It was to Koberger’s business advantage that the fiercer strife of the Reformation was delayed until his own career was at an end. As already indicated, the religious controversies and the strife which they engendered interfered seriously with the demand for existing literature. The lists of the German publishers of the first decade of the sixteenth century, were devoted almost exclusively to editions of the Fathers and to works of doctrine or of devotion prepared for Catholic readers, together with editions of certain selected classics. The Lutheran movement lessened to a very great extent the demand for these three classes of books. With such burning issues before them as were presented by the leaders on either side of the great controversy, the people no longer had leisure for pagan writers or for old-time theological writings. While large numbers were absorbed in the tracts coming from Wittenberg, the others whose sympathies and belief remained with the Church of Rome were more interested in the pamphlets of writers like Eck or Cochläus, than in the _Confessions_ of S. Augustine or the treatises of S. Jerome. The publishers heretofore devoted to theology, who were unwilling to place their imprints upon the works of the Lutherans, and who were also out of sympathy with the bitter and often by no means scholarly pamphlets of their opponents, found their business seriously undermined by the great contest which was dividing Germany. While the Reformation did very much to increase the demand for printed material and to further the business of a number of publishers and booksellers throughout Germany, it had a disastrous effect upon the business of the Kobergers, and was an important factor in bringing that business to a close. A further important cause of the weakening of the foundations of the concern was the impairment of the capital, caused by the withdrawal from year to year of the amounts due to the long series of heirs, but few of whom were prepared to retain any interest in the book business. Several of the sons and grandsons returned to the old occupation of the Kobergers, and became workers in gold and silver.