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Originally Posted by fivehundredyearwinter
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Depends really! There was actually a large movement of priests (and nuns!) who wanted to open literacy up to all sections of society. Latin was considered a necessary language for any noble worth their title to learn, so nobility could read the texts just fine typically. However your average peasant was unlikely to be able to read in Latin. If they could read, it would be in their own local language. But there was not much reason for many to learn to read since they weren't going to be writing letters to anyone and were unlikely to have the money for books, which back then were still a painstakingly long process of being made by hand.
Saying it was an established power move by the churches would feel like a neat and simple answer, but it'd be horribly inaccurate and paint about 1800 years of history with a single brush. The attitudes of the (catholic) Church towards mass literacy varied over time, indeed even in the Reformation the attitude of literacy was not always consistent. There was a decent subset of people who believed women learning to read was a sin, or who believed literacy should remain wholly confined to the landowning classes because 'the sheep need a rightly guided shepherd' (ie those who are not of the landowning classes are a bit dim/lesser and therefore do not need to learn to read so long as one of their 'betters' can read to them).
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This seems like super European 'top down authority' vibes for an American like me. Americans have that can do 'self help' spirit that Europeans aren't always on board with. Europeans were trained to expect their elites to fix things. Americans were taught to do it themselves. Yes I know that's painting with a large brush. What you said makes sense to me.
The rise of the Middle Class power following victory in WW2 empowered a whole population of 'would be serfs' had they been living in Europe in a different era. More people are literate than ever. Folks appear to be very content to engage with 'divine texts' in a way that seems relatively new compared with how elites from millennia ago engaged with them when they were written. I wonder if the printing press had something to do with this.