Question

Which of the following best explains why the spread of the printing press encouraged the spread of new religious ideas?

Answer 1

Answer:

The correct answer is D. The printing press allowed people to bypass the Catholic Church’s traditional monopoly on the production of religious texts.

Explanation:

The printing press, created by Charles Gutenberg around 1440, became a machine capable of creating literary productions in an automated way, eliminating the manual work of creating books that until then was carried out.

This task of artisan book production was carried out by Catholic monks of the Middle Ages, who, of course, only produced books that were related to their religious and political ideas. Thus, with regard to religion, the literary monopoly of the Catholic Church prevented other religions from creating their own books and, therefore, from transmitting their teachings. For this reason, the creation of the printing press, by breaking this monopoly, facilitated the transmission and expansion of new ideologies and religious beliefs, such as Protestantism.