Scripture suppressed by the Church?

[JRRTFAN]

ISomething we should keep in mind is that not all Protestant dogma is based on Luther, especially the newer groups and that many protestant people are not hostile to Catholic teaching.

Most of the “newer groups” base their theology on a Baptistic approach, very much sola fide, sola scriptura. They absolutely are adverse to Catholic teaching (to the extent they know it). Many, if not most of the adherents to these new Protestant groups are former Catholics and they’re former because they disagree with some or most Catholic teaching.

 

[RobHom]

Was Scripture suppressed by the Church and withheld from the people in the time leading up to the Reformation? The claim is made that Luther gave the Word of God back to the people, in their own language.

My friend, the answer to your question is no. In the early times or medieval times the literacy rate was usually less than 15%…and the majority of the people who were literate were either Church clerics, priests, monks, and the royalty of the countries in which they lived. As you can well surmise, an illiterate person has no use for any book of written words, beyond use as a doorstop, fire kindling or any other obtuse use. Please keep in mind I am not being facetious, snide, or disingenuous.

Prior to Gutenburg printing the Bible…and Bibles had to be handwritten which was a laborious process that took years to complete…thus they were extremely expensive to acquire. The average person, being illiterate or at best semi-literate would most likely not have the discretionary funds available to acquire a Bible or other books.

They, like other books were secured simply to prevent theft.

While Luther did translate the Bible into German…he was not the first to translate the Bible into a native language…