There is a common perception of the Catholic Church that says the Church did not want people to be educated/literate, was anti-science, and did not want people to be able to read the Bible for themselves. Is this accurate?

by _Cyanide_Christ_

I was in history class and the topic came up, and everyone agreed that it was basically the Church’s goal to keep everyone uneducated so that they would have total control. At first I didn’t think anything of it, but on the way home I questioned why I always just accepted this as true. It‘s the kind of blanket statement that sounds like propaganda. The reason I thought this was because, I don’t know very much about medieval history, but I do know that:

•Most people back then couldn’t read anyway and had no use for formal education

•The schools that did exist were started/run by the Catholic Church

•Most scientific advancements that took place during that time were made by people who either worked for the Church or were educated by them, at least I’m pretty sure this is the case

I figure I could be overthinking this, but it made me wonder if this whole idea is just pop history.

WelfOnTheShelf

Much, much more can be said about this, but while we're waiting for another answer, here is something I answered a few months ago:

I'm a layperson in medieval Europe. What kind of access does the Church want me to have to the Bible?

(In short: Your suspicions are correct! The church wanted people to be literate and to be able to read the Bible, but "being able to read" meant "being able to read Latin")