Were Catholics forbidden to read the bible?

It has become an extremely common belief that the Catholic Church prevented Christians from reading the Bible and protestant reformers gave it back to the people. At this point it has become a common perception pointing to the problems of the Catholic Church. The argument goes that the Catholic Church forbid parishioners from reading the Bible, because they knew the Church was not following Scripture. And then, when Gutenberg’s printing press was invented, suddenly the people could read the Bible – and Martin Luther led them back to worship as it was supposed to be or as the Bible intended.

Historical Reality and Personal Bibles
Starting with a clear understanding of history is important to clarify the context of this claim. Very few Christians realize that for almost 400 years after the Crucifixion we did not actually have a Bible. The books that the Catholic Church eventually pulled together into the Bible were floating around at the various Churches, but there was much disagreement over which of the books were Scriptural and which were not. Some parishes (or individual churches within the Catholic Church) accepted one book or another, but many did not accept all of Scripture. Hebrews and Revelation, for example, were hotly debated during the time. And some books, like the Gospel of Thomas, which are not Scriptural, were accepted as such.

So finally the Catholic Church compiled the Bible as we know it (Martin Luther later removed some books from protestant Bibles) at the Council of Hippo. So up until that time the Bible did not exist as a single book the way we think of it today.

To further complicate matters there is one other issue: illiteracy. Americans still have trouble understanding that the vast majority of the world is illiterate even today. During the Dark Ages it was even worse, since virtually no one could read (Catholic monks in monasteries saved culture and writing in an amazing way). So even if the Catholic Church had personally given a Bible to every Christian, it would have been fruitless (and still would be today). The people learned about God through their parish priest and worshipped Him through Mass.

And yet, the Catholic Church could not have given a Bible to every Christian. Why? Because the printing press had not been invented! Until Johann Gutenberg’s wonderful invention in 1456 AD, Bibles were copied by hand. (Remember, Gutenberg was a good Catholic and the Church approved of and encouraged his printing of Bibles.) Before the printing press copying the Bible was the work of Catholic monks in monasteries who actually took a pen and paper and copied books of the Bible to create additional copies.

What the Catholic Church did do
The actions the Church actually took are the most indicative of their frame of mind. Instead of hiding away the Bible – or making changes to it during the Dark Ages when no one would have known – the Church did something different. They chained Bibles down in individual Catholic parishes.

At first, this sounds barbaric: they were chaining down God’s Word to keep people from it. However it was quite the opposite. The Church wanted Christians to have access to the Bible, but they were not able to provide personal copies of the Bible to parishioners (the ultra-rich were able to get copies). So they put a copy of the Bible in each church and made it publicly available. But they did have to chain it down to keep it from being stolen (it took copious amounts of time to create a single Bible).

Kept in the parish church, that Bible [ed: the one chained down that cost as much as $10,000 in today’s currency] was made available to lay Catholics by chaining it to the table on which it was placed, just as telephone books today are kept available for the public by chaining them to telephone booths. Does the phone company chain the Yellow Pages so that no one can use them? Quite the opposite – so that the maximum number of people can have access to them. It was the same with the Bible.
- - Karl Keating What Catholics Really Believe

The Church also did something perhaps more important: it translated the Bible into art. This sounds a little silly, but it is not. When the people cannot read, the answer is to create art that explains the Bible. Not just paintings from famous artists (which the Church cannot take credit for), but stained glass art in churches that depict scenes from the Bible. This was a way to preach the Gospel even to the illiterate. They could understand what was happening in the scenes since they were hearing the Bible from the pulpit (the Catholic mass goes through every word of Scripture in a three-year time frame).

The Church also translated Bibles into the vernacular. Often you will hear things such as “Wycliff was the first to translate the Bible into English,” but this is simply untrue. We can cite a contemporary, Saint Thomas More the Lord Chancellor of England who was martyred:

The whole Bible long before Wycliff’s day was by virtuous and well-learned men translated into the English tongue, and by good and godly people with devotion and soberness well and reverently read.” - - Dialogues III

3. Why weren’t Catholics allowed to read the Bible even the years just prior to Vatican Council II? They were, and I can speak from personal experience, since I was a schoolboy in those days. Much earlier, as soon as Bibles became more accessible and as literacy rates rose, the Church not only permitted but encouraged her sons and daughters to read the Scriptures.
When I was a parochial-school student in the 1950’s, at least one hour each week was spent on biblical studies. This was in addition to our regular catechism classes, which incorporated scriptural citations to ground Catholic teachings in the Bible. Still more time was spent on studying the Gospel passages used at Sunday Mass. - - Fr. Peter Stravinskas The Catholic Church and the Bible

So Free the People, Right?
I would like to stop for a moment and point out one thing: it is somewhat dangerous for those without any understanding to start reading and attempting to translate the Bible. It is not self-explanatory as we learn in Acts 8:30 when the Ethiopian points out that without a teacher he cannot understand the Bible.

In our day when we look around at the Jehovah’s Witnesses, for example, whose church is entirely based on a bad translation of Scripture. Or those who believe the Bible teaches reincarnation (I’ve met people who insist this), we understand that there is a propensity to mistranslate and misunderstand the Bible. Even those who try very hard to perfectly understand Scripture disagree on the need for baptism, for example.

What I’m trying to say is that the Bible requires some help in translation and comprehension. The Church has always taught that the Bible must be properly understood and certain verses are teaching specific things. So for example we must believe from Genesis that there was an original man and woman with a soul. The Church has always strongly encouraged the faithful to read their Bibles with the understanding that the Catholic Church – as the “pillar and bulwark of Truth” (1 Tim 3:15) – can infallibly interpret certain parts of the Bible to keep people from error. This isn’t a way to prevent us from reading and understanding Scripture, but a way to keep us true to Scripture. You are allowed to believe that the world was created in 7 days or over millennia, but you must also believe that God did create man and woman specifically and uniquely.

Revelation: the Conclusion
In conclusion history teaches us that much of our perceptions can be wrong. What is commonly believed must be analyzed for Truth. The Catholic Church did the opposite of keep the Bible from the people: she encouraged them to read it and even made it available to them as she was able. Priests have always been required to have an understanding and appreciation for Scripture in order to teach it to Christian laymen and women. And the Mass is designed to read every word of Scripture – even those tossed out by Martin Luther – in a three-year period so that you are completely exposed.