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People really had to fight to have their own copies. I have never understood that. Catholics never gave people anything. By keeping the people ignorant, it was easier to keep them under their power.

bad answer....ALL Bibles at the time were hand copied, there were no printing presses. All Bibles were in the hands of libraries, wealthy families, Monasteries, Palaces, whoever could AFFORD TO BUY THEM....The vast majority of the common folk could not read...the reason that they couldn't read was because there was nothing for them to read....no newspapers, magazines, no lending libraries with common books....nothing. There were scribes and criers who informed them of Gov't proclamations etc.and could assist them in corresponding with someone far away. If you had a Bible you were Rich and none of the people in your community, except other rich people, would have any chance at all of reading it.

Right now, if your next door neighbor had a Bible written in Chinese...it would be pretty useless to you!!

think about it for a moment before you accuse the Catholic church of anything.

The lack of printing presses did not stop the Hebrews.

Indeed, it was the responsibility of the parent to write down the words of God and to teach the children:

Therefore shall ye lay up these my words in your heart and in your soul, and bind them for a sign upon your hand, that they may be as frontlets between your eyes. And ye shall teach them your children, speaking of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. And thou shalt write them upon the door posts of thine house, and upon thy gates: - Deuteronomy 11:18-20

Christians should have followed this commandment all along, writing and teaching the words of God in the family which would entail teaching the next generation to read and write.

God's Name is I AM.

Regarding the rcc banning ownership, printing of Bibles, etc......you need to do some homework. As with so many of your posts they are lacking in facts.

bad answer....ALL Bibles at the time were hand copied, there were no printing presses. All Bibles were in the hands of libraries, wealthy families, Monasteries, Palaces, whoever could AFFORD TO BUY THEM....The vast majority of the common folk could not read...the reason that they couldn't read was because there was nothing for them to read....no newspapers, magazines, no lending libraries with common books....nothing. There were scribes and criers who informed them of Gov't proclamations etc.and could assist them in corresponding with someone far away. If you had a Bible you were Rich and none of the people in your community, except other rich people, would have any chance at all of reading it.

You need to stop listening to revisionist history.

All that rationalization people use to explain away why there were allegedly no copies of Scripture in the hands of the lay people is a bunch of bunk.

The Catholic church prohibited the owning of Scripture by anyone but them.

Catholics prohibited from owning Scripture

COUNCIL OF TOULOUSE - 1229 A.D Canon 14. We prohibit also that the laity should be permitted to have the books of the Old or New Testament; unless anyone from motive of devotion should wish to have the Psalter or the Breviary for divine offices or the hours of the blessed Virgin; but we most strictly forbid their having any translation of these books.

Source: Heresy and Authority in Medieval Europe, Edited with an introduction by Edward Peters, Scolar Press, London, copyright 1980 by Edward Peters, ISBN 0-85967-621-8, pp. 194-195, citing S. R. Maitland, Facts and Documents [illustrative of the history, doctrine and rites, of the ancient Albigenses & Waldenses], London, Rivington, 1832, pp. 192-194.

The Council of Tarragona of 1234, in its second canon:

“No one may possess the books of the Old and New Testaments in the Romance language, and if anyone possesses them he must turn them over to the local bishop within eight days after promulgation of this decree, so that they may be burned lest, be he a cleric or a layman, he be suspected until he is cleared of all suspicion.” (-D. Lortsch, Historie de la Bible en France, 1910, p.14.)

And even as I was growing up, NOBODY was encouraged to read the Bible. We were told that it wasn't our place to do so, that we couldn't understand it on our own, without the *church* interpreting it for us, just let the church do it for us and do what you were told and don't argue back. After all, they're the experts about God and what do I know?

What a racket the enemy has going in keeping people from coming into right relationship with God and keeping God at arms length.