Do you mean me or them?
At the Catholic school I attended, we were actively discouraged from reading the bible, “lest you become confused” ( I kid you not) So naturally, I read the entire thing at the first opportunity. I was 16 and began to question a lot I had not questioned before.
For the first 1400 years at least, most people learned about their faith from the local priest, who was often almost as ignorant as they. In most of the world, literacy was rare and copies of the bible perhaps even rarer, and only in Latin.
Before the renaissance it was quite common for even monarchs and the aristocracy to be illiterate.
The widespread reading of the bible came only after Gutenberg’s printing press, the printing of the bible in the vernacular and most of all, the protestant reformation. For the first time, christians were actively encouraged to actually read their bible. The catholic church was most displeased; such changes corroded its power. .