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Relatively late, in the middle of the 16th century, the Reformation, mainly Lutheranism, spread to Slovenia, helping to create the foundations of the Slovenian literary language. In 1550, Primož Trubar published the first two books in Slovene, Katekizem and Abecednik (The Catechism and Abecedary). The Protestants published over 50 books in Slovene, including the first Slovenian grammar and, in 1584, Dalmatin’s translation of the Bible.
Primož Trubar is one of the most important pillars of Slovenia's cultural and national identity, and thus a figure who has inspired the following generations to take an active stand in preserving and promoting Slovenian language. The year 2008 marks the 500th anniversary of the birth of Primož Trubar (1508–1586), a Protestant reformer and the consolidator of the Slovenian literary language.
At the beginning of the 17th century, princely absolutism and the Catholic Church suppressed Protestantism, thereby hindering for a long period the development of literature in Slovenian. The Enlightenment in Central Europe, particularly under the Habsburg Empire, was a positive period for the Slovenian people. It accelerated economic development and facilitated the appearance of a Slovenian middle class.
The reign of Emperor Joseph II (1765-1790) which saw, among other things, the introduction of compulsory education and primary education conducted in Slovenian (1774), together with the first cultural-linguistic activities by Slovenian intellectuals, was a time of Slovenian national revival and the birth of the Slovenian nation in the modern sense of the word.
In the period before the March revolution of 1848, modernisation of villages and the first industrialisation began. The most important Slovenian poet, France Prešeren, made his contribution to overcoming language regionalism: he asserted on the right to a unified written language for all Slovenes and defended it against attempts to merge it with an artificial Illyrian Yugoslav language. The first Slovenian political programme, called `Unified Slovenia’ emerged during the European `Spring of Nations` in March and April of 1848; it demanded that all the areas inhabited by Slovenes should be united into one province called Slovenia. The idea of a unified Slovenia remained the central theme of the national-political efforts of the Slovenian nation within the Habsburg Empire for the next 60 years.
Kostanjevica Monastery.
Primož Trubar.