Francis Foster

And yet, on the river, 10 feet from shore, in the current, you were safe.

And your cargo was safe, for the most part.

And that's not to say that all Protestants were united either.

Protestants executed Protestants.

These religious wars were intense.

But just as the Gutenberg in the city of Mainz, that's sort of on the east bank or the left side of the, looking from above, of the Rhine River,

Almost in the dead middle of the German Rhine is Mainz.

And in that city, not far from the docks, is this guy, Gutenberg, with the movable type printing presses.

There are others who have similar devices, maybe not as good as his.

And he's printing the Bible, and he makes so much money printing the Bible in the vernacular, he can afford to take speculation in printing other things.

So he prints catalogs, he prints books,

opinions, he prints religious tracts, including for denominations that he doesn't share the values of, with the idea that even if it's banned in Mainz, he can bundle it down to the docks, put it on a boat, and the city that's paying for it further down the Rhine will take the cargo and he'll make the cash.

So as long as he's not caught with it, everything's fine.

So why does all this matter?

Well, it is competition of ideas.

And remember, in medieval times, all political ideas are really offshoots of religious ideas.

And the core Protestant idea at this time is that you have a personal relationship with God.

You discover who he is.

in your personal journey and you have, to use a horrible modern phrase, your truth.

And no one, and by the way, that's where that idea comes from.