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History Unwrapped – August 2005

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The majority of laborers throughout the seventeenth century were white indentured servants. “Indentured servitude” means working off a debt a person cannot repay. The person worked without wages, usually for a period of five to seven years, in exchange for payment of the person’s passage to the American colonies. The contract, called an “indenture,” entitled the servant to food, clothing, shelter, and medical attention. Devised by the Virginia Company in the late 1610s, the system provided much needed cheap labor. It is estimated that one-half to two-thirds of all European immigrants to the colonies participated in the system, some voluntarily, some as victims of penal servitude. More often than not, the indentured servants were shocked by their new conditions. Rather than finding venues in which they could practice their profession, like gardens and orchards, overseers marched servants out to the fields. Many died, attempted to return to England, or ran away. In addition to mistreatment, many servants also encountered contract extension, a popular punishment of planters for rowdy indentures. Even the worst human abuses did not take the mortal tolls that the climate of Virginia claimed. The temperate springs and falls, and sweltering summers in the New World, created a market for fresh servants.

Before Andrew Carnegie earned his millions in steel, he made his first fortune through investments—and never used a penny of his own money. Twelve-year-old Andrew took a factory job for $1.20 a week shortly after his poverty-stricken family arrived in America from Scotland in 1848. Four years later, he went to work for Tom Scott of the Pennsylvania Railroad who taught young Andrew the art of investing. Carnegie learned how to use dividends from stock to make payments against loans. When the loans were paid off, the dividends were his. He would use this system repeatedly to build his assets and income without having to invest his own capital. Though Carnegie would go on to amass a staggering fortune in the steel business, he would always remember his very first monthly dividend of $10. Carnegie gave away much of his vast fortune, funding libraries and museums.

The clergy helped lead the resistance and independence movement in America. They were often described as the “black regiment” because of the black robes they wore while preaching. Before marching off to join Washington’s army, Lutheran pastor John Muhlenberg delivered a powerful sermon from Ecclesiastes 3:1–8 that concluded with these words:

The Bible tells us there is a time for all things and there is a time to preach and a time to pray but the time for me to preach has passed away, and there is a time to fight, and that time has come now. Now is the time to fight! Call for recruits! Sound the drums!

Then Muhlenberg took off his clerical robe to reveal the uniform of a Virginia colonel. Grabbing his musket from behind the pulpit, he donned his colonel’s hat and marched off to war. There is a war going on in America today. It has not come to the force of arms, but it is a war nonetheless. Pastors should thunder from the pulpits where the battles are waging, and what we can do to engage in the fight.

On July 20, 1944, Claus Schenk Graf von Stauffenberg planted a bomb during a meeting at Adolf Hitler’s headquarters in Rastenberg, East Prussia, which is now Poland. The bomb, contained in a briefcase, exploded, killing four. Hitler survived with only minor injuries, including burns, a concussion, and a loss of hearing. The injuries were not serious enough for him to cancel his meeting with Italian dictator Benito Mussolini later in the day. The bomb had been placed on the right side of one of the oak table’s two heavy support legs, shielding Hitler from the major force of the blast. After planting the bomb, Stauffenberg left the room. The officer who took his place at the table noticed the briefcase, and with his foot pushed it further under the table.

Stauffenberg waited for the explosion and assumed Hitler had been killed. Big mistake. He flew back to Berlin where he and his co-conspirators hoped to stage a coup de état and install a new government. It was not to be. Hours after the failed assassination attempt, Stauffenberg and other army officers implicated in the plot were rounded up and executed on Hitler’s orders. Eight of the conspirators were hanged with piano wire from meat-hooks. Their executions were filmed and shown to senior members of the Nazi Party and the armed forces as a not so subtle warning to future traitors to the Nazi cause.

Sixty years later, on July 20, 2004, Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder led a series of tributes to the conspirators at a ceremony in Berlin. At the army headquarters where Stauffenberg was executed by firing squad for his role in the assassination attempt, Prime Minister Schroeder said Germans should remember all those who stood up to the Nazis. The Stauffenberg plotters are today regarded by most Germans as heroes for their attempt to free Germany from the Nazi regime and its megalomaniac dictator.

