In attempting to show precisely to what extent the new learning pervaded the countries of Europe during the Middle Ages, and, specifically, just in how far the Bible was known among the clergy and laity, one must be careful to strive for the golden mean in interpreting a flood of literature which usually goes to one of two extremes. The first of these divergent opinions is the one mentioned above, that the Bible, as almost wholly unknown by the clergy and laity of the Middle Ages. And this would seem to be substantiated by no less an authority than Luther himself. There are several references in the Tischreden to the effect that the Holy Scripture was unknown to the people under the papacy in the later Medieval Age
