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When Johannes Gutenberg (1400–1468) introduced movable type to Europe around 1439, it ushered in the Printing Revolution, which would eventually change the socioeconomic framework in the Western world because knowledge and economic power could now expand beyond the Church and the elites to the common people. The printing press became a powerful symbol and played an important role in the Renaissance, the Reformation, the Scientific Revolution, and Enlightenment. It could be argued that without the printing press, Church dominance could have lasted beyond the fifteenth century.