SOURCE: "From Polemic to Propaganda: The Development of Mass Persuasion in the Late Sixteenth Century," in Archive for Reformation History, Vol. 73, 1982, pp. 175-95.

In the essay that follows, Chrisman argues that the pamphlets distributed by both Protestants and Catholics during the Reformation were an early form of political propaganda.

Polemic can be defined as a controversial argument, a discussion in which opposite views are presented and maintained by opponents. It connotes a two-way process, a dialogue, although it may be a dialogue between the deaf. Propaganda lacks that quality of interchange. It is one-sided, a systematic attempt to propagate a particular opinion or doctrine. Its purpose is to influence men's opinions and attitudes and thus their actions and behaviour.¹ In the sixteenth century ideological formulations experienced the shift from polemic argument to propaganda. Printing presses made it possible to develop new forms of mass persuasion which were directed...