Printing advances the Protestant Reformation Before the 14th century, books were far too expensive for the people. The churches had their Bibles and the scholars their precious copies of books. Books were rare. There were often people who disagreed with the Church, or who perhaps believed slightly differently from Roman Catholics. These variations in beliefs and criticism of the Church culminated in what is today called the Protestant Reformation, which is often said to have begun with Martin Luther. But some historians might return to John Wycliffe, John Huss and the invention of the printing press. Because printing helped to quickly spread the ideas of the Reformation, without it the religious reforms would not have spread as quickly or as far as they did. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Even before the invention of the printing press reached Europe, people were pushing for reform of the Roman Catholic Church. John Wycliffe argued for clerical poverty and believed that "personal merit...was the sole basis of religious theory." His followers, called the Lollards, used the vernacular Bible and advocated clerical poverty. This group was concentrated in England (Kagan 306-307). In Bohemia, a similar movement was occurring at the same time. John Huss supported Wycliffe's teachings. He and the Czech reformers "supported vernacular translations of the Bible and criticized traditional ceremonies and supposedly superstitious practices", particularly that of the sacrament of the Eucharist. The Hussites questioned the validity of a sacrament if it was performed by a priest “in mortal sin” (Kagan 307). Although these two groups pushed for reforms and had contacts, the reforms did not spread to other countries. One reason for this may be that there were not enough copies of their writings and making copies in the late 1300s and early 1400s was a long and difficult process. This is “one of the reasons why the Lollards failed to consolidate broad support while a century and a half later their evangelical successors did” (MacCulloch 72). How were books written and how were they copied at that time? People either used handwritten copies or a process called block printing. Both processes were time consuming and expensive. For a scholar to gain access to a text they needed, they had to spend much of their life copying the original or another copy by hand before they could even use the text (MacCulloch 73). It would be hard work and many educated people would have to devote time to this activity. Additionally, the error percentage would be high because with all the copies they would have hand cramps, meaning mistakes can be easily made. Block printing originated in China. “The characters or images were carved into a block of wood, inked, then transferred to paper” (Kreis). Sometimes clay was used instead of the usual wooden blocks (Martin 457). Reproduction was expensive because each image or phrase was written on a different block. “For each new print, a new block had to be cut” (Kreis). Additionally, woodcuts were not sufficient. After repeated use, they might split in the press. Once a block was deemed unusable, either due to splitting ordue to the need to use a somewhat modified imprint, it was discarded (Kreis). Although block printing still took a long time, it “was much faster than handwriting” (Martin 457). However, printing could and would be even faster. Many people have heard of the Gutenberg press or learned about it in their European history classes. But when learning what the press is, we often forget to learn about the man who invented it. Johannes Gutenberg was born in the German city of Mainz, "a center of goldsmiths and jewelers" (Hobar 2:486) and is also said to be "the center of printing for all of Western Europe" (Kagan338). He was born into an aristocratic family, meaning his family was wealthy and he probably had a good education. His “uncle was a maker of metal coins” (Hobar 2:486). He gained professional experience as a stonemason and goldsmith (Kreis). He began his famous Bible project in 1452 (Kreis), meaning he probably began work on designing a movable type press in the mid-1440s. "Gutenberg designed a lead alloy, d “tin and antinomy which would melt at low temperature, would flow well in the die and would be durable in the press” (Kreis). These pieces of metal were then molded into the shape of a letter of the alphabet, which was simple because when comparing European alphabets to the Chinese alphabet, there are far fewer letters that need to be s 'worry (Martin 457). He based his chassis for the printing press on that of a cheese press. Mirror image letters of the alphabet were engraved on each small block. Spaces have been inserted where necessary to separate words. He would arrange all the letters needed to form words and sentences on a page one day and the next day he would begin printing. The layout was tapped with ink, a piece of paper was laid out over the layout, and then the press, which was a heavy block, was screwed onto the paper. He could soon “print 200 to 300 copies of a page of a book per day” (Hobar 2: 487). This new Gutenberg press could reproduce books at a much faster rate. Diarmaid MacCulloch writes: "Movable type text on paper was radically cheaper to produce than a manuscript and, once the rather laborious process of arranging the pages was completed, it was extremely easy to reproduce large prints" (72 ). The simplicity of Gutenberg's new press made possible the printing of the famous Gutenberg Bible. Although Gutenberg tried to hide his new technique, it quickly spread throughout Europe. Before 1500, around 2500 European cities had their own presses (Kreis). Millions of printed books existed by 1500. Although “German masters had early leadership…the Italians quickly challenged their pre-eminence” (Kreis). Sixteenth-century printers were considered scholars and the industry a “learned profession” (Hulme 532). The rapid proliferation of printing spread the new ideas of humanism and religious reform quickly and with great influence (Kreis). Martin Luther is one of the most notable religious reformers of the 16th century, although Ulrich Zwingli also played an important role. Martin Luther was born in what is now Germany in 1483. His father was “a prosperous Thuringian miner.” His family ensured that he received a good education; He learned from the Brothers of the Common Life in Mandsfeld, Magdeburg. He then attended the University of Erfurt, graduating in 1505 (Kagan 357). Hobar writes, in the.