And just when did the FRoman Catholic church start encouraging it’s rank and file to take up and read?
when it was realistic for them to do so...for most of the history of Christianity.....say the first 1500 years...most peopple couldn'tc read. First of all, there was VERY little to read. Books were extremely rare and extremely expensive because they were ALL written and copied by hand. There were, of course, in large metropolitan areas, libraries. Those libraries, however were not like todays lending libraries but were, more or less, places where you could go to research what material was there for a specific purpose. In the 1500's when Gutenburg invented and perfected the printing press, the bible became more available for the general public. There was a time when versions of the bible and scriptures which were inaccurate were circulated and hence the church, he ONLY defender of the faith, forbade their distrubution....Before the press, you couldn't possibly have afforded a Bible....after the press, when AUTHORIZED versions became available, there were no longer any restrictions on owning one.