The Protestant Reformation and its Transformation of Society: The Rise of the Vernacular

Christine Binzel, Andreas Link and Rajesh Ramachandran

No 17818, CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers

Abstract: A distinct feature of the Protestant Reformation was Martin Luther’s intentional use of German, the primary vernacular language of the Holy Roman Empire, rather than Latin, in his writings. We provide empirical evidence that the reformers’ reliance on the vernacular had far-reaching consequences for the market of ideas at the city level, as it enabled a much broader share of the populace to participate in the consumption, creation, and dissemination of printed information. We document a significant increase in the printing of vernacular works after the start of the Reformation. In addition, the increased use of the vernacular expanded the ranks of authors, increased the supply of works from authors with a non-elite background, and widened the thematic coverage of printed works. Finally, the Reformation led to the rise of German schools, initiating a switch from Latin to German in the domain of education.

Keywords: Language; Misallocation; Ideas; Institutions (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E02 N13 Z12 Z13 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023-01
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17818 (application/pdf)
CEPR Discussion Papers are free to download for our researchers, subscribers and members. If you fall into one of these categories but have trouble downloading our papers, please contact us at subscribers@cepr.org

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:17818

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP17818

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers Centre for Economic Policy Research, 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by ().