Printing, both with and without movable type, had been pioneered long before in China and Korea: it was useful for the Buddhist practice of reproducing prayers in large quantities to gain merit. When the technology arrived in Europe, it would quickly be put to a similar use churning out papal indulgences—that is, tickets reducing the amount of punishment to be expected in the afterlife. Up to ten thousand such indulgences were printed by Johannes Gutenberg, who would be better remembered for producing the first major European printed book: his great 1455 Bible.
