I agree with you. I was being sarcastic to vladimir998 who seems to have a idea that everyone had Bibles. You may wish to past this along.
The idea the people were ignorant of the Bible before the Reformation is somewhat silly. (Although many people were illiterate, and so obviously couldn't actually read a Bible, but they could be, and were, taught big parts of the content through plays/skits, songs, etc.)
I think you make a valid point. I don't think the author claims otherwise. It's stated Luther was familar with parts of the scripture but never understood the whole story. I think that was indicative of many people at that time. They couldn't read. They didn't have Bibles. But undoubtedly they went to Mass.
But bear in mind that many of them attended mass very infrequently due to the hardship of their lives. In one of these articles it talked about how they would hold mass only four times a year due to the effects of the Black Plague. They certainly must have had an understanding of some sort but it was limited simply because they infrequently attended Church.
Priests died at a higher rate than lay people during the Plague, because they invariably came in contact with dying plague victims when they administered the last rites.
Harley,
You wrote:
"I agree with you. I was being sarcastic to vladimir998 who seems to have a idea that everyone had Bibles."
I never said anything of the kind. I said there were too many Bibles for Luther's myth to be true.
"But bear in mind that many of them attended mass very infrequently due to the hardship of their lives. In one of these articles it talked about how they would hold mass only four times a year due to the effects of the Black Plague."
Oh, please! The Black Death, at its worst attack, lasted from 1348 to 1352 with occasional flare ups into the seventeenth century. You make it sound like there were only a few Masses in some places for CENTURIES. Simply not true.