The movable type printing press was invented in the mid-fifteenth century in Germany by the goldsmith Johannes Gutenberg. The press, which could produce up to 3,600 pages a day, was a dramatic change from previous ways of reproducing texts, which could produce at best a few pages a day. This was transformative for the spread of texts and ideas, and within a few decades, by the start of the sixteenth century, hundreds of printing presses existed throughout Europe.
The printing press heralded changes throughout the Western world, not the least of which was its challenging the hegemony held by the Catholic Church over religious ideas and attendant beliefs. With the advent of the printing press, religious texts could be distributed more readily, giving space to individual interpretations and finding mainstream audiences. Most notable was the spread of the work of Martin Luther, which led to the development of the Protestant Reformation throughout Europe.
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