for hand copying all written material...cheaper means more people can afford it.

- A literacy test used to be required to vote...effect: Poorer people weren't allowed to vote, thus had no political power.

- Teaching a slave to read was illegal when slavery was allowed in the U.S...why? Uneducated people are easier to subjegate.

- If only the clergy could read the Bible (and were the only ones to own a copy) then the cogregation had to take their word for what the Bible said. Being the spokesman for God can be a very powerful position in a small community.

Answer 3

Seditious? hmmm... wait.. lemme look that up to be sure!.. then I'll come back...

Miriam-Webster: incitement of resistance to or insurrection against lawful authority

Ok.. hmmm... The Church was embedded in the Government... and printing the Bible allowed all people (those who could afford it anyway) to read the Bible and determine for themselves what it said. This took power away from the Priests of the Church... therefore it weakened the hold of the Church on the people and weakened the Governments hold too... on information.

Until that time, the only copies of the Bible were in the hands of the church... hand written by monks.. or priests.. or whoever it was... but the Bible was NOT in the hands of the common people.

Answer 4

It wasn't, but it was considered to be one to those in power at the time. (aka - the roman catholic church)

Few people could read, and if they could read it probably wasn't latin what the bibles were written in. IT was a contol function. If only the priests can read ( or fake reading) the "HOLY BOOK" then it becomes that much more pyschologically powerful. After all, if you went to a nuclear physisit and he told you that Gravity doesnt' exsist that it is in reality a field of radiation caused by solar wind. You'd really consider he might be on to something.... If all the scientists said it.... you'd believe it with out ever once thinking it could be a lie.

So when the printing press came out, and it made the bible cheap enough so everyone could get it. the church lost a LARGE chunk of its power. How soon after did the renisance happen? Yeah...

The priests new it would be the end of the dark age. Their age. When only they held knowlege. So they tried to ban it. say it was evil.

Answer 5

Because the church knew for over a thousand years, letting people actually read the bible is the best cure for theism.

Since at that time the Christianity and the State were inseperable, I could see how that would be seditious.

Answer 6

So much for your plagiarism peskywabbit.
Check your facts well. The catholic church had been placing translations of the Bible long before the 1500s and even before John Wycliff was born. And their were transalations in English.

Research and do yourself a favor.

Thomas More, Lord and Chancellor of England under Henry VIII(Dialogues III):
"The whole Bible, long before Wycliff's day, was virtuous and well-learned men translated into the English tongue, and by good and Godly people with devotion and soberness and reverently read."

I can quote so many proofs but its better that you gain knowledge by looking for the books themselves so here's the list to just name a few.

History of the English Bible by Rev. J. H. Blunt(Protestant author)
Academy, August 1885 by Karl Pearson
Preface to the Bible 1540 by Archbishop of Canterbury, Cramer

Its pretty clear to me you have little reading on this matter so go rake the internet and your local library for info.

Answer 7

This will make your day.

Voltaire, the noted French infidel who died in 1778, spent his life attempting to discount and discredit the
Bible. He predicted with certainty that one hundred years from his time, Christianity would be swept out of
existence and into history. While Voltaire passed into history in 1778, religious freedom began to spring
anew in the new country called the USA, and the circulation of the Bible increased greatly. The world
abounds with such instances! As one has truly said, ‘we might as well put our shoulder to the burning wheel
of the sun, and try to stop it in its flaming course, as attempt to stop the circulation of the Bible.’ Ironic is the
fact that only fifty years after his death, the Geneva Bible Society bought his house and press and began
printing Bibles on them.

Answer 8

The Holy Roman Empire knew that by keeping the Bible out of the hands of the people, they, as the only "god" the people knew, would continue to have absolute power over them.

Funny, how governments like to separate the people from God......

Answer 9

It wasn't. the church (The Catholic Church) had been printing Bibles for 1400 years before this. They even had 14 versions printed in german before Martin Luther did his. What they couldn't allow was false versions of the Bible, since the Bible belongs to her.

Answer 10

The more ignorant the population the easier they are swayed by a zealous speaker or by common beliefs and doctrine

Answer 11

Don't know what "seditious" means, so I can't answer. Sorry!