The Catholic Church, mainly controlled by Spain, forbade people to dabble with the Bible. Because people will ultimately find out that the Roman Catholic Church is a distorted 'Christian' Church that has intertwined paganistic rituals and doctrines to meet the standards of a few hesistant Greek and Roman elites of their society at those times.
These Christian denominations are a product of people seeking out ways to rightfully follow the path of Christ and His teachings, and not be held up by false doctrines and routines that defy the basis of Christianity itself, which is what's in the Bible. It is sad when Catholicism prioritizes more on praying the Rosary than reading the Bible.
Although we live under democracy, and freedom. We are somewhat cursed under a government that is so fond of lying to us. Isolating ourselves like what China used to do would be catastrophic, for us who live in such poor conditions.