The
Spread of Reformed Protestantism: The Evidence of Publishing
Beginning
in the 1550s, Reformed Protestantism
spread rapidly from its principal base in Geneva and from the lesser,
northern
center in Emden. During the 1540s, Geneva had become one of many
refuges
for people exiled from their home countries for reasons of belief;
another
such center was the Rhineland in Germany, whose Reformed congregations
took in exiles from England, France, and the Walloon portions of the
Netherlands;
Emden, too, received exiles from the Netherlands. The surge in
missionary
activity, however, dated only from the 1550s. Its effect on the demand
for Calvinist confessional literature can be discerned in these data
from
Geneva and Emden: in the half-decade after missions began, the volume
of
book publishing in Geneva more than doubled, from about twenty editions
per year to nearly fifty in the peak year (1561).
Emden was less
significant
as a source of missionary preachers, but the effect of Calvinism's
spread
on its publishing sector was no less profound. The following chart
describes
book production and distinguishes among the various languages of
publication
in use there -- Latin, High German, Low German, and Dutch. The city of
Emden was subject to a ruling dynasty with strong Lutheran leanings,
but
the city managed to introduce Reformed doctrine and practice despite
this
and quickly became a refuge for Dutch and English religious dissenters.
This is reflected in the surge of publications for a Dutch-reading
audience:
in the decade of the 1550s and 1560s, Dutch crowded out all other
languages
of publication.
