Treasures from the London Library: Visual propaganda during the Reformation

The use of images in religious and political propaganda is not a 16th century invention. But during the Reformation, Catholics and Protestants alike made use of their printing presses to disseminate their ideas. These printed manifestos were sometimes accompanied by striking illustrations. The images aimed either to ennoble the author through heroic associations or to insult and ridicule the author’s opponents through irreverent caricatures. The London Library holds several books with examples of both Catholic and Lutheran visual propaganda.

An example of Catholic Tudor propaganda can be found in Assertio septem sacramentorum aduersus Martin. Lutheru[m], a book written (or perhaps only commissioned) by Henry VIII and printed in London in 1521 in reply to Martin Luther’s On the Babylonian captivity of the Church. The title page of Henry’s book, where he defends the Seven Sacraments, depicts Gaius Mutius ‘Scaevola’. According to legend, Mutius was a Roman hero from the 3rd century BC, who entered the camp of the besieging Etruscan king, Lars Porsenna in order to murder him. The right-hand side of the illustration shows Mutius mistakenly killing the wrong man. The left, depicts the moment when the captured Mutius is interrogated by Porsenna and shows the Roman placing his right hand in the fire to prove his courage, while telling the Etruscan king that 300 other men have sworn to die in defence of Rome. The legend says that Porsenna, impressed by this show of bravery, decided to abandon his campaign and to release Gaius Mutius who was thereafter known as ‘Scaevola’.

Henry’s message to the Pope is very clear. He was using this imagery to portray himself as an heroic defender of Rome and hoped to gain favour with the Pontiff at a time when England was a lesser European power. He commissioned a special presentation copy to be given to Leo X, who, after reading it, conferred the title ‘Defender of the Faith’ upon the English king.

Martin Luther’s reaction to this book was quite different to that of the Pope and the very next year he printed a reply in Wittenberg under the title Contra Henricum regem angliae. He refers to Henry as a comic jester, a frivolous buffoon, a damnable and offensive worm and a Thomist swine. The look and layout of the title page is similar to that of Henry’s book, but instead of having a narrative scene at the bottom it is flanked by two figures: a jester or troubadour, on the left, blowing on a wind instrument, and a fat cleric with a pig’s head on the right.

Compared to Henry’s use of iconography, Lutheran propaganda printed in Wittenberg is much more direct, even crude. The chief illustrator of the German Reformation was Lucas Cranach the Elder, court artist in Wittenberg and close personal friend of Luther’s; facts which did not stop him from working for Catholic patrons as well as Protestant ones. The following example shows the contempt Luther felt for a figure and an institution which he saw as being thoroughly corrupt.

Luther’s Wider das Bapstum zu Rom vom Teuffel gestifft, (Against the Papacy founded by the Devil) was printed 1545, only a year before the Reformer’s death. The title page depicts the Pope with ass’s ears sitting on a pyre erected in the mouth of Hell, represented by an enormous monster. The Pope, with hands held together in prayer is surrounded by demons who fly around him and hold the papal tiara above his head.  

But Henry VIII and the Pope were not the only subjects of Lutheran ‘cartoons’. In the second half of the 16th century, theological differences created a growing conflict between Lutherans and Calvinists. Zacharias ‘Rivander’ Bachmann, a Lutheran clergyman, wrote Lupus excoriatus (the wolf stripped of its skin), printed in 1591. The title of the book alone leaves us in no doubt as to the opinion orthodox Lutherans had of Zwinglians and Calvinists. Inside the book, we find an illustration of the ‘Calvinist wolves of discord’ dressed in monks’ habits and devouring a sheep labelled ‘concordia’. The sheep represents the Concordia Wittenbergensis, a failed attempt at bringing Lutherans and Zwinglians together in 1536. The caption below the illustration reads: Matth. 7.: Beware the false prophets coming in sheepskins to you, but inside they are rapacious wolves etc. 

Looking at these images we see two very different styles, which is only to be expected considering the two very different purposes of the men who commissioned them. On the one hand, we have Henry Tudor, the consummate politician using ancient legends to gain favour with the Pope in order to increase his power and influence in Europe. To this end, he used a subtle message that only an educated elite would have been able to decipher. Luther and his followers, on the other hand, do not seek any material gain. Luther was only concerned with the correct interpretation of the Scriptures and with making religion more accessible to ordinary people. The only purpose of his visual propaganda was to expose the corruption he saw in his enemies. For this he used simple images of savage clarity that anyone would have been able to understand instantly.

Dunia Garcia-Ontiveros is Head of Retrospective Cataloguing at the London Library. The London Library's Retrospective Cataloguing Project was launched in 2000 with the aim to transfer the Library's entire catalogue to computerized form.