When a Bible costs more than the average person's yearly income, aren't you going to keep it under lock and key? That is what it was like before the advent of printing. And people DID know that Christ taught of freedom--they heard readings from the Bible at every mass and were taught through pictures and oral instruction. With the advent of the printing press, the Church authorities clamped down on unauthorized translations of the Bible because of the fear that some people would distribute innacurate or heretical versions. As indeed they did, with Luther's butchered Bible, hacking out any and all statements that didn't meet with his approval.
I know that some people were arrested and even killed. But it was not a one-sided deal--the Protestants killed too, and vandalized priceless works of art.
In Latin, not a language the common people could understand.
You cannot be serious. This comment and those of the others are simply ludicrous.
As a Christian, I must say that the only thing more disgraceful than our Church's behaviour during the Dark Ages is modern attempts to deny or justify them. (Protestants burned "witches, Catholics burned "heretics" - neither group are blameless.) Let's just admit it, repent, and go on.
Schmelvin and Stryker are right. Go learn your history. It is embarrassing to be so wrong, and gives fuel to those who would ridicule us.
By the way, in no way does this mitigate the continuous, habitual, and I believe worse, offenses of the Muslims now or in the past.