Prior to the reformation and before the 16th century, Western Europe was dominantly Roman Catholics. The catholic church was extremely wealthy and powerful with authority and had been the preservation of Europe's culture and society. Many churchmen criticized the authority of the church and even the people of the church began to doubt some of their teachings, such as purgatory and indulgences. The church believed that it alone had the authority to interpret the meaning of the Bible and that the people were not to learn the words of the Bible themselves, which lead to many disputes as early at the 14th century when English priest and teacher at Oxford University declared that people had the right to read and interpret the Bible. This dispute lead to the translation of the Bible from Latin to English in 1382 which