[GekkePrutser]

There was definitely limited access to knowledge too. The Bible for example was a forbidden book for centuries in the Catholic church. Only accessible to the ordained, lest the peasants would ask difficult questions.

Of course most common folk were illiterate back then anyway.

[mensetmanusman]

Not quite, these texts were indeed stored in the physical churches and mostly written in the language of the Roman Empire because there weren’t enough scholars and scribes to translate to the thousands of new local languages (since the technology didn’t exist to make it practical).

It’s interesting to consider what it even means to say that the church forbid these hand written Latin texts from getting in the possession of those who couldn’t read. This is why most of the experienced Bible since about 1800 BC was experienced through vocal tradition.