For everyone to read and understand the Bible was a cornerstone of Luther’s Reformation. Of course, that presupposed that everyone was literate in the first place, so Luther often stressed the importance of establishing schools to teach children how to read. In the long term, this had the effect of greatly boosting literacy in Protestant countries. Fast-forward to 1900, and the literacy rates in Britain, the Netherlands, and Sweden approached close to 100 percent, while in Catholic countries like Spain and Italy, on the other hand, the rate was still only about 50 percent.
