Forerunner of the forgotten era of "printing civilization"

Obviously, "printed pamphlets" are easier to popularize than "printed books," which are still regarded as "works of art." On the one hand, the "printed book culture" in the "first hundred years" has been slow to "leave a deep impression", on the other hand, far less than a hundred years, "printed pamphlets" just like its "beloved" name, soon "flourishing" : "Printing and cheap pamphlets already existed, and both had an unexpected boom with the Reformation." [6] In 1517, Martin Luther published his famous 95 Theses, which officially kicked off the Reformation. With the help of a publisher friend, Luther's Theses were printed and sold as pamphlets, "and in fourteen days the theses were all over Germany; Four weeks later, almost the entire Christian world was familiar with them. "[7] At this point, only 62 years had passed since 1455, when Gutenberg used his movable type to produce the first printed Bible.

Moreover, the "vigorous development" of the pamphlet was not limited to Germany, in addition to the Spain and Italy mentioned by Peter Burke, France, Britain and other countries were also involved. According to the famous French politician and historian Guizot in the 18th century, England during the bourgeois revolution was also "full of pamphlets" : "England in 1636 was full of pamphlets against the favor of the Catholics, against the chaos of the court, and especially against the dictatorship of Lauder and the bishops." The Star Court has severely punished the publication of such pamphlets more than once, but now there are more pamphlets than ever before, and they are so intense and so widely circulated that people are eager to read them first. These pamphlets were found in every town, even in the remotest villages, where daring smugglers made a fortune by bringing them in by the thousands from Holland; Commenting on the pamphlets in church." [8] Contemporary British scholar Joad Raymond has even argued that the "pamphlet" should be used as an important reference point for defining the mid-17th century in England: "The revolutionary years of the mid-17th century in England can be defined, to some extent, as the age of pamphlets or the widespread use of pamphlets in public debate." [9]

Pamphlet Empowerment: The reconstruction of Power structures in Early Modern Europe

According to the basic viewpoint of media environment school, media constitute the institutional and structural environment of human society and culture. In this environment, people are not only "mediated" to survive, but also "empowered" in a "mediated" way. The emergence of any new media means "empowerment and re-empowerment" [10]. For Europe in the early modern period, the "printed pamphlet", a new medium "loved by all", had a significant "empowerment" effect, which was concentrated in empowering various Reformed denominations, empowering the emerging bourgeoisie, empowering the ordinary people who had just begun to read.

The Reformation, which began in the early 16th century, was a profound adjustment of power structure in the early modern European society. On the one hand, it contributed to the collapse of the political and religious system dominated by the Roman Catholic Church, on the other hand, it laid the foundation of "Protestantism" - Lutheran, Calvinist and Anglican three "Protestant" denominations emerged one after another, and finally made the power structure of the whole Christianity show the "empowerment" of the "old Church" (Catholic) to "Protestant". During this period, in addition to oral public debate, the reformers' main medium was printed pamphlets. In the Middle Ages, the right to produce and enjoy parchment books and handwritten books was basically monopolized by the Holy See. Shortly after the invention of Gutenberg printing, printed books were still controlled by the elite class such as the church and the upper aristocracy in the form of "works of art" as mentioned above, and the supremacy of the church power was difficult to shake. The popularity of printed pamphlets provided a wide channel for religious reformers such as Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and Menno Simens to speak. Of the approximately 498 printed pamphlets published in Germany in 1523, 180 were published by Martin Luther. [11] After 1530, the publication of classical works almost ceased; Few books are published; They were replaced by the mass publication of polemical pamphlets "[12]. In a way, without the full "empowerment" of printed pamphlets, it is likely that the Reformation would not have been successful, or at least much less effective.

Another very significant "empowerment" shift in early modern European society was the adjustment of the concept of rights from "feudal kingship" to "natural human rights". Along with the emergence of capitalist economy, the emerging bourgeois intellectuals, through the two ideological and cultural revolutions of the Renaissance and the Enlightenment, finally dissolved the concept system of "divine right of Kings" and established the concept system of capitalist rights such as "separation of powers", "born free", "democracy" and "equality". In doing so, it was precisely because of the popularity of printed pamphlets that the late Renaissance reached the peak of the "pamphlet wars" : "The later stage of the development of humanism saw the contributions of many physicians, historians, and jurists who, in collaboration with scholarly printers, became advocates of the humanities." New departments were added to every graduate school, and there was a vigorous pamphlet war." [13] During the Enlightenment, although there was also the popularity of large printed books such as Diderot's Encyclopaedia, there were more flexible and inexpensive printed pamphlets. Voltaire, one of the most important leaders of the Enlightenment, used the pamphlet as his main tool of struggle: "A heavy 20-volume volume never initiates a revolution, but a thin pamphlet priced at 30 sous." [14] Obviously, behind the establishment of the various notions of rights of the new bourgeoisie, the printed pamphlet played an important "empowering" role.