As Rome prepared the heavy artillery, Luther fired off more salvos, with the help of the press. His sermons, tracts and polemics, all in German... streamed from presses by the hundreds of thousands... According to one estimate, a third of all books printed in Germany between 1518 and 1525 were by him. Pause to consider that figure. Of course, printing was in its infancy, but Germany at the time was turning out about a million books a year, of a which a third – 300,000- were by Luther. No comparison with the modern world stands up, but it would be the equivalent of one author selling almost 300 million books in Britain (which prints 800million a year) or 700 million in the US, every year, for seven years running

John Man, Gutenberg: How One Man Remade the World With Words, 2002

Indeed, a veritable fever for translation overtook Europe in the 16th century. It was not confined to the Bible, but extended as well to philosophical treatises, poetry, histories and plays.

John Calvin was the first to write a scholarly treatise in a modern language. He originally wrote his Institutes of the Christian Religion in Latin – in order, he said, that it might reach the learned of all lands. Five years later, wishing to reach the faithful among his countrymen, he translated it into French. Calling on his training in logic and law, he wrote in a style that was simple and direct, and he initiated the lucidity that to this day characterizes the French language.

The next step was to write in French to being with. This practice was not actually a product of 16th century; the French had been writing poetry, romances, and comic tales in their own language since medieval times. But with the influx of Renaissance ideals from Italy, the French began to graft rhetoric and vocabulary onto their own French language, allowing the French language to be used for more serious subjects like the Bible. Once this began to happen, France witnessed an upwelling of literary activity, combining both medieval and Renaissance element.

Edith Simon, The Reformation, 1966-

Woodcut print picture in Luther’s bible, 1534

Evolution of English Bibles,from William Tyndale’s pioneering vernacular translation of 1525-1535 to the eloquent King James Bible of 1611, drew on a rapidly expanding body of translations and scholarly editions. But most influential was the vigorous, direct language that Tyndale had written in the hope that even “a boy that driveth the plow” could understand Scriptures