[maryz]

but before printing were fantastically expensive and nothing your average peasant Christian could afford

Parchment manuscripts were indeed "fantastically expensive," but printed books in the time of Shakespeare were by no means cheap: remember hand-set type, and each page pressed individually (the facsimile edition of Shakespeare's first folio shows hand corrections on several pages because it would be too wasteful to throw away a whole page!). By then, too, they had linen paper -- a long, messy process before the Industrial Revolution.

It wasn't until a method for making paper from wood pulp was developed in the 18th century that book ownership spread significantly beyond the wealthy.

[Claud]

thanks for the info!