Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
  1. Home
  2. Search

Refine search

Refine search

Access:
Content type:
Publication date:
Apply   From and To filters
Subject: Show more
Journals Show more
Publishers: Show more
Societies Show more
Series: Show more
Collections: Show more

Actions for selected content:

Select all | Deselect all
  • View selected items
  • Export citations
  • Download PDF (zip)
  • Save to Kindle
  • Save to Dropbox
  • Save to Google Drive

Save Search

You can save your searches here and later view and run them again in "My saved searches".

Please provide a title, maximum of 40 characters.
Cancel
×

1 results

  • 28 - Press, politics and religion

  • from III - THE LAY READER
  • Edited by Lotte Hellinga, J. B. Trapp
  • Book:
    The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain
    Published online:
    28 March 2008
    Print publication:
    09 December 1999, pp 576-607

  • Summary

    Politics and organized religion are each branches of the persuasive arts. With the invention of the press, the printed word was immediately seized upon by the Church as a rapid and effective means of disseminating doctrine, and seeking support and money. The first monarch to make regular use of printed propaganda, was Henry VII. The papal dispensation allowing his marriage to Elizabeth of York on 18 March 1486 was printed in an English translation by William de Machlinia. The Ordenaunces of warre, printed in May 1492, is the first extant printed document to bear the royal arms. The political agenda during 1512-13 effectively made the press an extremely useful and controllable mechanism of government. Probably at the end of 1512, the impressor regius printed a charter of a bull of Julius II which announced the formation of the Holy League, declared Louis XII an enemy of the Church, and absolved his subjects from allegiance to their monarch.