August 25, 2005 – God’s Word Once Ruled Yalies

Yale College was founded in 1701 because many people in New England felt that Harvard was drifting away from the Calvinistic theology on which it had been founded. In the early 1700s, all Yale undergraduates studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew followed by logic, metaphysics, math, physics, and theology. They did it all—lectures, discussions, and exams—in Latin! Today, Yale students can choose from among 2,000 courses, but any inkling of the school’s Calvinistic beginnings is hard to find. The college where one of the early rules stated: “All Scholars Shall Live Blameless Lives, according to the Rules of God’s Word, diligently Reading the holy Scriptures the Fountain of Light and Truth; and constantly attend upon all the Duties of Religion both in Publick and Secret,” has, for the most part, forgotten its godly heritage.

No one wants to be called a “goody two-shoes”—someone who is prudish and self-righteous. But years ago American colonists considered the term “goody two-shoes” a compliment. The colonists believed that good literature had two purposes: to delight and to instruct. By the early eighteenth century interest in children's literature (and a rise in literacy) led to new markets and a flourishing of new publishers, particularly in England. Innovations in typography and printing allowed greater freedom in reproducing art through engraving, woodcut, etching, and aquatint, although illustrators were still largely anonymous and illustrations confined to frontispieces. One of the most popular fictional books in the colonies was The History of Little Goody Twoshoes, published by one of the most important early publishers, John Newberry. Goody (or Mrs.) Twoshoes was an industrious and godly woman who went through many trials but was eventually rewarded for her virtues.

Thomas Boreman was one of the first entrepreneurs to respond to the market with his miniature books entitled Gigantick Histories (1740–1743) as well as other illustrated books on subjects such as natural history. The most important of the early publishers was John Newbery (1713–1767). Newbery published vast quantities of children’s literature of all types as well as a wide range of books on reading, philosophy, and science, most covered in flowered and gilt Dutch paper and enlivened by simple woodcut illustrations. His first children’s book was A Little Pretty Pocket Book (1744), and one of the most popular was his 1765 History of Little Goody Two Shoes, regarded as the first novel written specifically for children (it is said to have been written for Newbery by Oliver Goldsmith).

If the guillotine had not put a bloody halt to the plan, the Pennsylvania backwoods might have become home to King Louis XVI and Queen Marie Antoinette of France.

When the French Revolution exploded in 1789, thousands of aristocrats fled to America, many congregating in Philadelphia. Several of these exiles hoped to create a haven for the royal family and other French refugees. Marquis de Lafayette’s brother-in-law purchased 2,400 acres on the Susquehanna River and lots up to 400 acres were offered to the French for two or three dollars an acre.

Just as the project was launched, the king was guillotined, but the French exiles still hoped to save their queen. One of the first houses to be built was for her—a grand two-storied structure with 16 fireplaces. The new colony was called Azilum (pronounced “asylum”), which reflected its stated purpose. The colony soon had 50 houses and 250 residents. But the queen was not among them. She lost her head before she could escape.

After a few years, the French, who preferred a more elegant life than what the rustic frontier offered, learned that they could obtain pardons. The exodus from Azilum began as they returned to their native France.

The idea of using balloons for transportation had always intrigued George Washington from the time of the first manned flight in Paris in 1783. When the greatest of the aeronauts, Jean Pierre Blanchard, crossed the Atlantic to give a demonstration, Washington was present.

The site chosen for the lift-off was the Walnut Street Prison courtyard in Philadelphia, the nation’s capital at the time. Arriving at 9:00 A.M., Washington presented Blanchard with a passport he himself had signed. Not knowing how far the balloonist might travel, Washington had thoughtfully prepared a passport, just in case. It would seem that the nation’s president had high hopes for Blanchard’s flight.

When the 46-minute flight ended in New Jersey, 15 miles away, Blanchard was met by two astonished farmers, one carrying a gun! Blanchard, who didn’t understand English, waved the paper with the presidential signature and produced a bottle of spirits. Fortunately for Blanchard, his actions lessened the tension, and he was given a warm reception and passage back to Philadelphia. The balloonist presented Washington with the first flag literally to fly over U.S. soil.

One of the accused witches of Salem, Massachusetts, was a former pastor of the Salem village church, George Burroughs. Although Burroughs was a minister, his brief stay in town had won him more enemies than friends. When he was charged with being a wizard, few locals would vouch for his character. The strange fact of the case was that Burroughs himself could not defend himself. In fact he even pretended to possess supernatural power. Eventually he was convicted, not of witchcraft, but of perjury! His compiled crimes cost him his life.

