What period of time and where?
I have my grandfather’s Bible, printed in 1898, with the imprimatur AND the indulgence given for reading the Bible.
I keep hearing about this ‘time’ where Bible reading was discouraged, but my mother (born 1929) and my sibs and I (born 1950s) certainly read it, received Bibles in our elementary schools, etc.
I never hear anything specific though, like, “in 1930, in the diocese of Little Rock, the bishop forbade Bible reading among the people”. . .
The “time” when Bible reading was cautioned against (never forbidden) was in the days before the printing press (1300s-1400s,) and vernacular bibles were just beginning to appear in Europe. There was NEVER a caution against reading the Vulgate (which was in Latin)
The fact of the matter is that illiteracy was the norm in those days. Therefore if someone had the education (which ALWAYS) included Latin, they might read the Bible.
But beginning with Wycliffe’s vernacular translation into middle English – a translation that had never been approved by anyone in the Church-- it became necessary to instruct Catholics to read only those vernacular translations which were approved by their bishop.
For illiterate Catholics the problem was moot. They didn’t know how to read.
Since the invention of the Printing Press, and the subsequent vernacular translations that began to appear, indeed, flood the market, it became even more worrisome, as this time frame coincides with the Reformation and Protestant translations of the Bible, which at the time were spurious and downright mistranslated to promote their doctrines.
However, in Catholic countries like France, Italy, Spain and Eastern Europe, vernacular translations were common even in this time period, and had the approval of the bishops. England was another matter, being a Protestant country (excepting for the brief reign of Queen Mary.) A Catholic translation of the Bible in English did not appear until 1582 (NT) and 1609 (OT) because they were outlawed and forbidden in Protestant England. Proof of this fact is that Catholic Bibles had to be printed in Catholic countries on the Continent and then smuggled into England. During this time it might be supposed that Catholics in England were discouraged or even forbidden to read the omnipresent Geneva Bible, or Bishops Bible, or other English Protestant Bibles. But once the Catholic Bible appeared it was eagerly read by English Catholics. It had the approval of the Catholic authority, and was NEVER forbidden. (So in England, beginning in 1582, Catholics were able and encouraged to read the Bible.) Catholic Bibles continued to appear, during those penal years in England, with the most famous revision by Bishop Challoner in the mid-1700s, for the benefit of his persecuted flock in England.
So the whole idea of Catholics being forbidden to read the Bible is mainly a Protestant exaggeration of what has a kernel of Truth in it. But again, this is mainly an English phenomenon rather than say a French, Italian, Spanish or Eastern European one, where vernacular versions of the Bible pre-dated the English one by many years, decades, and even centuries! Recall that Spain and Portugal (both Catholic Countries) had colonized most of the known globe by this time, and brought their vernacular bibles with them. One might even say that Catholic Bibles outweighed Protestant ones on a Global scale.
And yes , i would have been taking the Eucharist in mortal sin in those weeks, accumulated over decades. But no one judged me or said anything. I was given a bible and different prayer cards and free blessed rosaries. I had no idea.
