the unexpected side trips of history

'The mass production of indulgences illustrates rather neatly the sort of change that often goes overlooked, so that its conswquences are more difficult to reckon with than prehaps they need be.' - Elizabeth, Eisenstein, The emergence of print culture in the West: Defining the initial shift, chapter 2 of The Printing revolution in Early Modern Europe, Cambridge, 1993

so mass produced indulgences meant you could sell more and possibly that they also became cheaper and hence a very good source of funding for when you are rebuilding the centeral cathedral of chrisendom (after having pulled down the one St Peter built). So the role of printing in the protestant reformation increases, it already meant more widely available bibles and that the textual criticism promoted by humanism reached a wider audience.

'Interesking, very Interesking'