Yeah, if you had the money to afford a Bible. Would the average citizen have been able to afford such or been literate enough to read it?
No, but the average citizen of 1450 would not have complained that the lack of money prevented the purchase of a bible, any more than the lack of money causes today’s average citizen to complain about the inability to go on a pilgramage to the Holy Land or Rome.
Since all books were rare, the average medieval citizen did not fault the Church for not providing a book to read.
The average medieval citizen knew about the faith by other means, chiefly oral means, which had a continuity going back to Christ Himself. Christ, it should be kept in mind, did not spend much time reading scripture to the people - He used his preaching as the primary means to preach His Gospel. The priests and friars of the medieval period also relied on preaching to inculcate the Gospel, and relied on this tradition into the 19th century in places where literacy was low.
The use of Latin and the scarcity of religious books was not the touchstone of the Reformation. The internal divisions within the Church on national lines, revealed by the Western Schism had greatly alienated the people, along with corruption in many levels of the Church administration. The popular appeal that Luther made was against the authority of the Church as such, realizing that the Church could not withstand a wholesale attack on its power to compel obedience or to teach. First, Luther accused the Church authorities of being ungodly - which was in many cases evident. Then, Luther argued that the authority was unnecessary, because all Christians can grasp the Gospel through their private judgement.
A corrollary to private judgment was that the scriptures should be in the vernacular, and possessed by all. The Reformers realized that if this occurred, it would be a powerful antidote to the counter Reformation that was underway by the 1540s - twenty some years after Luther (while still an Augustinian) posted the 95 theses.
It may be well to recall that the theses were posted in response to improper fundraising efforts to finance new St. Peter’s. While we take the great cathedral for granted, we need to remember that it replaced a structure that had been given by Constantine himself, and was the holiest shrine in all the west. The decision to raize it probably scandalized many Catholics, including perhaps Luther, who had visited the old structure as a pilgrim. Being asked to finance what appeared as a breathtaking act of papal hubris was the spark that lit the nascent Reformation.
In this context, the issue of vernacular in the liturgy resumes its proper place as a secondary concern in the development of modern Christianity.
