But to hand copy Scripture for more common use would not have taken 30 years.
Catholics love to appeal to illiteracy and the scarcity of paper, the expense, etc, whatever, to justify keeping copies of Scripture out of the hands of the laity, but the RCC's reaction when the printing press made copying Scripture feasible shows that the Catholic church's concern was not benevolent. You don't burn people at the stake for making copies of Scripture if your concern is safeguarding the few copies that existed.
You are right. They did not want people to read what he Bible really says. Guess the so called leaders knew they were not telling the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth.
Why do you care about the source if it isn’t the Bible? I don’t know what to say to your belief that writing out a Bible wasn’t a hard, lengthy process. It was and it should be obvious by how thick a Bible is. There was no way most people could have a Bible before the printing press and so what did they do? They followed the guidance of the Church. They didn’t sit around and interpret Scripture for themselves. And Catholics appeal to widespread illiteracy because it is a fact and strengthens even more the need for a teaching church.