A History of Modern Europe - From the Renaissance to the Present

Culture during the Two Reformations 119

defend oneself in court, or how to make beer and wine), and everyday moral­
ity. Visual, often satirical images such as woodcut illustrations and broad­
sheets, directed at those who could not read, probably reached far more
people than did printed tracts, however. Caricatures portrayed Luther as
Hercules, as an evangelical saint doing battle with wretched animals repre­
senting the Church, as a new Moses, as a miracle worker, and, in one popu­
lar legend, as the inventor of bratwurst sausage.

Lay Education and Reading

The Reformation, drawing on printing, also profited from increased educa­
tional opportunities for laypeople in Europe, which engendered a critical
spirit among students and scholars. The number of universities rose steadily
during the last half of the fifteenth century. More people could read than
ever before—although in most places no more than 5 to 10 percent of the
population. Lutherans and Calvinists stressed the importance of education
as essential to individual and critical study of the Scriptures, and de­
emphasized the clergy’s role in religious instruction.
During the Reformation, princes and ecclesiastical leaders intensified
their efforts to secure religious conformity by controlling what people read.
The “blue library” (so called because small books or pamphlets were
wrapped in blue paper) helped diffuse pamphlets deemed acceptable and
sold at a low price by itinerant peddlers. Each Western European country
had such a “literature of bits and pieces.” Didactic stories were meant to
instruct people about religious events, saints, and ideals approved by the
Church, and to distance them from the “superstitions” of popular culture.
Yet many people living in England probably still knew far more about Robin
Hood than they did about the Bible. A chapbook (a small book of popular lit­
erature) published in Augsburg in 1621 told the story of Saint George slay­
ing the dragon. The Catholic hierarchy removed the dragon from the story,
while Protestants left out Saint George.

Popular Rituals and Festivals

Protestant ministers, like their Catholic counterparts, tried to root out

such rituals as baptizing a child by dunking her three times for good luck.

Songs rife with pagan imagery had survived virtually unchanged since

medieval times. Religion and magic remained closely intertwined; the

Catholic Church had been unable to eradicate the difference in the popu­

lar mind between prayer and good luck charms, for example.

Many a village became the site of an elaborate tug-of-war between state

and ecclesiastical authorities and ordinary people. The clergy, often previ­

ously active participants in festive occasions, were caught in the middle

and moved away from what they considered “profane” amusements. The

Catholic hierarchy tried to suppress some popular festivals and rein in