Pamphlets and Protestant Reformation

In the beginning of this excerpt of Protestants: The Birth of a Revolution, Ozment begins by disclaiming that historical interpretations of this movement tend to differ with different historians. There is not much factual backing that can help discern the thoughts and motives behind the European subjects in this age, so much of what is explained or told of this revolutionary age is largely assumed or inferred from what tangible evidence we do have. 

There was a great surge in literacy and education in this age. New universities and boarding schools were built in Germany, France, Italy and England by the hundreds. Likewise, to accompany this growth in the intellectual body of Europe, there was a dire demand for mass distribution of printed texts. So begins the mobilization of information and ideas. Protestants strategically gaged this opportunity and began printing thousands of pamphlets. Much of this revolution, it seems, is played out in the minds and interactions of the common people in these centuries. Ozments says that while the pamphlets were pivotal in the spreading of Protestants ideas, the ideas and lessons written on the pamphlets were spread orally in a more rapid, fervent manner which set the countrysides ablaze with bright new ideas for change and reformation. 

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The ideas spread throughout this time by the Laity, (the common people, in regards to the clergy) were in opposition of the corrupt establishment of religious. In attempts to debunk the Catholic church, commoners assembled pamphlets themselves and wrote directly to priests and clergymen, telling them no longer to treat their people as sheep and blind mice. They laity were tired of being scared by sinister sermons of hell and damnation and tricked into giving money and penance to the church. Protestants cast light on the Church's many corruptions and spread these ideas fervently. 

Protestants gained their thunder through denouncing the Pope and their religious figurehead, and referring only to the Bible as the source of superior truth.