Think it is bad today? How would they like living during the Inquisition? Back then, everyone had to give up their religious beliefs--even with proof that it was working for them. They were forced to believe the rubbish we call Christianity today, or they would be tortured to death. And back then, the pagan religions were mainstream--joke-hova and its filthy angels were busy snuffing that, and most of the human race, out trying to force xianity down their throats. And the countries that didn't respond to that, Islam took care of that. Both are designed to prepare for communism, which is what xianity is and was when people were forced into it.
And don't even think of arguing that you have proof that the planets go around the sun. The earth was stationary, and everything revolved around the flat earth--and if you argue, you got tortured. Satan and His Demons were declared evil, and anyone that had good experiences with them were forced to renounce them or tortured. That fictional character we know as Jesus was invented, and everyone was forced to believe the story as real. Then everyone was forced to believe that they are inherently rotten sinners, and only through this fictitious character could this invented sinfulness be "cured". Heaven, actually a place where souls go to be harvested for destruction and damnation, was billed as the ultimate destination and people were forced to believe. Hell, in reality a place where deceased souls are protected from harm, was rebranded as a place of eternal torment (and angels under joke-hova created such a place to back it up). Most important, anyone that refused to go along with this scam was tortured and slaughtered.
The result: Science stopped. That's why the plague took so many lives. That is why we had such lousy conditions back then. Everyone except the lords was miserably poor--and I mean worse than we are today. They were indebted forever, and their lords provided almost nothing except the barest sustenance to their slaves. Spirituality was cut off. People were no longer allowed to contact Demons, lest they be slaughtered. Instead, they had that nazarene that was supposed to be where all psychic energy went into. This condition persisted around 1,000 years before the cat lick church got its butt whooped.
Now, this is no assurance that we are not headed back there now. Communism is essentially what this was about. The cat lick church was similar to communism today. Conditions endured then were basically the same as endured in communist countries here on earth, and in other worlds where the angels have already fully implemented full communism before. But, we are not all the way there now. There are still countries with a little freedom left, albeit rapidly deteriorating. Yet, those xians (including the jokehovians) stupidly disregard this. Were it not for Satan and His Demons, we would already have fallen to full communism back in the Inquisition.