I don't think you realize that handwritten copies (which is all there were) were so labor-intensive and scarce, private ownership of even one book of the Bible in the medieval period would be more or less like private ownership of a jet airplane. It happened, but not much.
Most of the books of the Bible existed separately and were read as individual texts. Even a Cathedral or a a large monastic house could afford only the pericopes used in the Liturgy.
People who don't know the bibliographic history often think that Wycliffe was the first one who did a translation into a modern European language, but this is not so. In the late 600's, Venerable Bede and Aldhelm translated the complete Book of Psalms and large portions of other scriptures into Old English.
In the 10th century an Old English translation of the Gospels was made in the Lindisfarne Gospels: a word-for-word gloss inserted between the lines of the Latin text by Aldred. This is the oldest extant translation of the Gospels into the English language. There were probably many more in such monastic centers as Jarrow, Iona, etc. but the Vikings came and pillaged them, burning the texts and keeping the book covers, which were jeweled. Whole libraries were lost that way.
The mass distribution of books was not, at that time, physically possible. Hence, the royalty and nobility kept their books secure in their treasure-rooms. The Church kept them attached to the lecterns.
THis is comparable to the mid-20th century use of telephone directories "chained" to phone booths. And for what purpose? To prevent people from using telephone directories? Or to make them available where they were needed,and prevent them being stolen!
One needs to have a realistic historic sense, un-distorted by the ignorant polemic against historic Christianity.
Very well said.
Perhaps so. But on whose part? I don't disagree with the scarcity of Bibles. That wasn't the main points of my posting and you well know it. Rome wanted exclusive rights to distribute the Word as she saw fit and was willing to shed blood to keep it that way. You sidestepped why she insisted on Latin only and the political influences she used to maintain a monopoly. But historically that could be expected for a church that claims to be founded on a man who denied his Lord thrice.