[ninenot]

Under the best of circumstances, 'missals' w/translations were rare. The printing press was brand-new in 14XX(?) and handwritten goods were almost the exclusive province of monestaries.

Thus, we can conclude that, as was the case with the Jews, learning the sacred texts and meanings thereof was likely passed on verbally--oral tradition and learning.

Of course, there are those who can't IMAGINE learning from oral tradition.

[RobbyS]

According to The Book by Christopher de Hamel,(Phaison, 2001) hand-written Latin Bibles on very thin parchment and about the size of a Bible today were very plentiful from the 13th Century on. They were based on the Paris Bible and Dominican friars carried them in the pockets of their gowns and used them as text-sources for the sermons they have to the people. When Bibles began to be printed the followed closely the format of the Paris Bible. Of course, after printing was invented the price of Bibles dropped termendously and vernacular were soon available to the ploughman as well as the priest. But the Bible --the single volume as we know it--was a medieval invention.