The girls who were involved in the initial accusations of the Salem witch-hunt claimed that they were bewitched by eating “witch cakes” which made them see weird visions and go into convulsions. Many people discount their story as mischievous childish pranks. One theory takes the “witch cake” story seriously. The story goes that the cake that the girls claimed they had eaten may have been made with grain contaminated with a hallucinogenic mushroom. If so, the girls could have been gradually ingesting a powerful drug similar to the drug known today as “acid.”

One of the strangest testimonies against an accused witch was the story confirmed by seven witnesses who claimed that a woman was so possessed of Satan that she floated to the ceiling of a room, and no one could pull her down.

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, individual freedom, either political or religious, was virtually unknown. Geneva was a good example. Before the city council had disestablished Roman Catholicism, the Church ruled the State through the Roman Catholic bishop. Afterwards, the State ruled the Church through the council. When John Calvin arrived at Geneva in August 1536, he was confronted with this unbiblical approach to government. Calvin's goal was to establish a Church governmentally independent of the council while assuring that the council would not be independent of God's law as it pertained to its civil jurisdiction. His tool in accomplishing this difficult task was the Word of God. He preached and lectured from the Bible every day. He knew that when changes came they would come from the bottom up--from the people who desired a true Reformation without revolution. Calvin drew a clear line of distinction between the civil magistrate, whose authority was confined to civil matters, and the elders of churches, whose authority was confined to ecclesiastical matters. He established in Geneva the biblical idea of the jurisdictional separation between Church and State. Contrary to popular opinion, Calvin did not set up a system of government in which the clergy dominated the city council. He was not even a citizen of Geneva until 1559, and he appeared before the council when he was called on to offer his opinions on theological issues. He never occupied a political or civil office in Geneva.

Ferdinand Magellan’s (c. 1470–1521) passage across the Pacific Ocean was one of the most grueling voyages of all of sea-faring history. The crossing took nearly four months through an open stretch of blistering heat. When the ships ran out of provisions, the starving crew began to mix sawdust into thin fish broth and to eat the ox hides that covered the mainyards of the ships. The ox hides were soaked in the sea for four or five days to soften them and then cooked for a few moments on top of hot coals. Even rats lurking in the ship’s filth became a prized delicacy. As the sailors began dying one by one, Magellan knew that the voyage had become a race for their very lives.

Magellan’s miscalculations of the circumference of the earth were compounded by corrupt suppliers in Seville. Magellan had specified and paid for food reserves to last a year and a half but only received provisions for a six-month voyage. On January 24, 1521, after two months of sailing across the Pacific, Magellan and his crew sighted land, an uninhabited island east of Tahiti. There they found sea birds, turtle eggs, crabs, and fish. After gorging themselves on these rare delicacies, they continued to sail west. By March 5, the remaining crew members were once again on the verge of starvation. The next day the island of Guam was sighted. Magellan named it and its neighbor, Rota, Islas de Ladrones (“Isles of Thieves”). When the natives boarded the ships they overran them and took everything that was not nailed down.

While Magellan planned and executed the voyage to circumnavigate the earth, he was killed by Philippine natives before he could complete his voyage. It was his second in command, Juan Sebastian del Caño, who led the remaining crew to the finish line. Del Caño received official credit for the accomplishment when King Charles greeted him and awarded him a coat of arms showing a castle, two crossed cinnamon sticks, three nutmegs, and twelve cloves, and above them a globe bearing the Latin motto Primus circumdedisti me, “Thou first circumnavigated me.”

Aristotle’s views on science, politics, and ethics had a profound effect on the way Europeans constructed their worldview. The Bible was often read through the lens of Aristotle’s writings. When the structure of the universe was being considered, the church adopted Aristotle’s geocentric—earth-centered—cosmology. The church’s battle with Galileo was a philosophical clash over whether Aristotle was right or wrong on this topic. As it turned out, Aristotle was wrong. Earth revolves around the Sun. In addition to cosmology, Aristotle’s views on ethical matters were also adopted by the church. This is certainly the case when the topic of slavery is considered. He wrote that “the lower sort are by nature slaves, and it is better for them as for all inferiors that they should be under the rule of a master. For he who participates in rational principles enough to apprehend, but not to have, such a principle is a slave by nature. Whereas the lower animals cannot even apprehend a principle; they obey their instincts. And indeed the use made of slaves and of tame animals is not very different; for both with their bodies minister to the needs of life. . . . It is clear, then, that some men are by nature free, and others slaves, and for these latter slavery is both expedient and right.” Aristotle’s views on slavery contributed to harsh working conditions among the indigenous people of the Caribbean and Central and South America.

