Venice, Politics, and Printing: Responses to the Reformation
Once Martin Luther, in 1517, posted his 95 Theses Europe was shaken. His actions led directly to the establishment of a Protestant Church, and the renovation of the practices of the Catholic Church, and also indirectly to the Thirty Years War (dates here). Venice sat at a crossroad of eastern and western Europe and played a leading part in the proliferation of Protestant and anti-papal printed propaganda, despite that the Republic was a Catholic State. However, the history of Venice and its governmental policies reveal that Venice utilized the power of the printing press to assert its independence from Rome and to make profit.
