Gee I Thought It Was Only Catholics That Chained Their Bibles in the Churches

1 of the most pernicious myths propigated about the Catholic Church to support the claim that the Church didn't want lay people to read the Bible is that the Catholic Bibles were chained in the Churches to keep them from reading them.

The truth is way different. Back in the olden days when the Bibles were chained in the Churches it was to keep them from being stolen not to keep the lay people from reading them. 1st of all, in those days very few lay people were educated enough to read. So chaining them had nothing to do with keeping them out of the hands of the average person, rich or poor, so they couldn't read the Bible. Even if they could get a Bible in every person's hands almost none of them could read it anyway. In fact, in 12th & 13th century England, the ability to read a particular passage from the Bible entitled a common law defendant to the so-called benefit of clergy provision. That provision entitled a person to be tried before an ecclesiastical court, where sentences were more lenient, instead of a secular one, where hanging was a likely sentence. Clearly reading was a rarity for everyone to grant such a benift for those who could read.

2ndly, up to the time of Guettenberg, Bibles were copied by hand by monks. they were usually "illuminated" as well. That was the term for what we now call illustrated, but it was much more than that. The illuminations were to add a beauty to the pages to increase the honor & glory given to God. The result is that the Bibles were very costly. & could bring a pretty penny in those days in the medieval equivalent of the black market.

So the real reason they were chained was to keep them from being stolen.

Which makes this picture I came across all the more interesting. It was in a story about a copy of the King James Bible in the back of a small Anglican Church in England. It turned out that it was 1 of the original editions printed 400 years ago in 1611. (Tiny church finds original King James Bible)

When I looked at the picture below 1 thing immediately stood out, it has a chain attatched so it could be chained in the Anglican Church where it was used.

But wait a minute, I thought only Catholics chained their Bibles. Apparently not. & I am willing to bet that it wasn't chained to keep the average Englishman of the time from reading it. In fact even by the middle of the 1600s in England the average peasant still couldn't read. (ENGLAND IN 1600) Also, I am willing to bet that they were chained for the same reason catholic Bibles had been chained, to keep them from being stolen.

So the next time someone makes the false accusation about the Catholic Church chaining Bibles to keep them out of the hands of peasants so they couldn't read the Bible, you have a couple more ways to respond with. That it just wasn't Catholics. & it was done to the KJV.