Martin Luther's main goal in translating the Bible into German was to make God's Word available in words that men and women use in everyday speech. He recognized that "God is in every syllable. No iota [the smallest Greek letter] is in vain." Luther's translation had the effect of making Germany the first modern nation to adopt a single language over a cluster of regional dialects. Translating the New Testament was relatively easy for Luther. He only needed eleven weeks to complete his German version. The Old Testament, written in Hebrew and some Aramaic, was a different matter. With the help of friends, the task of translation took nine years! At one point he considered giving up the task. "How hard it is to make these Hebrew writers talk German," he complained. For example, sixteenth-century Germans had no knowledge of the chameleon. The closest Luther could come was the weasel. His complete German Bible, with a thoroughly revised New Testament translation, was completed in 1534. Before Luther's death in 1546 more than 750,000 copies of his various Bible translations were on the market.

The earliest version of the Pledge of Allegiance was written in August, 1892, by newspaperman Francis Bellamy, an admitted Socialist, and appeared The Youth’s Companion on September 8th. The pledge was first recited in public at a Columbus Day program on October 12, 1892, marking the 400th anniversary of Columbus's discovery of America. Some years later, the words “of the United States of America” were added after the word “flag” to create a sense of national loyalty among immigrants who chose America as their new home. The words “under God,” taken from Abraham Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, were not in the original pledge. The words were added by an act of Congress in 1954. When President Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969) signed this act, he said, in part: “In this somber setting, this law and its effects today have profound meaning. In this way we are reaffirming the transcendence of religious faith in America's heritage and future; in this way we shall constantly strengthen those spiritual weapons which forever will be our country's most powerful resource in peace and war.” On June 14 of the same year President Eisenhower stood on the steps of the Capitol Building and, for the first time, recited the revised pledge to the flag that included the phrase “one nation under God,” a rebuke to the atheism of Communism that posed as America’s greatest worldview threat at the time.

Pirates are not just storybook figures. During the early 1700s, there were plenty of them around, attacking ships and stealing their cargo. Many pirates lived in the islands off North Carolina and openly sold their captured goods in port cities like Charleston. The local authorities either were too scared to arrest them or were bribed into protecting these thieving men. The most notorious pirate was an Englishman named Edward Teach, better known as Blackbeard. This pirate was a rough one. He would enter battle with bits of smoldering rope tied to strands of his beard, creating the ghastly effect that his body was on fire. Blackbeard was not afraid of hand to hand combat. He captured ships, held passengers hostage, and demanded hefty ransom payments. Blackbeard later bought a house and settled down in North Carolina. The governor even granted Blackbeard an official pardon for his raid on Charleston, even though he continued his life of piracy. Blackbeard's career ended when Virginia’s governor launched two ships on a secret campaign to capture the notorious pirate. Blackbeard was cornered, but he defended himself valiantly, receiving over twenty major wounds before succumbing. The Virginians returned home victorious, proudly displaying Blackbeard's head from their mast.

One of the greatest pieces of English literature is the King James Version of the Bible. Prior to the KJV, the Geneva Bible was the translation of choice. Between 1560 and 1644, at least 144 editions appeared. King James I didn’t like the Geneva because of some of the notes that were added to the text of Scripture, especially those explaining Exodus 1:19 and 2 Chronicles 15:16, called the long-held doctrine of the divine right of kings, into question. The king considered the added comments, if taken seriously by the people, to be a threat to his authority as king. “I profess,” he said, “I could never yet see a Bible well translated in English, but that, of all, that of Geneva is the worst.” So out of his disdain for the Geneva translation and his belief in autocratic rule, the Authorized Version—The King James Bible—was born. “For fifty years the common people had loved the Geneva Version; it took forty years for the new one to replace this.”1 The phraseology of the KJV has become part of our common vocabulary: “apple of his eye,” “birds of the air,” “broken reed,” “clear as crystal,” “decently and in order,” “handwriting on the wall,” “labor of love, “lick the dust,” and too many more to list here. But there remains a curiosity about the literary splendor of the translation, especially the Psalms. Some have proposed that William Shakespeare had been asked to participate in the final editing of the translation. While there is no hard evidence for this claim, there are some interesting and coincidental curiosities. Shakespeare was baptized on April 26, 1564, which means he was probably born that year. The Authorized Version was going through its final revision in 1610. In 1610, Shakespeare would have been 46 years old. In the King James Version of Psalm 46, counting 46 words down from the top, we find the word “shake,” and counting 46 words up from the bottom, we find the word “spear,”2 giving us “Shake-speare.” Could it be that William Shakespeare encrypted his signature to tip off future readers that he had a hand in editing the king’s Bible?

