[Campion]

As a result, the inquisition was invented to insure that the people were obeying the teachings of the Catholic Church and were not being contaminated by reading the actual scriptures.

Oh, horsepuckey! There were Inquisitions centuries before the invention of printing; read the article.

The Church has never had a problem with people reading the Bible; it's unauthorized versions of the Bible she objected to.

Incidentally, the man who invented printing was Johann Gutenberg. He was a Catholic. The first book he printed was the Vulgate Bible.

[Hunble]

The Catholic Church was the one and only source for religious teachings once it was declared as the official religion of Rome.

Any religious views which were not authorized by the official church of Rome, was harshly dealt with in Europe.

The world that we live in today, is vastly different from the world of Middle Ages.

This simple fact must always be remembered. You must never judge the people who lived in a different place and time, by using your values today.

They did the best that they could, according to their concepts of right and wrong.

[hopespringseternal]

The Church has never had a problem with people reading the Bible; it's unauthorized versions of the Bible she objected to.

Where "unauthorized" means "in the common tongue" in many instances. And Catholics were hardly the only ones burning bibles and bible printers, too.