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Luther's personal network of relationships was a particularly important factor in the spread of the Reformation in the early years after 31 October 1517. This is the conclusion of a study by project leader Sascha Becker from the ROCKWOOL Foundation Berlin (RFBerlin).
‘Luther's influence was felt primarily through letters, his visits to other cities and his students at the University of Wittenberg,’ says RFBerlin researcher Becker from the University of Warwick. Where Luther corresponded with residents 46 per cent of the cities had become Protestant by 1530. Where Luther did not correspond with anyone, only 17 per cent of cities were Protestant by then. Of the cities he visited, as many as 50 per cent were Protestant by 1530, while only 16 per cent of the cities he did not visit were Protestant by that time.
The same was true of Luther's students. Of the towns that sent students to Wittenberg, 38 per cent had adopted the Reformation by 1530. Only 7 per cent of the towns that did not send students adopted the Reformation so early.
Sascha Becker 0044 / 78 78 75 78 11; S.O.Becker@warwick.ac.uk
“Multiplex Network Ties and the Spatial Diffusion of Radical Innovations: Martin Luther's Leadership in the Early Reformation”, by Sascha Becker, Yuan Hsiao, Steven Pfaff, Jared Rubin. In: American Sociological Review, Volume 85, Issue 5: 857-894. September 2020.
https://doi.org/10.1177/000312242094805
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