1 Lawrence E. Nelson, Our Roving Bible: Tracking its Influence through English and American Life (New York: Abingdon-Cokesbury, 1955), 87.

2 Don’t count the three occurrences of “Selah.” They are not part of the Psalm.

Buildings in Washington D.C., with their columns and facades, are reminiscent of Classical architecture. In addition, some American political writers called themselves by Latin names like Cato and Publius. The authors of The Federalist, a collection of essays written in favor of the Constitution, did not use their real names. The 85 essays were attributed to the pseudonym “Publius,” but in actuality were written by James Madison, Alexander Hamilton, and John Jay. Publius Valerius Publicola (“friend of the people”) was a Roman consul. George Washington was known as “Cincinnatus,” a Roman general and patriot (519–439 B.C.) who gave up supreme power and went home to his farm after rescuing the Roman army which had been besieged by hill tribes. You can even see an enormous marble sculpture of our first president—wearing a toga! Our early constitutional framers looked to some elements of the Roman Republic and its form of civil government—not to the Roman Empire and its pagan religious practices—as a model for their political ideas. The word “Senate” is also borrowed from the Romans.

The smallpox virus had its greatest impact on the Indian populations in what is now Central and South America. Some historians have theorized that “it was not Cortez’ soldiers but smallpox that conquered the kingdom of the Aztecs in Mexico in 1520.”1 While this might be an exaggeration, smallpox certainly took its toll. It’s no wonder that the “Aztecs couldn’t believe that such a disease could be considered small and called it the `big pox.’“2

The psychological impact of smallpox was also great. Between 1518 and 1531 nearly one-third of the total Indian population died of smallpox while the Spanish remained mysteriously unaffected. The Indians interpreted this to mean that their gods had failed them. In a deeply religious and superstitious society this assessment undermined the will to resist and made it possible for the Spanish to conquer what was left of the well-established pagan Aztec population.

Smallpox was followed by waves of measles, influenza, and typhus. “By the end of the sixteenth century, it is estimated that up to 90 percent of the indigenous populations had died in the successive waves of disease, and the Spanish began importing slaves to meet the labor demands created by catastrophic disease mortality.”3 The Aztecs contributed to their own demise through human sacrifice. As many as fifty thousand people a year were sacrificed “as a gourmet source of protein for its privileged elites.”4 But, that’s another story for another time.5

1 Carl Olof Jonsson and Wolfgang Herbst, The Sign of the Last Days—When? (Atlanta, GA: Commentary Press, 1987), 104.

2 Andrew Nikiforuk, The Fourth Horseman: A Short History of Epidemics, Plagues, Famines, and Other Scourges (New York: M. Evans & Co., 1991), 72.

3 Robert E. McGrew, Encyclopedia of Medical History (London: Macmillan Press, 1985), 314.

4 Nikiforuk, The Fourth Horseman, 70.

5 Alfonso Caso, The Aztecs: People of the Sun (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma Press, [1958] 1968). Also see John Eidsmoe, Columbus and Cortez, Conquerors for Christ (Green Forest, AR: New Leaf Press, 1992) and Paul DeParrie and Mary Pride, Ancient Empires of the New Age (Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1989), 103–117.

The original draft of William Bradford’s Of Plymouth Plantation has an unusual history. In 1650 Bradford finished the book, and his manuscript was passed on through many generations. But when the English invaded the colonies during the 1770s in the War for Independence, Bradford’s manuscript was taken, along with many other books. It disappeared until 1793, when Bradford’s original papers were once again located. If you think they were found in a museum under glass, you are wrong. They were found in a grocery store in Nova Scotia, Canada, where they were being used to wrap fish and pickles!

