16Hit1600
Craft and StructureVery hardTwo historians on printing and the Reformation

Craft and Structure practice question

Text 1 The printing press was the engine of the Reformation. Pamphlets could be printed by the thousand and carried across Europe in weeks, so that ideas which would once have died in a single town reached a continent. Text 2 If presses drove the Reformation, the regions with the most presses should have been the first and firmest to adopt it. They were not: some of the best-supplied printing towns stayed loyal to the old church, while regions with hardly a press converted early. Preaching and the choices of local rulers mattered more than the supply of pamphlets.

How would the author of Text 2 most likely respond to the central claim of Text 1?

  1. A. By arguing that the geography of printing does not match the geography of the Reformation, so the press cannot have been its main driver.Correct
  2. B. By denying that pamphlets were printed in large numbers.
  3. C. By agreeing that the press was the engine of the Reformation.
  4. D. By arguing that preaching was impossible without printed texts.

Answer: A. By arguing that the geography of printing does not match the geography of the Reformation, so the press cannot have been its main driver.

Text 2's mismatch argument.

Why the other answers are wrong

B. By denying that pamphlets were printed in large numbers.
Text 2 does not dispute the numbers.
C. By agreeing that the press was the engine of the Reformation.
Text 2 rejects the claim.
D. By arguing that preaching was impossible without printed texts.
Text 2 sets preaching against printing.

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