Not eating before Mass is a practice or a discipline, it is not a dogmatic teaching and there fore is subject to change.
also keep in mind that a majority or people were illiterate and could not read the Bible, consequently this meant that they could be subject to false teachers.
also keep in mind that a majority of our people are literate and could read the Bible if they wanted to, but they've been brought up on the milk of talking heads on the boob tube, and reading ANYTHING is like Holy Water to Dracula to them; consequently this means that they are subject to false teachers.
Not only, as free access to Scripture was prohibited at times, without permission from the clergy. See here .
also keep in mind that a majority or people were illiterate and could not read the Bible, consequently this meant that they could be subject to false teachers.
Including false teaching from those who controlled access to Scripture, and did not place a priority on making them literate. Scripture does not support this, but instead honors those who examined even the apostles preaching by the Scriptures.