No they haven't. They keep telling us that it's too hard to understand so we shouldn't try ourselves that we need a priest to tell us.
They passed edits or whatever you want to call them prohibiting people from owning Scripture.
They tell us that we need someone to *Properly* understand Scripture so we need someone to *interpret* it for us.
The Catholic church has been doing EVERYTHING but telling people how easy Scripture is to read and understand.
Nobody is buying what you're selling. We all know better.
Protestants didn't buy what Jesus was selling, why would they listen to me??
edicts
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/edict
edict
noun \ee - dikt\
Simple Definition of edict:
: an official order given by a person with power or by a government
Full Definition of edict
1 : a proclamation having the force of law
2 : order, command < we held firm to Grandmother's edict — M. F. K. Fisher >
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313 A. D.
Edict of Milan
The agreement shifted Christianity from being an illicit, persecuted sect to being a welcome--and soon dominant--religion of the Roman Empire.
1521 A. D.
Edict of Worms
The Edict of Worms was a decree issued by The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V banning the writings of Martin Luther and labeling him a heretic and enemy of the state (see The 95 Theses of Martin Luther).
1598 A. D.
Edict of Nantes
Signed by Henry IV of France at Nantes on April 13th, 1598, the edict put a temporary end to the ferocious religious wars between Roman Catholics and Protestants which had torn France apart since the 1560s.
1782 A. D.
Edict of Toleration
The 1782 Edict of Tolerance (Toleranzedikt vom 1782) was a religious reform of Emperor Joseph II during the time he was emperor of the Habsburg Monarchy as part of his policy of Josephinism, a series of drastic reforms to remodel Austria in the form of the ideal Enlightened state. Joseph II's enlightened despotism included the Patent of Toleration, enacted in 1781, and the Edict of Tolerance in 1782.[1] The Patent of Toleration granted religious freedom to the Lutherans, Calvinists, and Serbian Orthodox,[2] but it wasn't until the 1782 Edict of Tolerance that Joseph II extended religious freedom to the Jewish population.
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The bases for these edicts by civil authorities was to bring an end to otherwise insoluble religious disagreements. While the term "edict" probably does not refer to Papal authority, I believe it is true that for many (hundreds?) years the chief authorities of the Roman Church did forbid their constituents to read and interpret the Holy Scriptures for themselves. And they were permitted by the civil authorities to engage in acts of terrorism against their opponents.
Apparently it is the man with the power of the sword that issues edicts.