In 1504, while shipwrecked in Jamaica, Columbus and his crew had a tough time trading with the natives for food. The Indians quickly became tired of the hawk bells and trinkets the Spaniards had brought with them, and their food supply became scarce. Columbus knew he had to take drastic measures. He told the Indians that if they did not keep his crew supplied with food, his God would get angry and make the Moon “die.” The Indians were skeptical. Was Columbus bluffing? Columbus turned to his copy of the Regiomontanus Ephemerides Astronomicae, or “Astronomical Diary.” This book was printed in Nuremberg, Germany, in the late 1400s and complied by Johann Müller von Königsberg (1436–1476), and was best known by the Latin pseudonym Regiomontanus, or “King’s Mountain.” After consulting the almanac Columbus was able to calculate that in three days (on February 29, 1504) there would be a total eclipse of the Moon. The Moon did “die,” and the astonished natives agreed to keep this “sorcerer” happy and well-fed.

You've heard of Stonehenge in England. But did you know that there are similar configurations outside England, including throughout the northeast United States? In New Hampshire there is a place called Mystery Hill covering about twenty acres where large stones have been arranged in a strange pattern. Some of the stones are built up to make odd rooms and passages. It is speculated that Mystery Hill, and other sites like it, were once places of pagan worship and astronomical ceremony. Ancient words have been found inscribed on its stones. One translation of the inscription reads, "To Baal of the Canaanites, this in dedication."

The pyramid-shaped temples of some Native American tribes were not unique to their times. Ancient Babylon and even more ancient Sumeria are just two cultures who built these tiered ziggurats to worship their pagan gods. These massive buildings were constructed of mud bricks forming multiple stories, with a great, steep staircase leading to the top. In fact, ziggurat is the Assyrian world for "mountain top." You are probably already familiar with one famous (or infamous) ziggurat-type building: the Tower of Babel.

Theories of the national heritage of Columbus abound. Columbus has been called an Islamic merchant from North Africa, a Jewish convert to Christianity, an Englishman, Portuguese, Corsican, a Spaniard, a French pirate named Coullon, a black from Africa, and even an American Indian who had stumbled across the ocean and wanted to return home. The best supported theory is that he was Italian, from the city of Genoa. As famous as Columbus is today, no one painted his portrait during his lifetime. Although we do not know exactly what Columbus looked like, some of his contemporaries described him as “A man of good size and appearance, taller than most . . . eyes lively and other features of the face in good proportion, the hair chestnut brown, and the face somewhat ruddy.” Columbus might have remained a footnote in history if Washington Irving, the author of “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” and “Rip Van Winkle,” had not published a three-volume biography (1828–1831) of the “Admiral of the Ocean Sea” as a later biographer described him. Although Irving established Columbus’ rightful place in history, he also told a few fibs about the explorer, the most egregious being the claim that Columbus wanted to prove the Earth was round when everyone in believed it was flat. The truth is, all the scientists and cartographers in the fifteenth century believed the Earth was round. The dispute was how big around the Earth was. On this point, Columbus was wrong and his critics right. Columbus charted his way to the Indies partly using an ancient map of the world drawn by a Greek astronomer, Claudius Ptolemy. Ptolemy had drawn his map in the second century, and although he accounted for the world being round, he made the major mistake of leaving out a huge land mass that he did not know was there: today’s North and South America.

In the book 1,000 Years, 1,000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium, Johannes Gutenberg (1394?–1468), inventor of the printing press, is first on the list.1 The first book that came off his press was the Bible.The process of preparing a press for printing a book has not always been as easy as it is today. By the tenth century, the Chinese were printing books using carved wooden blocks. Medieval European printers followed a similar method. This was a long and tedious process. The Chinese tried to speed up the process by making ceramic characters. Since thousands of such characters were needed, the project was abandoned. Gutenberg’s printing press was revolutionary because it featured movable metal type that kept its shape after numerous impressions. Individual letters were cast from master molds and could be put together in any combination to form any word. The type was then inked and pressed down onto paper with a large wooden screw. Although still a slow process (by today's standards), Gutenberg's press paved the way for modern mass media, although almost no one today uses hard type to typeset books. Most if not all books are typeset electronically. Gutenberg captured the true significance of his invention with these words: “Religious truth is captive in a small number of little manuscripts, which guard the common treasures instead of expanding them. Let us break the seal which binds these holy things; let us give wings to truth that it may fly with the Word, no longer prepared at vast expense, but multiplied everlastingly by a machine which never wearies—to every soul which enters life.”

1 Agnes Hooper Gottlieb, Henry Gottlieb, Barbara Bowers, and Brent Bowers, 1,000 Years, 1000 People: Ranking the Men and Women Who Shaped the Millennium (New York: Kodansha International, 1998).