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Certainly Katie has seized upon one of the key differences between Catholic ideology and Protestant ideology. Remember that for the first 1400 or so years of the Christian faith, the idea that the average Christian would read the Bible herself was simply not imaginable. Literacy was rare, and books were handwritten -- incredibly valuable objects. In the Catholic system of things, everything flows from the top down: from God through the Pope and the church hierarchy down to the local priest. So yeah, the idea developed that only trained minds should read the Word of God directly, lest they form heretical independent ideas. And this idea conformed to the available technology, for over a thousand years. The Protestant revolution required the invention of the printing press, which was necessary before the idea that everyone should read the Word of God themselves could take hold. Disclaimer: I was raised Protestant, Lutheran. Many of the early people who translated the Bible into local languages were punished, often executed, for heresy.
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